Welcome to our weekly newsletter where we highlight environmental trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world.
Hi, I’m Jill. Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded of the impact we can have. I hope you’ll enjoy this look at the U.K.’s annual plant hunt and how it’s become a useful tool for scientists studying climate change.
This week:
- Flowers are now blooming in January in the U.K.
- The Big Picture: Solar-powered EVs
- Funeral home’s memorial trees grow into award-winning forest
Citizen science offers insights into climate change impacts in U.K.
Data collected by thousands of citizens across the British Isles on New Year’s Day shows hundreds more native plant species in bloom on Jan. 1 than would have been expected a few decades ago. It’s a finding scientists have been able to correlate with warming temperatures.
Using 10 years of data from the annual New Year Plant Hunt, the U.K.’s Met Office found for every 1 C rise in temperature in a given location, an average of 2.5 additional species are blooming on Jan. 1. A more robust report using this “citizen science” is expected in the coming months.
“This started off as a bit of fun,” said Louise Marsh of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, which runs the annual event. “Now we’re really looking at it as collecting hard scientific data that can be analyzed.”
In its 15th year, the New Year Plant Hunt started with two botanists curious about changing blooming patterns in the U.K. It’s grown to an event with nearly 3,700 participants kicking off the new year with neighbourhood hikes and hot chocolate breaks to track nature in their communities.
Marsh says traditional phenology textbooks — those that study seasonal life cycles in nature — indicate 10 native plant species should be expected to be in bloom across the U.K. and Ireland on Jan. 1. This year, 663 total species were recorded in bloom, more than half of them native species.
“It’s astonishing,” Marsh said. “The worrying thing is going to be, what impact does this have on our other wildlife? You know, the invertebrates, the pollinators.”
Anyone can participate in the New Year Plant Hunt. The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland provides educational resources and has experts reviewing submitted records and photos to ensure reports are accurate. With those checks in place, the scale of observation has huge value.
“You can’t get that kind of level of detail and the specific information [with satellites and drones] that a human can get,” said Debbie Hemming, the Met Office’s scientific manager for nature and climate. She says citizen science and weather are “a match made in heaven.”
Applying citizen observation to study climate impacts isn’t new — in fact, a similar study was conducted in Canada in 2013, concluding that plant flowering here is advancing by about nine days per degree Celsius, using data from 2001 to 2012. It used data from a citizen science program called PlantWatch, under a broader observation program called Canada NatureWatch.
Hemming says she’d like to work with other citizen science networks to find trends in their observations, and help paint a fuller picture of climate change’s impacts on nature.
The message Marsh wants people to glean from the events in the British Isles is the power in observation.
“I think a lot of us are concerned about the way the world is changing, the climate is warming, and we wonder what it’s going to mean for the wildlife on our doorstep. We’re noticing plants and places disappearing,” she said.
“You don’t have to be an expert. You don’t have to have a PhD or a lab coat,” she said. “Everybody can get involved.”
–Jill English
Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here.
Check out our podcast and radio show. In our newest episode: Since January 2025, it’s cost about $9 US to drive in downtown New York City during peak times. A year later, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is heralding the policy as a success, with fewer cars downtown, a drop in pollution and less honking. Alexa Sledge with Transportation Alternatives tells us about the policy’s progress to date. Then, we check in with Mychal Johnson of South Bronx Unite about worries that his community may be facing unintended consequences as a result of the pricing.
What On Earth30:06Manhattan drives down emissions with tolls on the roads
What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Check the CBC News Climate Dashboard for live updates on record-breaking weather and current conditions across the country. Set your location to find out how today’s temperatures compare to historical trends.
Reader feedback
Nicholas Tunnacliffe wrote: “Your article on the climate-aware doula in Florida got me thinking about my contribution to producing carbon dioxide through diapers. For my first family (1973 and 1974) we used cloth diapers and laundered them, say, twice a week. After a divorce, I remarried in 2018, and in 2019 we had a child. My wife, much younger than I, told me we had to get into the 21st century, and so we used disposable diapers. So which produces the most greenhouse gases?”
The most recent life-cycle analysis we could find, a 2023 report commissioned by the U.K. government, finds disposables generate more greenhouse gases over 2½ years of a child’s life – roughly 460 kg of CO2, compared to 340 kg for reusable or cloth diapers. However, exact numbers may differ in your region depending on the type of local electricity generation (for washing cloth diapers) and disposal methods for disposables (which include incineration in the U.K.). Those who favour cloth diapers can reduce their impact further by using a more efficient washer, air drying and using second-hand diapers (especially for subsequent children). The report notes that kids are being potty trained later now, and that could increase the impact of all diapers. (Meanwhile, some parents are going diaper-free altogether.) Our co-editor Emily Chung notes that you don’t have to stick to one method — she used a combination of cloth diapers (mostly second-hand, sometimes in combination with disposable diaper liners), disposables and infant potty training with both of her kids.
