More than 2,500 ecologists have descended on Memphis, Tennessee, for this year’s annual conference, which has the them ‘Icons and upstarts of ecology’. And the society chose a political upstart (if indeed it’s possible to be an upstart at 58 years of age) to give the opening address. Ron Sims, county executive for King County, Washington, is the first county leader in the United States to sign up to the Chicago Climate Exchange, a voluntary counterpart to Europe’s formal emissions-trading scheme, which aims to cut emissions by imposing caps on emissions and then trading in the right to exceed them if necessary.

Sims claims that the move, along with a raft of other green initiatives, has the backing of the impressive roll-call of businesses, Microsoft and Starbucks included, that are based in his backyard. But his attitude makes him an upstart as compared with the continued slow progress of the federal government in tackling carbon emissions. In an impassioned speech, he argued that all politics is ultimately local, and that “the federal government will move slowly by design”. He also called for scientists to speak up for themselves, citing the oft-quoted example that, among scientists, there is a genuine consensus that man-made climate change is really happening, however much politicians and the media would like to maintain that the issue is shrouded in controversy.

Although this is not a climate conference, there was much nodding of heads, because ecosystems so often hold up a mirror to climate change. And the fact that we’re in Memphis, which is currently sweltering under an official severe heat advisory warning, was not lost on anyone either.