Posts Tagged ‘Climate Change’

Monday, May 8, 2023

Paul Smith’s VIC to host May 11 discussion on how climate change, carbon sequestration impact forests

Paul Smiths, NY – The Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) will be hosting a free panel discussion on the impact of climate change and carbon sequestration in forests. The event will be on Thursday, May 11. The event is free and open to the public. The Adirondack Council’s Rewilding Advocate, John Davis, will lead a world-renowned panel of scientists on how the climate change crisis will impact carbon sequestration in forests, as well as the discussion between “young” and “old” forests and how each sequesters carbon.

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Tuesday, May 2, 2023

27th Annual Conference on the Adirondacks set for May 18 and 19

Adirondack Research Consortium logo

Adirondack Research Consortium (ARC) will host the 27th Annual Conference on the Adirondacks on May 18 and 19 at the Conference Center at Lake Placid in Lake Placid, NY. This year’s conference will focus on “Climate Change in the Adirondack/North Country Region Mitigation, Adaption, and Implications.”

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Friday, March 17, 2023

Historian joins climate change assessment study

This week I have a story about an Adirondacker giving a hand to a statewide climate study.

Around 80 people in different parts of the state are working on a climate change assessment. This multi-year study is overseen by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Last summer, Long Lake Town Historian Hallie Bond joined the team. She’s researching how climate change will alter community culture, including historical societies and museums.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Climate matters: Keeping track of a changing environment

Steve Forbes, who owns a hardware store in Wilmington, has recorded every plow job since 1987. Photo by Chloe Bennett

It’s week three for me at the Explorer and I have a few things to share with all of you. On top of learning how to live in the Adirondacks – like equipping my car with proper tires – I’m learning about how Adirondackers are keeping track of their changing environment. One longtime resident showed me her gardening journals that date back to the 1970s and have weather notes, bloom dates, wildlife sightings and more. I drove over to Wilmington and flipped through a hardware store owner’s log of snowplow jobs dating back to 1987. His take? Snow is coming later in the Adirondacks. Read the story here. 

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Saturday, January 21, 2023

Follow that Quacking: Observing 75 Mallards and one Black Duck in Inlet

Mallard ducks on water

Things at Eight Acre Wood look about the same as they did last week, with only an inch of new snow to make the landscape white. That shows the critters who have been wandering around the yard. [Some of these include] several deer, a coyote, a fisher, a mink, an otter, a snowshoe hare, one turkey, several varieties of mice, a pine marten, a couple red squirrels, a flying squirrel, ravens, crows, and a Bald Eagle stopped by for a snack on the dam. Most of them also got caught on one of my trail cameras, as many of them are night travelers. In all my hikes, I thought I might even see a bear track, but I guess they are smarter than that. There is nothing for them to eat right now, so they better stay napping.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Northern Forest Center to host Ensuring Climate Resilience webinar Jan. 17

Northern Forest Center logo.

The Northern Forest Center has announced the next webinar in their Building the New Forest Future series, Ensuring Climate Resilience, which will take place on the afternoon of Tuesday, January 17 from noon to 1:30 p.m. Expert panelists will examine what communities can do today to ready themselves for environmental changes. Registration is free, but is required in order to participate in the webinar.
About the webinar:

Every community faces different pressures when it comes to our uncertain climate future. From flooding and drought to an influx of climate migrants, we will hear about ways communities can plan and prepare to face these changes. We will hear from communities that have already done this preparation and organizations that are leading the way. Speakers to be announced.

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Sunday, January 8, 2023

An Insatiable Hunger for Energy 

Combustion-related air pollutants

By the Numbers – Homes and Businesses 

We use energy in our homes every day; lots of energy. According to the United States Department of Energy, 40% of the energy consumed in the United States goes to powering our homes and commercial buildings.

We use energy to keep rooms at comfortable temperatures, to provide lighting, and to heat water. We also use energy to cook food and to power our phones, computers, games, and appliances.

 

By the Numbers – Transportation 

Even though Americans account for just 4.23% of the global population, with nearly 291-million registered vehicles, the U.S.A. is home to almost a quarter of the world’s cars. American motorists drive more than 3-trillion miles annually, and the Federal Highway Administration expects that number to grow by 22%, by 2049.

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Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Will climate change threaten ‘forever wild’?

Lake George in winter. Explorer file photo by Mike Lynch

Covering the Adirondacks beat, you hear two words surface in a lot of conversations: climate refugees.

The idea is simple enough. As temperatures warm and the effects of climate change increase drought and water shortages, threaten deadly summer heat and render some parts of the country (let alone world) unlivable, many people may be looking at the Adirondack Park region with new interest.

Water is abundant. High temperatures will remain bearable for the foreseeable future and access to nature is plentiful. While the term typically applies to people around the world who will be forced to leave their homes, it may also apply to city-dwellers looking to escape the concrete jungle in the heat of summer.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Ask Curt Stager your climate change questions

A new paper from Paul Smith’s College researchers raises the specter of an Adirondack Park without the winter weather that has long shaped the region’s culture and economy.

More info and a link to the study here.

