I know there
is a difference between weather and climate.
Maine has been in a freak weather pattern for the month of June. We have had only seven days this month
without rain – seven dry days.
This is
unprecedented, and only the future will be able to determine if this is a
changing weather pattern due to climate change.
However,
being a long-time resident of Maine I can declare through my observations that
I am witnessing the result of climate change by the encroachment of invasive
species.
Ticks are
now an epidemic in Maine, causing serious illnesses to people. Moose and deer are covered with ticks. Domestic and commercial animals are plagued
with ticks. There were no ticks in
Maine before 1990. I was a survival
instructor and avid hunter and fisherman between the years 1960 and 1985. I regularly slept on the ground and sat on the
ground, as did all of my students in survival training, and never once
witnessed a tick.
47,000 ticks on a moose ( New York Times)
Tagged moose
The water in
the Gulf of Maine is warming and now becoming infested with green crabs that
feed on young lobster and shellfish, affecting the future of fisheries on the
coast. Fisheries are now moving farther
offshore because of the warming.
The
brown-tail moth is now showing up in the coastal regions of Maine killing trees
and carrying poisonous spines that can cause serious rashes similar to poison
ivy.
I spent
eight years in Alaska and witnessed the melting of glaciers, and shore ice in
the far north.
Herbert Glacier Juneau, Alaska
Bears hunted seals on the frozen ice, now they have become a danger to the villages.
The
indications are here but only visible to people old enough to have witnessed the
changes. To
young people, of course, the now is the norm.
Observations
from an Ol’Buzzard
