UN climate change negotiations between 200 countries have reached a stalemate and, as is usual in all human conflicts, it all boils down to a question of money. Meanwhile, nature is unrelenting and uncaring about the affairs of man. But it is not impervious to our abuse. Human-caused climate change, as predicted decades ago, is producing effects that were back then and still now are unpredictable.

Last month was the warmest November we had in the last century and this is destabilising the natural order of things.

And over the past few weeks, strange ‘unnatural’ phenomena are being seen. Mediterranean garigue, which is home to many of Malta’s indigenous plants and animals are showing signs of this stress. In 1932, a law was passed in Malta to make the gathering of wild thyme (Thymbra capitata) illegal. People used to gather saghtar in the first weeks of December because its gnarled wooden stems looked like miniature olive trees and were used to decorate traditional Maltese cribs. Thyme produces flowers in June and bees use its nectar to produce honey. In autumn it loses all its flowers and many of its leaves. But not this year. Several bushes of Maltese wild thyme are flowering now and the photographs show individuals spotted on the cliffs at Ghar Lapsi in Siggiewi. When contacted, botanist Dr Sando Lanfranco said it is unusual for this plant to be flowering now because it only flowers in summer. If these plants use up their stored reserves to flower now they risk dying and Malta will be denuded of one of the things that characterises it. Many other species depend on this plant so the effects of this plant dying out may be catastrophic.

The story does not stop here. Our national bird, the Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius) is also behaving strangely. As its Latin name implies, this bird leads a solitary life, unless it is breeding or looking after its young. It prefers to nest in cliffs and hunts for food in the open garigue. The female lays her eggs in spring so that when the young birds hatch there is an abundance of food for them. However, once again, climate change is playing havoc with the natural order of things and in the same area where thyme is flowering, a pair of Blue Rock Thrushes may have laid eggs. After the unusually warm November, winter is coming and if the eggs hatch the fledglings will probably die because the food they need is not available at this time of year. However, ornithologist Richard Cachia Zammit said that no other Rock Thrushes have been reported breeding out of season. What he did say is that many Blue Rock Thrushes have started to appear in places where they never appeared before such as Valletta and Sliema.

The beautiful Blue Rock Thrush is Malta’s national bird and even graced the old Lm1 coin in a bid to protect it from hunters and from egg collectors. But it seems that human activities may still lead to the demise of this bird. It is our flagship species and we cannot place a monetary value on its existence. If the existence of our Merill has no value in euros and cents, how can we influence human talks on Climate Change when it all boils down to money?