Maybe it’s because climate change moves too slow for human comprehension–kinda’ like watching the hands on a clock. You don’t usually see the actual movement of the hands but you know it’s happening. We think that’s the primary reason for such meager efforts to slow down the inevitable disaster that all the world’s climatologists are reporting. In our neck of the woods, winter has been extremely mild. We have experienced about 70% to 75% of our daily temps to be above normal. Snowfall is about one third of normal and the trees and flowers are a month ahead of schedule with buds and stems about to bloom. This usually doesn’t happen here until the mid-April. As we see other reports from other parts of the world, Greenland, for example, is greener than at any other time in the last 1,000 years. Its glaciers have lost 11,000 square miles of ice sheet and shrubs are growing where ice covered the land just a few decades ago. In the Arctic, scientists predict that it could be “ice-free” in the summertime 10 years earlier than previously projected. Because the ice fields typically reflect the sun’s rays and heat it is expected that this ice loss will continue to heat up the planet as more and more of the sun’s heat is retained by the earth. And closer to home, the story is much the same. From Boston to the Pacific shoreline above average temps have changed the landscape either by causing incredible snowfalls, rivers of moisture, landslides, forest fires, off-season tornadoes and a general re-thinking of weather patterns. A recent Canadian dog sled race was cancelled for lack of snow. People can now play golf in Wisconsin in February. While it’s true that El Nino and other temporary phenomena are partly responsible there can be no doubt that earth is re-shuffling its climate and people need to notice the changes–as subtle as they may be. We will continue to post climate stories to raise concerns because–if left to fate–NONE OF OUR OTHER PROBLEMS WILL MATTER IN THE FUTURE.
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