Unintended consequences: The (updated) Tale of Squirrel Nutkin.

The latest environmental concern here, and one some scientists are escalating to “high alert”, has nothing to do with the climate.

It’s raccoons.

There are no raccoons in the UK, save for zoos and animal reserves.

As of August, raccoons have been added to the European Union’s list of banned animals: it’s no longer just a bad idea to bring raccoons into the UK, it’s illegal.

The Daily Mail reported in April, with the same fearful language you would use in reporting the spread of ebola, that a raccoon had been recorded on a night vision camera in northern Scotland! If a male and female find each other, raccoonmaggedon!

Raccoons have no competition here, not natural predators, nothing to stop them from breeding prodigiously.

And there’s a precedent, a disturbing one.

Go back to your childhood bookshelf and find (or google) Beatrix Potter’s Squirrel Nutkin character.

He’s red.

That’s because red squirrels were the only squirrels native to the UK

Until, 140 years ago, some thoughtless Victorian traveller decided it would be “jolly fun” to bring some North American grey squirrels to the UK and let them loose.

The grey squirrels have out-bred and out-foraged red squirrels to the verge of extinction: many biologists claim the red squirrel population has already plummeted by 96%.

Unintended consequences: whether it’s squirrels, raccoons, politics, it’s the unintended consequences of our actions that we have to be mindful of.

Squirrel Nutkin knows.