In
his meticulous notes on the natural history of Concord, Massachusetts, Henry
David Thoreau records the first open flowers of highbush blueberry on May 11,
1853. If he were to look for the first blueberry flowers in Concord today,
mid-May would be too late. In the 160 years since Thoreau’s writings, warming
temperatures have pushed blueberry flowering three weeks earlier, and in 2012,
following a winter and spring of record-breaking warmth, blueberries began
flowering on April 1—six weeks earlier than in Thoreau’s time.
For the past
12 years, my students, colleagues and I have been investigating the effects of
climate change on the plants, birds, and insects of Walden Pond and the
surrounding area of Concord. By combining Thoreau’s observations from 160 years
ago with modern observations, we have used Concord as a living laboratory to
study the impacts of a warming world. In a new book due out in early March, I
describe this scientific adventure. And in the final chapter, I try to imagine
how Thoreau would react to the modern challenge of climate change, and what his
advice would be for dealing with this crisis.
Find more information on the book here.