We also got some responses to Nick Logan’s article on the China-Canada EV deal.
Danny Nowak of Vancouver wrote: “I was one of the first to receive my Tesla Model 3 in the summer of 2018. My previous car was costing me roughly $90/week in gas. So now in January 2026, I’ve saved $34,500 — and that’s based on the old 2018 gas prices. I pay about $7 weekly to charge my car. Multiply that for our household of three fully electric cars, with no maintenance costs, and you can imagine the savings. Almost like a free car.”
Write us at [email protected] (and send photos there too!)
The Big Picture: Solar-powered EVs
Scott Rae wrote: “I’d be interested in learning: are EVs being planned/sold that will use built-in solar power to help recharge.”
Many people put solar panels on the roof of their house to recharge their car.
It’s harder to find EVs with their own solar panels. Solar car design competitions have been a staple at university engineering programs for years, but no one expects to see those low-riding one- or two-seaters on the road. We’ve also profiled Aptera Motors’ three-wheeled two-seater, currently in development, in this section of the newsletter before.
When it comes to mass market cars, some Nissan, Hyundai and Toyota models have had solar panels as an option in some parts of the world at various times — but none that seemed to add much to the cars’ range. Mercedes put 117 solar panels on a concept car it designed, called the Vision EQXX, to power the 12 V battery used for low-voltage devices such as door locks in EVs.
Could we soon buy cars with solar panels that actually charge the cars a noticeable amount? Maybe. Nissan has released a solar-powered concept for its Ariya electric SUV, shown below. It says the 3.8 square metres of panels on the hood, roof and tailgate can add 23 kilometres of range on a sunny day, based on real-world testing. That could allow drivers to charge less often — it says someone who drives 6,000 kilometres a year could cut annual charging visits from 23 to just eight.
— Emily Chung
Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web
Funeral home’s memorial trees grow into award-winning forest
Planting trees to commemorate lost loved ones has been a popular ritual for a number of years.
But now, a Windsor, Ont.-area funeral home has won a conservation award for the practice.
Reid Funeral Home Ltd. received an environmental achievement award on Thursday night from the Essex Region Conservation Authority for planting so many trees in honour of the families they have served over the past 30 years that they have created the six-acre Fred Cada Memorial Forest at the Hillman Marsh Conservation Area.
“It’s very heartwarming,” said Reid’s Leamington office manager Stephanie Piroli, “to know that we’re giving back to next generations — not just serving ourselves and making a memory for ourselves today, but … also honouring our lives and our loved ones’ lives for generation after generation.”
The practice of planting trees in honour of the families of deceased individuals began in 1995, with the grandfather of present owner Kevin Reid, Piroli said.
“I think it was just they were looking to do something to bring people together, other than just, you know, the typical … candle-lighting ceremony,” she said. “I think they were looking to give back as well as celebrate lives.”
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the funeral home would invite client families to Hillman Marsh for an annual ceremonial tree-planting with members of the conservation authority.
Around 450 seedlings per year
The company would then make an annual donation to the authority to cover the cost of planting a tree for each client family who lost a loved one that year. Piroli estimated the cost at around $8,000 per year.
“It could be upwards of 450 seedlings,” she said.
This year, Reid also paid to install a wind phone in the forest and will contribute annually to its maintenance, she added. A wind phone is an old-fashioned telephone connected to nothing that allows people to ritually speak with loved ones who have died.
The concept became popular after a wind phone installed in Japan after the 2011 tsunami became the subject of a radio documentary.
Unlike other businesses, which charge to plant memorial trees, Reid makes the donation from its own funds and does not charge extra to clients, Piroli said. Nor does it offer fee-for-service “plant a tree” services through third parties.
Piroli believes tree-planting has become a popular commemorative ritual because of the longevity of trees, she said.
“I think just having the knowledge of it in the back of your head, and it’s in your heart, like, ‘I know that my loved one is being honoured by … a tree that will last hundreds of years, and it’s actually giving back to our community, helping make us stronger and the ecosystem stronger,’” she said. “I think … that’s just the sentiment behind it.”
Planting trees fits in with Reid’s overall efforts to operate as sustainably as possible, Piroli added.
It also offers eco-friendly options to clients.
— Heather Kitching
Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to [email protected].
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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty
