The storms of a globally warming summer have passed and hopefully we can settle into a more relaxed autumn of stable weather patterns, blue skies and gentle breezes.

It’s been a crazy weather year. It was an early spring with little runoff, then a long dry spell that could have qualified as a drought. Garden soil was powder dry and there was much anxiety about forest fires. 

Then came the rain, 16 days of it in June In Haliburton County, another 16 in July and an almost daily shower in August. Interspersed in the rain were days of high heat and suffocating humidity.

We got off easy. Other parts of the world, the United States in particular, suffered unprecedented damaging events caused by extreme weather - wildfires, storms that caused massive flooding and winds that tore apart communities.

Damaging weather events no longer are few and far between. In 2020 in the U.S. there were 22 billion dollar extreme weather events. 

From 1980 to 2020 the annual average of extreme weather events totalled 7.1. The average for the past five years (2016-2020) was 16.2 extreme weather events per year. 

A Washington Post analysis of federal disaster declarations shows that almost one-third of Americans live in a county hit by a weather disaster just in the past three months. And, almost 400 Americans have died in hurricanes, floods, heat waves and wildfires just since June.

Weather analysts say this is only the beginning of changing weather patterns and extreme weather events as global warming intensifies.

Canada has not been as severely affected, yet. However, global warming is heating the north and bringing new risks. Black-legged ticks, which carry serious Lyme disease, have been reported just north of Orillia and are continuing their northward march as our climate becomes warmer.

In 2009 only 144 cases of Lyme disease were reported across Canada. In 2019, the number of confirmed and suspected cases totalled 2,636.

A warming climate also is making new homes for a variety of mosquitoes. The Asian tiger mosquito is believed to be established now in the Windsor area. That mosquito is known to carry chikungunya and dengue and other viruses that we have never had to worry about before.

Some research indicates that climate change will bring the risk of malaria to millions of people, including Canadians, who seldom had to be concerned about it.

“The one thing we do know is slowly the distribution of mosquitoes is changing,” Robbin Lindsay, a research scientist with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) told Global News two years ago. “And we do see events and we see species here that we haven’t seen before.”

At the same time, the environmental magazine Yale Environment 360 reported that by 2050 climate change will expose one-half of the world’s population to disease spreading mosquitoes.

Climate change brings warmer weather that brings earlier springs that allow mosquito eggs to mature faster. It also brings more flooding which means more water in which the bugs can multiply.

Many experts say, however, that the main focus now should not be mosquitoes, but controlling global warming itself. Slowing climate change will slow mosquito population growth, and transmission of the viruses they carry.

Some people are finding advantages in our warming climate. Some companies are considering introducing afternoon siestas into their workplaces because climate change is increasing summer temperatures.

The National Trust, a British charity, is giving workers and volunteers Mediterranean-type working hours in southern England because of increasingly hot summers.

“It’s fair to say that as we experience more extreme temperatures, we will be looking to offer Mediterranean working hours, especially in the east which is likely to experience more frequent higher temperatures to ensure the health and safety of our staff and volunteers,” said a spokesman for the charity.

Mediterranean hours already are being offered at one National Trust property south of London, where the afternoon temperature went above 40 Celsius for the first time ever.

Meanwhile, more mosquito-borne disease and more Mediterranean working hours are serious signs that we all have to get together, believe that climate change is seriously real and do our part to help control it.  

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And no birds sang

Fifty-seven years ago last week – September 27, 1962 –  Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, the book that really got us thinking about what we are doing to the environment.

Silent Spring predicted more future consequences from indiscriminate use of pesticides and other ways that we are abusing our world. Those predications are coming true.

A dramatic new analysis published in the journal Science says the U.S.-Canada bird population is almost three billion birds smaller than it was 50 years ago. The analysis is based on a study by seven research institutions in Canada and the United States.

The number – 2.9 billion fewer birds - is shocking, but not totally surprising. That fits with my observations at the cottage, where songbirds once provided an abundance of  joy.

A few finches and grosbeaks, once a daily feature at our place, showed up a couple of months ago, bringing a spark of hope. But this fall there is little birdsong around our place and walks in the woods have not flushed one ruffed grouse.

Almost six decades after Silent Spring, I am witnessing Silent Autumn.

Habitat loss and pesticides are two proven causes of bird decline. There are fears now, however, that changing climate is a contributing factor.

Scientists says there is no evidence that climate change is directly killing birds. Changing climate is, however, having indirect effects.

Recent studies have reported huge declines in insect populations. Insects and birds are hugely important to each other. Many birds eat insects for food. So fewer insects to eat means more birds searching for food to stay alive.

More importantly, rising world temperatures are bringing insects, and diseases they carry, to places they have never been before. For instance, mosquitoes carrying malaria, West Nile Virus (WNV) and other diseases are populating areas beyond their historical range.

There is a ton of Americans research on the impact of mosquito-borne disease on birds. U.S. studies have detected the presence of the West Nile Virus in more than 300 species of birds, including ruffed grouse.

