Scientific consensus is erasing doubts about climate change. Last week one of the nation’s preeminent scientific organizations, the National Research Council, released a report saying the earth is definitely warming and that there is more evidence that humans are in large part the cause.
While more and more studies reveal large-scale changes in the earth’s atmosphere, few studies exist that examine the impact of these changes at the regional level in North America.
But at the same time last week when the NRC issued its global outlook, The Nature Conservancy in Vermont and New York released a new report investigating climate change in the Lake Champlain basin. Using data from a 30 year period starting in the mid-1970s, the report looks at the more than 8,000 square miles in Vermont, New York, and Quebec that encompass the Lake Champlain watershed.
Curt Stager is an aquatic ecologist and climate change expert who co-authored the report. Rose Paul is Director of Science and Stewardship for the Vermont chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Julie Mooreis Director of the Clean and Clear Program, the state’s effort to restore water quality in Lake Champlain.
They talk with VPR’s Jane Lindholm about climate change in our region.