Measuring Climate Change

For us to know that the climate has changed we need to find records of what the climate was in a place before. Not every area has the distinction of having had it’s local climate recorded by previous generations, but Henry David Thoreau did Concord, Massachusetts that favour by recording his observations of first flowering times from 1852 to 1858.

Boston University based biologist Richard Primack has now decided to set up a comparative study using the data available from Thoreau’s book called Walden. The book has records for more than 300 types of fauna’s flowering in spring. It also speaks of when the ice melts on the Walden Pond, and when migratory birds came back to the local fields and forests.

Since 2004 Primack has begun a study in to the first flowering times in the area, which is nearly 160 years after the original handwritten data was collected. They have been seeking early blooms in areas of human disturbances. While Thoreau found his flowers along railroad tracks, Primack is finding them near parking lots.

Once the data has been studied it is obvious from the science project that many plants are blooming nearly two weeks earlier than they used to. Also the migratory birds arrive at roughly the same time and the ice breaks up earlier than before.