Climate Change at Proctor Academy

Photo Taken by William Cox

This photo was taken on February twenty first, at a time when these lands are usually buried under at least a foot of snow. As you can see, this year, we had no such luck. Or no such annoyance, if you are not a snow-sport fanatic. Not only is there grass showing all over the area, but this grass is still green. Which is just another indicator of just how warm that this winter actually was. This is one piece of evidence that climate change could very well be effecting our lives here at Proctor Academy.

"Kappy's Liquors" Sign at Mega
Photo Taken by William Cox

Another piece of evidence that climate change could be effecting our lives at Proctor is the forest fire that happened last spring. With increasing droughts due to heat and evaporation, these kinds of fires are far more likely to occur, and will spread much easier. EPA predictions state that if earth temperature rises another 3.6 degrees fahrenheit, four times the amount of land in the US will burn from wildfires. Of course this fire was not started naturally, but it did spread naturally, and even the small change in climate that happens from one year to the next could be directly related to the burning down of one of my personal favorite places at Proctor.

In the photo below, there is a diagram showing ten of the indicators that are evidence of climate change. All of these impacts, like the melting of glaciers and snow cover, as well as the rise of sea level and temperature over ocean, have their own unique and horrible effects on the world that we live in. For instance, the melting of the snow cover and permafrost can cause the release of massive amounts of methane (CH4) due to the sheer amount of organic matter that is frozen in tundra biomes. Methane is a greenhouse gas, and will contribute to the rise in temperature of the planet as a whole, and in part keep contributing to all the other factors shown on this diagram. This represents a positive feedback loop, where an effect is amplified by the process that gives rise to it.

Found on Google Images

Here is a link describing the impact of climate change on farms here in NH

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/19651494-95/climate-change-shifting-habits-are-steep-hurdles-for-nh-farms

Here is a video about climate change that I found very interesting, it is a video of Bill Nye explaining how terrorism in Paris can be directly related to climate change:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bill-nye-climate-change-paris-terrorism_us_565ccdebe4b079b2818b810b