20/08/2026
For decades I've been infuriated by articles in The Economist, The Telegraph et al. suggesting that higher CO2 levels and rising temperatures would be a good thing for Europe’s farmers, increasing the rate of photosynthesis and hence yields. A few people further south might suffer (they don’t have much money anyway) but at least we'd be OK. What are these pillars of rationality writing now as Europe burns? Perhaps that it's too late to fight climate change so we'd better adapt, or if we reduce our use of fossil fuels, it must be a “gentle transition”?
It's both tragic and laughable that we seem intent on spending our last dollar of discretionary capital, not on transition, but on AI and vast data centres whose purpose will be to persuade us to buy more of the crap that got us into this mess. The reality, which any gardener and farmer knows, is that yield and quality are more often determined by the extremes than the averages, and the frequency of extreme weather events falling outside crop tolerance is increasing faster than averages are moving.
On our farm in the French Vendée, temperatures above 32°C have caused aubergines to abort their fruit due to stress; runner beans in the UK have done the same. We'd have been able to top up from Spain but our growers there are suffering similarly, or worse. Our UK tomato, pepper and cucumber season is barely 3 months but is faring better with the growth potential boosted by high temperatures and sunlight, balanced out by losses due to stress.
Those with irrigation have now pretty much run out of water and are keeping what's left for the high value crops. Half the carrots have failed and potato yields will be down 25%. In the south-west, much of our summer broccoli, cauliflower and Romanesco has traditionally been grown on unirrigated ground. Many will now fail, with the remaining crops having drastically reduced yield and compromised quality. As our reservoirs run dry and our crops die, data centres will have plenty of water, energy and will leapfrog the planning process. It seems they're needed for the only sort of growth that matters. You can’t eat it and it’s killing our planet but who dares impedes a Tech bro?
