Japanese worried as their cherry trees bloom earlier and earlier in the year. Compared to the 1950s, their flowering is beginning… ten days earlier.
Ultimately, global warming could be fatal to them, according to Daisuke Sasano of the Meteorological Agency. “What threatens these trees the most,” he explains, “is not springs or summers that are too hot, but winters that are not cold enough.” Last year, the sublime spectacle of the red glow of the maples was cut short due to an ephemeral autumn.