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November 13, 2005

so much for walking 10 miles in snow each way...

New England is known for having particularly hard winters. And in truth, last year's was a doozy and so was the year before. But several new studies are showing that New England winters are just not what they used to be. The U.S. Geological Survey shows that for one, New England Rivers are melting sooner in the spring.

The total winter days of ice-affected flow decreased by 20 days from 1936 to 2000 for the average of the nine rivers with records that long, with most of the decrease occurring since the 1960's.

Of the 16 rivers studied, 12 had significantly earlier spring melts, called "ice-outs," the study found. On average, the ice-out dates became earlier by 11 days from 1936 to 2000, again with most of the change occurring since the 1960's.

"The changes in spring river ice-outs in northern New England are consistent with previous studies," said USGS hydrologist Glenn Hodgkins, the lead author. "The overall evidence of changes is strong and is consistent with warming temperatures in the late-winter and spring in New England in the last 30 to 40 years."

We've certainly had our share of weird weather this year. The whole year has been a mess. Hard snowfall in the early part of the year, followed by one of the rainiest springs on record (I think May only had 2-3 rain-free days), a super-hot dry summer and now, this fall has been so freakishly warm that it's the second week of November and although most of the trees have lost their leaves, there are still quite a few that are just now starting to change colors. The bright red maples, usually one of the first to turn, were one of the last to change over because we didn't have any frost until just a week or two ago. The weather is just plain freakish this year. We even had a quarter inch of snow the Saturday before Halloween. And yet today is supposed to be in the lower 60s.

A recent article in the Bangor Daily News talked about the devastating effects that global warming can have on New England's environment which in turn, directly affects our tourist dollars.

Because of global warming, widespread and costly impacts could hit the region hard. According to researchers at the University of New Hampshire, New England could experience a 10-30 percent increase in precipitation and an overall temperature increase of 6-10 degrees by 2090 - a greater climate variation than any the region has seen over the past 10,000 years.

In this drastically different climate of tomorrow, maples would fade from our hillsides as oak and hickory trees became the dominant species. The pride of farmers for generations, New England pure maple syrup could become a memory if global warming remains unchecked. And like the sugar maples, seasonal leaf peepers would also increasingly migrate north to Canada as the fall frosts so vital in creating the fiery hillsides immortalized by Kipling, Thoreau and others become a thing of the past.

Although a few might miss the traditional winds and snows that have made New England winters so famous, New Englanders surely would miss the annual tourist dollars. Not counting the adverse economic impact of climate change on New England's agriculture, conservative estimates show that a 50 percent drop in fall tourism could cost the region nearly 20,000 jobs alone. Unfortunately, though, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Indeed, according to a recent study commissioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, global warming over the coming century could cost local cities like Boston as much as $94 billion. Through increased flooding and changes in seasonal weather patterns, researchers in the five-year study found that climate change will impose increased demands on building upkeep, emergency services and energy consumption throughout the region. Luckily, however, New Englanders have never been inclined to sit and wait while danger mounts. The gathering threat of global warming is no different.

I think the thing that bothers me most is that people only start to care when there is money to be made or drastic amounts of money to be lost. Protecting the environment simply to protect it makes no sense unless some sort of government or big business is going to profit. It just makes me sick. Case-in-point, Fox News' special that will be airing tonight on global warming. Yes, you read that right--Fox News. They realized that the public is very concerned about this issue (in fact, a recent Fox poll showed that 77% of Americans believe that global warming is happening) and so as a result, they decided to cash in. Not because, IMHO, they really believe in the issue, but because there are ratings to be had. There is nothing fair and balanced about it at all.

Posted by crystallyn at November 13, 2005 08:35 AM

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