Flowers and Trees are Blooming Earlier: Is it because of Climate Change?

  By Richard B. Primack 

 

“This world is but a canvas to our imagination.”  Henry David Thoreau in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

 

This week, our research about climate change in Concord combining Thoreau’s records and modern observations was featured the Short Wave program on National Public Radio. This was the first episode of Nature Quest, a monthly Short Wave segment that answers listener questions about their local environment. 

 

Our Concord research highlighted that wildflowers are now blooming earlier and trees are leafing out earlier than in the past, and that these changes are due to a warming climate.  

 

I want to again thank Phil Cafaro, Professor of Environmental Philosophy (recently retired from Colorado State University), for directing us to Thoreau’s records of flowering times. So much of our research over the last 23 years followed from his initial suggestion. 

Here is a link to the story transcript: LINK