TOW #23 - The Seasons Aren't What They Used to Be

Last month the east coast was basking in 70-degree weather, and now snow covers the ground.  At first, early spring seemed glorious, a break from harsh winter chills.  However, this bipolar weather is a tell-tale sign of one of our planet’s biggest threats, global warming.  Scientists have been tracking the change of the seasons for decades now, and it is clear that the seasons have been coming earlier each year.  As David Haskell writes, it is imperative that we pay more attention to the world around us to save future generations from losing the seasonal changes we know now. 

                As a way to raise awareness of the seasonal changes, Haskell uses harrowing facts to reveal the severity of Earth’s situation.  It’s not obvious the planet is changing, spring comes earlier, snow still falls after spring is announced, yet with the help of scientists, the change is increasingly evident.  In fact, “the spring emergence of leaves, frogs, birds and flowers advanced in the Northern Hemisphere by 2.8 days per decade” (3), and for the author, who is around 50 years old, spring has moved forward about 2 weeks in his lifetime.  Spring moving forward has disrupted nature and all of the creatures that rely on seasonal change to survive.  Bears emerge from hibernation early, flowers and other plants grow 2 weeks ahead.  Climate change hasn’t taken the pedestal since the Environmental Movement’s rise in the 60s.  Now more than ever it is becoming more important to combat seasonal change, or at least raise awareness of it.  “Spring came about 20 days early in the Eastern and Midwestern United States” (6), and bird populations are struggling thanks to arriving early and finding out their insect food isn’t there.  All of these problems have “affected 82 percent of the biological processes that underpin all life” (11).  These issues highlighted emphasize the importance of realizing what is wrong with the planet, and how we need to pay more attention in order to fix these problems.

                Our role on this earth when it comes to the environment is to not just be aware of the changes we face.  Instead, we play an essential role in being the ones to change or reverse the issues at hand.  More research and the work of scientists have only revealed the problems at hand, and the next step is to create fixes to these problems.  All together, the idea of fixing our planet better the world for the future.  Though it won’t be our future that we’re working for, instead it is the future generations that have no control over what happens today.