The Mormon fritillary butterfly for one, is completely dependent on the cold to support the species' population. As the days of winter decrease, however, the population of this delicate butterfly has begun to dwindle. Another insect, the deer tick, while having been no worry to dogs and humans in past winters, now seem to have abandoned its typical winter resting habit, and people are finding these pests apparent much earlier in the year.
From solardarkroom.com |
The tick article, written by Karen Ann Cullotta, does an even poorer job of displaying the human impact part of the story, saying absolutely nothing about why the weather is so warm this early in the year, and how human beings have contributed greatly to that. The story focuses solely on how pesky these ticks are, and how they seem to be affecting people and animals all year round, while in the past they were only present in the spring through fall seasons.
From National Geographic |
While it seems that these stories were not intended to give people an understanding of what global warming and global climate change are and mean, I think that these topics are critical to each story's focus, and their lack of mention is an injustice to the reader. Both pieces are about changes in our environment, but neither takes the time to explain why these changes are occurring. Why is the beautiful Mormon fritillary butterfly population starting to dwindle? We are told that it is because snow is melting earlier in the year, but why is that? Why are people's dogs being infected with Lyme Disease in the middle of March, long before ticks are supposed to be an issue? We are told it is because winters are getting shorter, but why is that? These articles are interesting, and they get across the problems involving these two species, but neither really goes into why these changes are occurring, and what can be done to deal with them.
Both pieces are well-written and use good sources, but in my opinion they are each missing information that is both vital to the story and also deserved by the reader.
Read these articles at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/us/a-mild-winter-means-a-longer-tick-season.html?ref=animals#
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/a-spring-sprung-too-soon-is-death-blow-to-butterfly/?scp=6&sq=environment&st=cse
Could it be that this warm winter/spring is more due to natural variation than to climate change? Climate change is more subtle and creeping, as I understand it.
ReplyDelete