IT'S official! The climate change debate is now over, said David Milliband, UK environment secretary, on Friday, commenting on a UN report which states in no uncertain terms that the climate is changing.
Six years of research have culminated in this report which predicts a three degree rise in the average world temperature by the end of the century.
Can this come as any surprise to anyone who on Friday enjoyed a balmy day in early February after apparently the warmest January in living memory?
You need only look around you at the wildlife activity to see signs of another early spring.
Wrens, traditionally bundling together in holes in trees at night to withstand the bitter cold at this time of year, are sprouting from the tops of bushes and singing their mating songs with all the abandon of a lusty opera singer.
Song thrushes are singing their melodically repetitive song from the rooftops in the early mornings to announce their presence and attract a mate.
Herring Gull pairs are getting loved up amongst the chimney tops of Llandudno, and Fulmar are checking out suitable nesting ledges on the cliffs of the Great and Little Ormes, chuckling throatily to themselves and their partners.
It has been suggested that hormones are the trigger for the springtime change in behaviour from sheer survival tactics to thoughts of holding a territory and attracting a mate.
But surely our current climate changes suggest it has more to do with an instinctive response to an increase in the daytime temperatures?
For one species in isolation, this may not be critical, but the environment is an open system of complex interdependencies.
The timing of one species to rear its young successfully depends upon the availability of suitable nesting places and food supplies for both parents and offspring.
Everything needs to be in the right place at the right time, and moving one piece from the Jenga puzzle risks the whole tower crumbling.
However, it's not just birds that are busy. Snowdrops are flowering abundantly throughout our woodlands, crocuses are showing their yellow heads in sunnier glades, and sticky buds are appearing on Chestnut trees.
A bumblebee buzzed past me today, and earlier in the week I watched Brown Hares boxing in the fields of Norfolk.
Whoever heard of a Mad February Hare?
So are all species moving their body-clocks forward, or only selective ones?
How will the wealth of biodiversity bear up under this new pressure?
So, thank you United Nations for reinforcing the message with a thoroughly-researched report, but watching wildlife itself will tell you the climate is changing.
Spring is well and truly springing.
