We are supposed to be heading for another Ice Age. But during the latest 100 years the timber line in the fells has been creeping upwards. Surely this is a sign that we are headed towards a warmer climate instead.
We have to go back some 6000 or 7000 years to find an equally high timber line. Presumably the climate is also warmer now than it has been for 7000 years. Using Carbon-14 dating on tree fossils from the earth and lakes, a group of researchers have been able to reconstruct the movement of the Swedish timber line since the last glacial period.
Last summer we found oak saplings and elm at an altitude of 1000 metres. They are just tiny plants, but an entirely new phenomenon.
On some hill tops where an inventory of the flora was made 50 years ago the number of species has increased by 50 to 70 percent. This is not a uniquely Scandinavian phenomenon – similar changes have been seen in research in the Alps.
The trend has been broken, and it is not easy to find a natural cause. Man is undoubtedly behind some of this.