Today, Bridport’s Community Orchard is holding its 11th ‘Apple Day’.

Apples connect us with the food and drink that have marked the West Country for centuries. But of course orchards aren’t just about apples. They also consist of trees.

The recent IPCC report on the risks of climate change reminds us that it makes sense for us to proceed at full speed with moves towards an all-electric economy and the transformation of batteries and other technologies for the storage of electricity so that we can base that electric economy entirely on nuclear and intermittent renewable sources of power such as offshore wind and solar energy.

The IPCC report also reminds us, however, that methane from global agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gases.

Given that we obviously cannot have an electrification of animal life this has led to a rash of stories about the need for a more vegetarian diet.

I have been surprised to see that, in the course of this debate over the last few weeks, However, there has been little mention of the obvious means by which human beings can increase carbon sequestration and offset methane emissions in agriculture –- namely, by planting trees.

Huge progress has been made in the last decade on reducing deforestation through preservation of the tropical rainforests. But, here in England, where we have been planting trees, we could plant many more and thereby do much more to offset our own agricultural emissions. The planting of trees has many other advantages. Done in the right way, it is an adornment of the landscape, a rich source of habitat for wildlife, a binding of the earth in defence against erosion and flood, an endless source of adventure for children and, of course, the provision of a hugely important material that makes almost any room or building cosier, warmer and more friendly.

We should, in short, regard 2018 not just as the year of the apple or of the orchard, but as the year of the tree.