Much Warmer Northeast Has Extreme Consequences

The Union of Concerned Scientists have released preliminary results from a two year study on climate change and the news is dire for the Northeast. Winters would be on average 8 to 12 degrees higher by the end of the century, and summers 6 to 14 degrees higher. This means change for the economy and industries that create the unique character of the region:

• The skiing industry would go out of business, except for western Maine resorts.
• Lobstering south of Maine would cease to exist as will cod fisheries
• Maple syrup production in Vermont will end
• Fall foliage will no longer dazzle
• Apple orchards will die out
  
• Boston, New York and Atlantic City would be regularly flooded
• Songbirds will disappear (see, I told you it was dire)

The good news, according to the report is that a low-emission alternative is achievable and would leave the Northeast with a similar climate.

Pea Soup

While the rest of the lower 48 work through the heat wave, we've been in a perpetual state of fog. Old timers tell me the fog used to be a June event and by July, it was clear and sunny. This year, it's a little mixed up; June was warm, clear and glorious. July is damp, cool and foggy. We even considered building a fire on Monday night, but decided we'd not build a fire in July unless it snowed!

Warm Winters And Sugaring Don't Mix

We need look no further for proof of global warming. If a skeptical Yankee can be convinced, it must be true:

“You might be tempted to say, well that’s a bunch of baloney — global warming,” said Mr. Morse, drilling his first tap holes this season in mid-February, as snow hugged the maples and Vermont braced for a record snowfall. “But the way I feel, we get too much warm. How many winters are we going to go with Decembers turning into short-sleeve weather, before the maple trees say, ‘I don’t like it here any more?’

Seriously, the quote is taken from a New York Times article on how changing seasonal conditions are affecting the sugaring industry, and it doesn't look good:

“It appears to be a rather dire situation for the maple industry in the Northeast if conditions continue to go toward the predictions that have been made for global warming,” said Tim Perkins, director of the Proctor Maple Research Center at the University of Vermont.
“In the ’50s and ’60s, 80 percent of world’s maple syrup came from the U.S., and 20 percent came from Canada,” said Barrett N. Rock, a professor of natural resources at the University of New Hampshire. “Today it’s exactly the opposite. The climate that we used to have here in New England has moved north to the point where it’s now in Quebec.”

And, it's those sugar maples that produce the fall foliage, so global warming could wipe out two of Vermont and Maine's biggest money makers.