Sometimes you need to get out more to understand more. Last week my better half and I shook off the city dust of York for a night in the Yorkshire Dales.

What an amazing county we are privileged to live in: God’s own, indeed. It’s only when you experience the Yorkshire landscape you appreciate truly its precious diversity. Also, that the human, urban world we city-dwellers take for granted is far from the natural story. Nature made our species and it is where we belong.

How unforgivable then, I could not help thinking, that the beauty we witnessed is being put at risk by global warming and human activity. The ancient woodlands and sheep-cropped hillsides appear secure forever, timelessly English as Shakespeare, cricket and warm beer. But even as we walked for the sheer joy of it with the sun warming our faces, warning signs were all around.

How could it be so sunny? This is February for goodness’ sake. BBC Yorkshire climate correspondent Paul Hudson reported that, "These kind of temperatures, 18C or 19C, are what you would normally see in early June. There's been a prolonged abnormally warm spell and we've also had an exceptionally dry start to 2019.”

In fact, the UK broke the record for the warmest winter day this month for a second time – and that same day a gorse fire broke out on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, a moorland fire on Saddleworth covering about 1.5 sq km of land near Marsden Moor was described by one witness as "apocalyptic". West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said it was "one of the biggest moorland fires we've ever had to deal with".

The significance of all this is hard to take in. Part of the problem is that our species is poorly equipped by evolution to deal with the global consequences of industrialisation and our consumerist way of life. We evolved from primitive apes to live in small communities in a relatively narrow locale, not worry how our actions affect continents on the other side of the globe.

When we feel the sun on our faces it feels instinctively good. Hard to understand it as a dire warning we need to change how we live or risk destroying the natural world we depend on.

I, for one, cannot get on a high horse. To reach the Dales we drove and burned our fair share of fossil fuel. In addition I ate large quantities of red meat, even though scientists are warning that our addiction to meat protein is damaging the planet at an unsustainable rate.

According to Prof Johan Rockström at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who was part of a top level research team in 2018 exploring how our food habits threaten world-wide hunger: “Greening the food sector or eating up our planet: this is what is on the menu today.”

But our lovely Yorkshire is not just full of warnings. Possible solutions are everywhere, too, if only we allow ourselves to see that this is not the only available reality.

Some of the lessons lie in the recent past. As we drove into Grassington we passed beneath a former railway bridge now abandoned. Once, you could get there by train. Why can’t that happen again? All we need do is ditch the privatisation of railways and invest for the future. The only profit motive on the table would be for the environment and convenience of ordinary people.

This is not far-fetched, it is easily achievable with the necessary political will and drive.

Another lesson stretched great arms above our heads as we walked through splendid Grass Wood Nature Reserve near Grassington – part of the wonderful Yorkshire Wildlife Trust – having left the sparkle and singing churn of the River Wharfe. Yorkshire trees like living badges we should swear allegiance to: predominantly ash and hazel blessing innumerable plants in the wood and home to birds and insects. Why shouldn’t taxpayer sponsored, carbon-eating trees be planted in every available place in York, our suburbs, streets and ings?

When you get out into the natural world you do understand more. Maybe that will prove the true challenge of the 21st century.