Little research has been done in Canada, possibly because nasty bugs and the nasty things they transmit have been limited to warmer areas south of us.

That is changing. Our temperatures are rising and bugs and viruses are moving north. Ticks carrying Lyme Disease are one example. Mosquitoes transmitting the WNV are another.

Canadian research, especially into the impact of West Nile on birds, is urgently needed,

Thankfully we are getting some, from Dr. Amanda MacDonald, a University of Guelph researcher specializing in wildlife disease.

Her study is building data on wild turkeys and ruffed grouse exposed to West Nile in Ontario and Quebec. She is encouraging turkey and grouse hunters to help by submitting blood samples from birds they have shot. The study supplies filter strips for blood collection and postage-paid envelopes for submitting the samples.

Birds can be infected with West Nile when bitten by a mosquito which has bitten and drawn blood from an infected bird or animal.

Not all birds exposed to the virus become ill, or die. However, it does seem to hit hardest the corvid family of birds, of which crows and jays are members.

American research indicates that West Nile is reducing ruffed grouse populations. MacDonald’s study will provide information about levels and locations of exposure and could be a start to determining whether West Nile is a factor in shrinking grouse populations.

It also will be important for wild turkeys. Governments and private organizations spent much time and money on reviving wild turkey populations in Ontario. Any threat to that revival needs quick and thorough research.

We must learn everything about what is killing the birds so we can do more to prevent the losses. Not just because they are lovely to look at and wonderful to listen to.

West Nile, Lyme and other insect-borne diseases are becoming more common in our world. So far this year the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has reported well over 300 human cases of WNV, with 45 states and the District of Columbia reporting exposure in mosquitoes, birds or humans.

Silent Spring warned us 57 years ago. Now things that can hurt us are moving our way and we need to be better informed, better prepared.

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Beware the ‘silent evil’

Blackflies and mosquitoes are true nuisances but at least you can see and hear them. A new danger developing in cottage country is one you usually don’t see – until it is too late.

Blacklegged ticks are moving north and bringing Lyme disease. Lyme is an infection that can cause joint pain, memory loss and extreme tiredness. It can be a seriously debilitating disease affecting the brain and neurological tissue.

Blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks, used to be confined to southern Ontario – in fact mainly to the northeastern United States, until a warming climate allowed them to migrate north. Now they are found in wide areas across Canada.

In 2017, confirmed Canadian cases of Lyme disease totalled 2,025, an astounding increase from 144 cases in 2002. Ontario in 2017 had 959 confirmed or probable cases compared with only a couple of dozen or so back in 2002.

Various studies indicate that the ticks are advancing north by 35 to 55 kilometres a year. They are well established in the Barrie-Orillia region.

Ticks carrying Lyme disease are not yet a huge threat in cottage country. They are moving steadily in our direction, however, and people should be building awareness,  learning how to avoid them and how to examine themselves and their pets for ticks attached to their skin.

The Ontario government has advised that areas not known to have ticks are not necessarily free of them.

“While the probability is low, it is possible to find an infected tick almost anywhere in Ontario,” says a government website on Lyme disease.

Examining your body for ticks after being in the woods is an important habit to develop. Unlike mosquitoes, which can infect you with West Nile disease with a single bite, ticks need time to pass along Lyme disease.

Also a tick gives off an anaesthetic while feeding on your blood so you do not feel its bite.

Medical experts say a tick has to be attached to your body for a day or more to get Lyme disease into your blood. So examining yourself promptly after being in the woods and removing any ticks is important in reducing the risk of being infected.

Ticks attached to your skin are not obvious. They can look like a small black dot, often the size of a poppy seed.

Awareness of tick and Lyme disease dangers has been helped by the experiences of two Canadian entertainers. Shania Twain lost her ability to sing because of a condition she says was brought on by Lyme disease.

She was bitten by a tick in Norfolk, Virginia in 2003 and was diagnosed as having Lyme disease. Later she developed dysphonia, which affects vocal chords and is believed caused by problems in brain tissue. She was told that this was related to Lyme disease.

She had surgery to correct the condition and took a 15-year break from the music business. She calls the disease a silent evil and urges people to be aware and cautious.

“You’ve got to check out where you are and whatever region you’re in, and what the rate of Lyme disease is in the region, if you’re going to go out in nature,” she told an interviewer in 2017.

She is not the only high-profile person to contract the disease. Canadian singer Avril Lavigne was bedridden for five months after being bitten by a Lyme-infected tick in 2014.

Lavigne has said she felt fatigued and lightheaded for months until finally being diagnosed with the disease and treated.

“I felt like I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t talk, and I couldn’t move,” she said in a People magazine interview. “I thought I was dying.”

Also, in 2006 former U.S. President G

"Lyme disease is preventable," he said in a recent news release. "That is why we are encouraging Ontarians to learn how to be safe and prevent tick bites. These simple precautions are the best defense for you and your family."eorge W. Bush got  the disease from a tick while riding his mountain bike. It was caught early and treated successfully.

Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer, has said most cases of Lyme disease can be treated successfully but  the key is to be aware.

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