Center County community members assembled at the Schlow Library on Tuesday morning to discuss how climate change is adversely affecting our region, in an event spurred by the National Wildlife Federation’s recently report “Climate Change is Ruining Summer.”
Climate Change is Ruining Summer
by Brandon Vesely
Center County community members assembled at the Schlow Library on Tuesday morning to discuss how climate change is adversely affecting our region, in an event spurred by the National Wildlife Federation’s recently report “Climate Change is Ruining Summer.”
Community leaders and business owners stressed the idea that global warming is already creating visible problems that directly relate to the daily lives of community members, and that our continued inability to confront the issue is unfair and harmful to future generations.
Ed Perry, coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, summarized these fears, suggesting that “the younger generation is going to bear the fruits of our inaction.”
Speakers at the assembly included Kim Tait, a local farm owner, Luke Plowden, a State College High School student, and Helena Kotala, a Penn State student and the Outings Chair for the Moshannon Group within the Sierra Club.
Tait brought up the detrimental effects this spring’s wildly fluctuating temperatures had on crop returns. Specifically, high temperatures in March prompted plants to blossom early, only for April’s unseasonably cold temperatures to freeze and kill the premature fruit buds.
Tait emphasized the destructiveness of this phenomenon by suggesting that some farms will be “lucky to have ten bushels of apples.”
Plowden and Kotala, on the other hand, exposed the ways that global warming impedes their ability to enjoy recreational activities outdoors.
Plowden enjoys camping and fishing, and fears that higher temperatures will prevent future generations from taking part in such activities.
Kotala, an employee at outdoors store that offers kayak rentals, has seen global warming’s negative effects on outdoor recreation first hand.
This summer’s unusually high temperatures nearly dried up many of Central Pennsylvania’s streams, forcing some kayakers to end their boat rentals early, she explained. She also brought up the heat-related issues of dehydration and heat exhaustion.
According to Kotala, “climate change has adverse effects on every aspect of our lives.”
Other issues discussed included considerable damage to Pennsylvania’s once-thriving fishing industry and other important components of the local economy, damage to Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry, declining winter snowfall, and increased asthma in children.
The speakers sought to make climate change seem less distant by driving home the idea the global warming is tangibly affecting many aspects of community members’ lives right now.
Cricket Hunter, Executive Director of Interfaith Power and Light, concluded the discussion with an eye-opening account of global-warming’s potential to decimate “American summer” as we know it. She insisted that the outdoor activities that have defined the summer months for pr