13 February, 2024

Isabelle Gerretsen London, UK Hello and welcome to this edition of Future Earth. I'm Isabelle Gerretsen, a climate reporter and editor for the BBC, and today I'm taking you to a London supper club where invasive species are on the menu. Climate change is putting pressure on natural ecosystems, amplifying the challenge of invasive species driving biodiversity loss. I wanted to know: can eating invasive pests make a dent in the problem? Next week, we'll be back with Carl in the US. Until then, we visit a troubled source of Valentine's roses and meet an Oxford University data scientist with a powerful message. CLIMATE CONVERSATION One solution to invasive pests: eat them The grey squirrel, invasive in the UK, competes with the native red squirrel and harms trees too. Credit: Getty Images I don't usually eat red meat, for environmental reasons, but tonight I'm making an exception. That's because the dish in front of me at Silo, a zero-waste restaurant in east London, UK, is squirrel kofta.  As I pop a morsel into my mouth, I've got mixed feelings: it has a rich, nutty flavour, but I also can't quite shake an image of the bushy-tailed creatures from my mind. Grey squirrels are an invasive species in the UK, which were first introduced from North America in 1876 as an ornamental animal to populate the grounds of stately homes. Grey squirrels rapidly spread, threatening native wildlife and damaging forests across the UK. Climate change is compounding the pressure that invasive species are putting on natural ecosystems. A warming world creates new opportunities for species to become invasive, as well as making natural habitats less resilient to climate change. So while grey squirrels may be an unwelcome addition to British forests, on the menu at Silo they are a firm favourite. "It's a really nice, gamey meat," says Doug McMaster, Silo's head chef. But this isn't the only reason we should all be eating the rodent, he says. "It's outcompeting the [native] red squirrel and killing trees. It's tipping the balance of sustainability out of whack." Squirrel is just one pest I'm sampling at Silo's invasive species supper club. Fallow deer parfait, crayfish tartlet, Pacific oyster and a granita made from Himalayan balsam, a plant with vibrant pink flowers, are a few other invasives on Silo's menu. Grey Squirrel kofta is a menu staple at the invasive species supper club at Silo, east London, UK. Credit: Haut de Gamme Photography McMaster started cooking with pests more than 10 years ago in a bid to raise awareness of the environmental harm caused by these species. "Invasive species are a negative force on the environment," he says. It's one small step to tackle a massive challenge. Invasive species cost the global economy more than $423bn (£333bn) every year and have been responsible for 25% of plant extinctions and 33% of animal extinctions since 1500. Can we beat pests by eating them? The trend of eating invasive species, coined "invasivorism" by US conservation biologist Joe Roman, is starting to catch on. Environmental education lies at the heart of invasivorism. "It's about getting people outside, learning about their local ecosystem and which species are native and which are invasive," says Roman. A growing number of chefs in the UK and US are now educating the public about the dangers of invasives by plating them up. At the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach, Alabama, chef Brody Olive serves guests lionfish ceviche, sprinkled with coriander, fresh ginger and satsuma juice. With their venomous spines and voracious appetite, lionfish are a destructive invasive which have infiltrated Atlantic coastal waters.  Olive's main goal is environmental education. "It's a great talking point with our guests," he says, and hopes his customers will go on to share what they've learned more widely. "Lionfish is also really delicious," he adds. I wash down my squirrel kofta and crayfish tartlet with a glass of Japanese knotweed beer, which has a tart flavour, similar to rhubarb. Japanese knotweed is one of the world's most intractable invasives and the scourge of homeowners with its ability to smother entire gardens. (Read about how scientists are racing to curb the spread of Japanese knotweed.) I'm surprised by how delicious all these pests are. And while I won't be frying up squirrel in my own home, I will certainly be more open-minded about trying adventurous new ingredients to help protect my local environment. For dessert, read the full story on invasivorism here. NUMBER OF THE WEEK 400-600% This is the increase in demand for rare earth minerals expected in the next few decades. "We're going to have to dig up a lot more of the Earth than we have done over the past 50,000 or so years," broadcaster Misha Glenny tells The Global Story podcast. TAKE A MOMENT  'I used to believe I didn't have a future' An Oxford University scientist on her journey from doomism to climate hope. Read her story CLIMATE QUIZ Why are wetlands an unusually important habitat in tackling climate change? A. They lock away carbon for thousands of years, slowing climate change B. They release large quantities of methane, accelerating climate change C. They are extraordinarily biodiverse: 40% of plants and animals depend on wetlands Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer. THE BIG PICTURE Battling the Asian hornet Asian hornets have spread well beyond their native range, and their prey includes bumblebees and other pollinators. Credit: Sandra Rojas-Nossa One solution to the issue of invasive species is to eat them. But some pockets of resistance to invaders are arising naturally among native species. The buff-tailed bumblebee, one of the most common in Europe, has a remarkable strategy for fighting off the invasive Asian hornet, a voracious predator of a range of pollinators. Scientists observed hundreds of interactions between buff-tailed bumblebees and Asian hornets, and the bumblebees won the fight every single time with a simple defensive strategy. Katherine Latham examines how the bumblebee manages this remarkable feat.  BEFORE YOU GO • The Earth surpassed the 1.5C warming target for a full 12 months for the first time. Read our explainer on what passing this threshold means for the world. • A landmark UN report is calling for better protection of migratory species as they travel around the world. • California's floods have caused profound damage across the state. It's now a matter of time before California faces a climate-change-induced megaflood, writes Lucy Sherriff. US Election Unspun newsletter Cut through the noise in the race for the White House, every Wednesday to your inbox. Sign up here AND FINALLY... If you're buying flowers for Valentine's Day tomorrow, consider where those red roses might have come from. Kenya is Africa's dominant rose producer, and supplies more than nine million roses a day to the Netherlands, the global hub of the flower trade. An estimated two million people in Kenya depend on the flower trade for their livelihoods. But rising temperatures, flash floods and extreme temperatures are putting pressure on Kenya's rose farms. Today, smart farming technologies including drones and artificial intelligence are helping some Kenyan farmers manage their crops. Watch BBC News' report. Today's climate quiz was a trick question: all three answers are correct. A healthy wetland makes a powerful carbon sink, while a degraded wetland releases large quantities of greenhouse gases. The world's wetlands support enormous biodiversity, which is key to tackling the linked climate and nature crises. Listen to The Climate Question's exploration of wetlands as a secret weapon for climate resilience.