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. The climate around Thoreau's beloved Walden
Pond is changing, with visible ecological consequences. In Walden
Warming, Richard B. Primack uses Thoreau and Walden, icons of the
conservation movement, to track the effects of a warming climate on
Concord's plants and animals. Under the attentive eyes of Primack,
the notes that Thoreau made years ago are transformed from charming
observations into scientific data sets. Primack finds that many
wildflower species that Thoreau observed-including familiar groups
such as irises, asters, and lilies-have declined in abundance or
have disappeared from Concord. Primack also describes how warming
temperatures have altered other aspects of Thoreau's Concord, from
the dates when ice departs from Walden Pond in late winter, to the
arrival of birds in the spring, to the populations of fish,
salamanders, and butterflies that live in the woodlands, river
meadows, and ponds. Primack demonstrates that climate change is
already here, and it is affecting not just Walden Pond but many
other places in Concord and the surrounding region. Although we
need to continue pressuring our political leaders to take action,
Primack urges us each to heed the advice Thoreau offers in Walden:
to "live simply and wisely." In the process, we can each minimize
our own contributions to our warming climate.
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