{"id":5281,"date":"2012-10-20T04:28:22","date_gmt":"2012-10-20T08:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/?p=5281"},"modified":"2012-10-13T16:00:39","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T20:00:39","slug":"year-3-month-10-day-20-all-russet-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/year-3-month-10-day-20-all-russet-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"Year 3, Month 10, Day 20: All Russet Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Easton Star-Democrat (DE) tells us about a study of changing leaves<\/a> that reinforces what should now be absolutely common knowledge:<\/p>\n

COLLEGE PARK – Fall colors are arriving later and are fading more quickly because of climate change, according to researchers.<\/p>\n

The climate-driven changes are already visible in some forests in New England. Scientists worry that leaf-peeping hotspots in Maryland also could eventually see duller foliage and delays in the start of leaf season.<\/p>\n

“It [climate change] certainly could have an impact here, as well,” said Saran Twombly, a researcher at the National Science Foundation, who studies the impact of climate change on foliage.<\/p>\n

In Massachusetts’ Harvard Forest, data collected by retired Harvard professor John O’Keefe suggests that leaves are changing color four days later than they did in 1993.<\/p>\n

In New Hampshire, sugar maples are shedding their leaves two to five days later than two decades ago, according to data collected by the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in Woodstock, N.H.<\/p>\n

Warmer temperatures and erratic weather patterns driven by climate change have an adverse affect on tree health, according to phenologists – those who study the effects of seasonal changes on plants.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Peepers away! Sent October 13:<\/p>\n

At first blush, the news that autumn leaves are changing color a few days ahead of schedule doesn’t seem like much to worry about. But the climate crisis requires long-term thinking; it requires us to extrapolate from current trends, and to integrate scientific data from as many sources as possible. <\/p>\n

The deniers in our media and politics who claim the science of climate change “isn’t settled” should have no more credibility than flat-Earthers or those who believe the moon landings were faked; the climatological evidence confirming global warming is overwhelmingly conclusive and extremely alarming. <\/p>\n

For millennia, Earth’s steady, predictable, and hospitable climate has allowed our species to prosper, our civilization to develop, and our capacity to understand our universe to expand a millionfold. Now that’s changing; those early autumn leaves are one of countless harbingers of a new and less welcoming future we’ve inadvertently created for our descendants. We can no longer afford to ignore these signs.<\/p>\n

Warren Senders\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n