Keep Dreaming
December 21st, 2006 by Carbon CoalitionDreaming of a white Christmas is the closest anyone in New England, and many other spots around the world, will get to a dashing-through-the-snow, winter wonderland day that we all romantically long for over the holidays.
Instead Anne Raver, writer for the New York Times, has traded in holly for fresh spinach, which is still growing in her Maryland garden. She says she’s not surprised by this late growth because it’s only following typical climate trends that have occurred lately–insects are present all winter and poison ivy and ragweed are rampant. In fact, the Agriculture Department’s Research Service is revising its hardiness zone map (Raver’s gardening zone has jumped from a 7 to an 8), as temperatures over the last 30 years grow steadily warmer. Raver provides a list of gardening tips that can help combat global warming–composting, planting rooftop gardens, limiting fertilizer use, and avoiding gasoline-powered tools like mowers and leaf blowers. But she concludes that “gardens alone can’t save the polar bears, or all the other species that could vanish. Only a radical reduction in the burning of fossil fuels can do that.” (Read the entire article here.) On the bright side, the oranges that Granite Staters get in their stockings could one day be harvested locally…
Gardens aren’t the only thing green around these parts. This article in today’s Boston Globe shows a picture of a skier sitting on a chairlift, the typicaly white background many shades darker and greener, and a caption noting “unlike the slopes we used to know.” Ski areas all around the Northeast are suffering not only from lack of snow, but also from warm temperatures. Warm days are carrying over into warm nights, which hinder snow-making efforts. Ed Beckley, general manager of Mount Southington in CT, explains “we’ve lost Christmas,” which accounts for as much as a third of the mountain’s annual revenue.
New England isn’t alone. The Washington Post reported on “balmy Europe,” which is experiencing the warmest year in the Alpine region in 1300 years. A street vendor in Moscow, a city that prides itself on a cold, harsh climate, says “I want snow…this is a disgusting winter.” According to Yulia Vaganova, an avid skier in the region, skiing is “absolutely impossible” under these conditions. (Read the entire story here.)
Fortunately, these temperatures aren’t going unnoticed. Today Marty Meehan, a representative of the fifth Congressional District of Massachusetts, and Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, have an opinion piece in the Boston Globe, “Making Noise on Global Warming.” The piece begins with a quote by Rev. Martin Luther Kind Jr., “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Global warming is one of the “few matters of international importance that could have more dire consequences than being silent about the dangers.” Maybe a muddy Christmas and empty slopes over this holiday season will send another strong message.
