Mild Winter Sparks Climate Talks

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Created on Tuesday, 22 March 2016 17:03
Written by Dylan Robichaud

climate changeLyndon-After a very mild winter, people are talking about climate change and global warming now more then ever. An informational session on the state of the climate was held at Lyndon State College, where students, and community members could ask questions.

Assistant Professor Jillian Galford, from the University of Vermont, held the informational session because she says more people need to be educated on the effects of a warming planet.

“Climate change will and is effecting economically important sectors in Vermont, such as agriculture, our water resources, forest, and much more,” Galford says. “Across Vermont we’ve already seen over the last few decades, large increase in temperature and precipitation, particularly big rain events.”

From the increase in tropical systems, such as Hurricane Irene which devastated portions of Vermont in 2011, to the sudden snow melt and heavy rain, which was responsible for the flooding a few weeks ago in Lyndonville, there is no doubt that the weather pattern has been bizarre the past few years.

“I think a lot of local Vermonters, who know the landscape really well, are already aware of these changes that are happening, so seeing someone present data is validating,” she says.

Ben Fuller, a senior at Lyndon State, isn’t taking this topic lightly, as he has researched the data himself and says if we don’t adapt or mitigate now, then we will have problems in the future.

“The climate is most certainly changing, and it is by far one of the most important topics of our generation. Even if we didn’t cause the climate change, it’s something we need to deal with and the sooner the better,” Fuller states.  

Both Fuller and Galford agree that the key to the solution is communication. “We need to communicate with the people most affected, so for example, folks who work for the Agency of Natural Resources are then communicating with land managers, about how to prepare for floods, or helping towns build resiliency plans,” Galford says.

Fuller reiterates the importance of communication by stating, “We need to get the word out there, of course there’s the non believers of climate change, but regardless the fact of the matter is whether it is caused by humans or not, it’s something that we need to talk about so we can find solutions to the problems".        

 

 

CLIMATE CHANGE TALK from NewsLINC on Vimeo.