It is the natural and ephemeral treasure of Japan. The Sakura, those cherry blossom trees under which the Japanese celebrate each year, may end up not blooming anymore. The cause: climate change which accelerates their flowering and makes them suffer, warn scientists. A situation that worries many Japanese, for whom the observation of flowering, the hanamiis celebrated every spring.
The Sakura are so rooted in Japanese culture and imagination that even domestic robots celebrate them. However, because of humans, the cherry blossom season is already not what it was fifty years ago. It no longer follows the same schedule, explains Yoshie Nakamura, from the private weather agency Weathernews.
“The beginning of cherry blossom is getting earlier and earlier. In the 1960s, it started on average around March 30. But in the 2010s, it was around March 22, more than a week earlier .”
Yoshie Nakamuraat franceinfo
But it’s not just a calendar change, it’s worse. If the cold winters disappear, the flowers will also disappear. “For the cherry trees to bloom, the bud that will become a flower must experience a real period of low winter temperatures that wake it from its slumber” explains Yoshie Nakamura, who adds that “If because of climate change this cold criterion is not well met, and in the future winter temperatures increase further, the cherry trees may not bloom.”
And according to scientists, this is just the beginning. “The absence of flowering or partial flowering could be seen on the island of Kyushu, to the south. Already, further south still, in Okinawa, the variety of cherry trees yoshino does not flower and we believe that the region concerned by this phenomenon is likely to extend further north.”
On Japanese television, meteorologists are starting to sound the alarm. For example, we can hear “If global warming continues, the cherry trees will no longer bloom completely or bloom at all.” Ou again: “It’s so sad that climate change also has these kinds of consequences”.
Even more tragic effects threaten Japan, but the Sakura are sacred in the country. Besides, “The Japanese passion for cherry blossoms is such that if more people realize that not only will they bloom sooner but they may not bloom at all, Japanese awareness of cherry blossoms willvis-a-vis the climate change could be accentuated”. And time is running out.