Growing up in northern Virginia, fall was breathtakingly beautiful. The leaves in my area changed to the most vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows. Being an October baby and a lover of the holidays, fall is by far my favorite season. Between halloween, pumpkin pie, and the comfortable cool weather, it is the perfect time of year in my eyes.
You can imagine my dismay last year when we still had 90 degree weather during the first week of October. I was deeply disturbed, as I was ready to begin wearing boots, scarves, and cardigans. I remember thinking to myself, “I hope this is just a fluke.” As we gear up for the upcoming fall season, I am crossing my fingers for it to begin cooling down sooner rather than later. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one worried about our particularly warm start to fall 2019. "Is Climate Change Ruining Fall" is an article written last September by the Harvard Magazine. Below is a quotation from Dr. Elizabeth Wolkovich, a professor of Forest & Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia, that has me a bit worried about the future of fall leaves:
“Certainly we know fall is getting later with climate change,” Wolkovich explains. During periods when “it’s super hot and you’re not getting cold nighttime temperatures, we expect that that makes the chlorophyll not break down as well. And if the chlorophyll is not breaking down, you’re not going to see the other amazing colors...and then the horror is that if the leaves are still brown or green, and you start to have wind or rain, you’ll lose the leaves before you even have fall color, or you just won’t have good color because the chlorophyll will never fully break down.”
To me, fall is just not fall without the leaves changing color. The colorful leaves are both gorgeous and nostalgic to me. Now, I do believe in fighting climate change for other reasons too. I want future generations of humans and animals to inherit a habitable planet. That's a big deal! But I think that it is important to not only talk about the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change, but also the effects it may have on the “little” things that make our planet feel like home. Doing so may be a good way to help some people feel more personally connected to these issues, and who knows, maybe more people will join the fight.
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Totally with you, Heather. As George Santayana said, "To be interested in the changing seasons is, in this middling zone, a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring." The loss of Fall, and of seasons generally, will make this a different and a diminished world. We need to talk this up with people who wouldn't otherwise be perturbed about climate change.
ReplyDeleteI like that quote! Losing fall would be so sad. It's just another one of those amazing things about our planet that we take for granted.
DeleteIt's an important point you make about the little things in nature changing and people's personal connection to them. Its hard for most people to notice far-away environmental problems, but when the environment you see everyday starts changing, it can make you take notice. I remember it used to snow more (not a much more, but a bit more) here when I was a kid, and now we're lucky if we get a dusting once a winter. That could be a good thing or bad thing depending on how much you like snow, but it's definitely changed enough that I notice its absence.
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