Global Climate Change: What to Do?

It’s not unusual to feel fearful and anxious over reports of extreme weather events causing catastrophic damage and loss of life in many areas of the United States, Canada, and around the world.

In North America, extreme rainfall events are more common and lead to flooding, severe erosion of fields, road shoulders, and other infrastructure, to name a few of the effects.

Weather patterns are changing, while temperatures are rising in salt and fresh waterbodies. Heat waves and damaging storms are leading to frightening wildfires in many areas of North America and parts of the world where large wildfires were previously unknown.

Storms often cause power outages leading to extreme situations from a lack of air conditioning or heating systems. These situations may be life-threatening issues to people, especially older individuals or those with pre-existing health conditions.

Loss of life includes human life AND other life forms, including forests, underwater ecosystems, birds, insects, and many other creatures. 

Some ways climate change is affecting Connecticut:

• Increased precipitation and more intense storms alternating with drier, hotter periods
• Less snow/more rain in winter
• Longer growing seasons that affect tree crops. Maple syrup production in Connecticut is decreasing because of higher winter temperatures, for example.  
• Change in plant bloom time disturbs life cycles of pollinator insects that depend on flowering plants to bloom at specific times.
• Warmer and longer summers foster the expansion of invasive plants and insects that damage crops and forests, or carry diseases like Lyme Disease.
• Increased algal blooms (cyanobacteria) and other disturbances to pond and lake ecologies.
• Rising sea levels cause degradation of the coastal shoreline and threaten private property.

Individuals cannot fight the weather alone. However, we can take steps to increase our own and our region’s resiliency to many weather-related impacts with the following actions:

• Plant trees along streets to reduce heat-islands and sequester carbon.
• Lower water use and increase pollinators by reducing lawns and planting native perennials, shrubs and trees.
• Grow perennial vegetables to complement your annual vegetable garden.
• Create rain gardens to infiltrate and clean stormwater runoff to protect water resources.
• Create riparian buffers along streams, rivers, ponds and lakes to protect pollutants from entering the waterbodies.

For more information or assistance on these and other mitigation practices, visit our website at www.nwcd.org or email us at info@nwcd.org. NWCD serves 34 towns in northwest CT