Nature’s broken clock
Snow in the coastal plains, record-high temperatures, torrential rains, and autumn typhoons. These were the dramatic climatic events faced by Taiwan in 2016. Birdwatchers have recorded how these climatic aberrations are affecting autumnal migration patterns and causing birds to show up in unexpected places. Orange-headed thrushes (Geokichla citrina) have landed in the Qijin District of Kaohsiung City and Lapland longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus) have appeared in Longdong, New Taipei City. Grey-faced buzzards have mysteriously circled over Taipei’s Huajiang Wild Duck Nature Park for a few days. And this year there has also been an explosion of Narcissus flycatchers (Ficedula narcissina) and bramblings (Fringilla montifringilla), which can be seen everywhere.
Farmers have been even harder hit by the climatic changes. Crops, including tea, are being harvested later and later, even as the crop size dwindles. “The 24 solar terms are totally out of whack,” sighs Lin Qingyuan, winner of the Shennong Award (a national farming award named after the mythical founder of Chinese agriculture and herbal medicine).
And it’s not just crops that are affected. In the past at Houdong in the mountains of New Taipei City, in late October (after Frost’s Descent), the splendid Bretschneidera sinensis, a flowering tree, would bloom for a brief period. This year, however, the flowers failed to appear, leaving Chen Qingke, a plant specialist who has been working to preserve them for 17 years, to hope wistfully for their survival.
In former years, it was common to see alpine birds such as the Taiwan yuhina (Yuhina brunneiceps) and the fire-breasted flowerpecker (Dicaeum ignipectus) feeding on the fruit of yanagi ichigo (Debregeasia orientalis) growing on Mt. Lala in the spring. This spectacle, however, can no longer be seen, because the snow brought by an unusually cold January froze the shrubs, making them another casualty of climate change.
Moreover, because of the late blooming of the winter flowers, Wuling Farm, a popular tourist spot in Taichung, announced that the end of the cherry blossom season would be pushed back from February 22nd to March 10th. Similarly, indicators point to a late blooming date of March 20th for cherry blossom viewing on Mt. Ali, shifting the phenomenon into the Vernal Equinox solar term.
While flora will adapt to climatic changes in order to survive, humans must take responsibility for environmental change (one could say deterioration), according to Chen Qingke.
Throughout the unending cycle of the solar terms, nature’s subtle and not-so-subtle changes are reminding humans that the Earth does not belong to us alone. It belongs to soil and stone—and to all living things. It’s worth remembering Aldo Leopold’s exhortation in A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings: “The opportunity to see geese is more important than television,” he wrote, “and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.”
Mugimaki flycatcher (photo by Lin Lizhong)
little tern (photo by Su Hui-chao)
blue jacaranda (photo by Su Hui-chao)
Silvergrass flowers at the foot of Teapot Mountain near Jinguashi herald the arrival of late autumn.
In the wilds, the Chinese sparrowhawk, at times circling and at times resting, divulges to its human kin the secrets of the solar terms. (photo by Lin Lizhong)
The frost and snow of winter signal the end of the annual rotation of the 24 solar terms, which then begin the journey all over again.