Join Adirondack Explorer reporter Zachary Matson and Curt Stager for an online Q&A session from 7-7:30 pm on Thursday, Oct. 27. Bring your questions or send ahead to ask@adirondackexplorer.org.

Free to attend. RSVP to receive Zoom event info.


Monday, October 3, 2022

The end of winter?

The view from the roof of the "silo" science station on the summit of Whiteface on Sept. 21. Photo by Zachary Matson

In a new paper on how climate change is impacting the Adirondacks, Paul Smith’s College researchers waited until their last paragraph to raise a term that has stayed with me: the demise of winter.

It’s practically an aside in the paper’s concluding discussion.

“Today’s annual crossing and re-crossing of the thermal threshold between solid and liquid water has profound effects on cultures and ecosystems alike, and the eventual loss of that transition – i.e. the demise of winter – could produce the greatest climate-driven changes in the region,” they wrote.

» Continue Reading.


Friday, June 3, 2022

Trees for a Changing Climate

My ex-wife gave me a shirt that reads “Change is Good. You Go First” when our divorce was finalised, a much-appreciated bit of humour in the midst of a challenging time. It’s hard to find the mirth in some changes, especially when we don’t have a say in them. Climate change is a good example.

Global temperatures are rising at an ever-increasing rate. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe with time, and no amount of denial will make it go away. We have to learn to roll with this one. We can’t stop climate change tomorrow, but we can “trick” it by updating the kinds of trees we consider for home and community planting. A warmer world affects trees in a myriad ways: Record wet seasons like in 2013, 2017, and 2019 allow normally weak foliar pathogens to spread and flourish, becoming primary agents of mortality.

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Thursday, April 28, 2022

Introducing “Climate Matters”

climate matters

This mural was drawn by school children in the Andean Mountain community of Santiago De Okola. Photo by Cayte Bosler

Commemorating Earth Day

In 1970, famed anchor Walter Cronkite announced Earth Day for the first time on a CBS news special.

Tens of millions of people, mostly students, had taken to the streets across the country with a message for leadership — “act or die,” as Cronkite recounted to his audience. Air pollution from leaded gas emissions and inefficient vehicles reigned as the leading concern which united protesters and activists to rally for systematic change.

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Monday, April 11, 2022

Loons cry out

loons on a lake

When I was camping a couple of summers ago at Sampson Lake in West Canada Lake Wilderness, all was silent in the dark night but the unforgettable calls of a pair of a loons.

Even someone with a tin ear for bird calls knew what they were hearing. It felt as if it was just me and the loons on that lake – maybe in the entire world. Visitors and residents of the Adirondacks have experienced that feeling of connectedness since time immemorial.

But just like so many other things, a warming climate presents new threats to the iconic species. The Explorer’s new climate change reporter Cayte Bosler examined how climate change may threaten loons in the coming years. From “molt-migration mismatch” that makes loons vulnerable to getting iced-in to torrential rain increasing lake levels, conservationists are working to respond to a variety of risks.

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Sunday, April 10, 2022

Discussion time: Climate coverage

youth climate rally

One of our most talked about contributions in recent weeks is this piece by Paul Hetzler. In it, he writes about climate change and debunking the “CO2 fertilization effect,” which is the idea that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can be good for plants.

The post inspired some passions from readers and I’m curious to hear more from you about climate coverage in general. Especially as the Adirondack Explorer (which runs the Adirondack Almanack) has recently hired a climate reporter, Cayte Bosler.

Help us shape our coverage: Tell us the kinds of climate stories you’d like to see next in these pages and in Adirondack Explorer’s magazine.

Some examples to get the ball rolling:

  • How warmer temperatures are affecting lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks.
  • Ways communities are adapting/need to adapt to climate change
  • Changes in species living in the region and how wildlife is impacted.

Photo: Adirondack Youth Climate Summit students hold an ”I Am Pro Snow” rally at Mount Van Hoevenberg in this Adirondack Explorer file photo by Mike Lynch


Sunday, April 3, 2022

Climate change and debunking the ‘CO2 fertilization effect’

Young beech trees retain their leaves throughout the winter months

Scientist-like persons hired by the fossil fuel industry have long maintained we should celebrate an ever-increasing level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. This gas, a key building block in the photosynthetic process, can enable plants to grow faster and get larger. It’s been called the “CO 2 fertilization effect.” Many crop yields are projected to increase. And bigger woody plants, the reasoning goes, can amass more carbon, thus helping to slow the rate of CO 2 increase in a handy negative-feedback loop.

In other words, they argue that climate change is good for plants, which in turn will help curb climate change. It’s an elegant win-win situation, and environmentalists no longer have to lose sleep over skyrocketing carbon dioxide. However, as with many supposed “truths,” this argument falls apart upon close examination. It’s like in 1981 when former President Ronald Reagan said “Trees cause more air pollution than automobiles do.” He was referring to terpenols (responsible for the pleasant piney-woods aroma in the forest), which can react with auto emissions to form ozone. In the larger picture, trees reduce air pollution of all sorts – and sequester carbon as well – on a colossal scale worldwide. His statement was “true” in a minor, technical sense for a single pollutant, but it was misleading, and for all intents and purposes, false.

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