Climate Change at Proctor

Nick Ho
APES E Block
02/21/16
Information from Environment Textbook, Class Notes, Internet Research, Interviews on Campus

Evidence of climate change through
melted icecaps (PC: Google Images)

We are currently studying the causes and effects of climate change in our APES class. Evidence of climate change, which is defined as an "array of changes in aspects of Earth's climate," can be found everywhere. These changes include temperature, precipitation, and storm frequency/intensity. Our class was tasked with finding evidence either supporting or disputing climate change on Proctor's campus.

Firstly, how does climate change take place? Factors that affect the rate at which the Sun's energy is received and lost are what affect the process of climate change. These factors can be natural or be direct impacts of humans. For example, an increase in the production of greenhouse gasses (like Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Chlorofluorocarbons) would result in the warming of the earth's atmosphere. This key aspect of climate change is known as global warming, which is an increase in the Earth's average temperature.

My two sources of evidence are photographs of Carr Field and around Carr House and statistics from www.accuweather.com. In taking my pictures around campus, I noticed quite a few puddles and slippery icy patches, especially relative to February of last year, during which the ground was consistently covered with snow. This shows that the temperature in Andover is rising, and that snow is melting.

Melting snow outside of Carr
(PC: Nick Ho)

Ice/Water Pool outside of Mike Henriques' House
(PC: Nick Ho)

Snow/Water off of Carr Field (PC: Nick Ho)

Evidence of Climate Change on Carr Field (PC: Nick Ho)

 In addition to this photographic evidence of climate change, I also found evidence by looking at the
temperature from one year ago relative to the temperature today. I found that the daily temperatures  in February 2015 were simply much lower than the temperatures of this month. The highest temperature in Feb 2015 was 37F, whereas the predicted high of this month is 47F. The lowest temperatures in Andover a year ago were around 1F, whereas this year our coldest day of the month was 12F. This trend shows that this year's  February is significantly warmer than last year. Of course, the difference between the winter of one year and the winter of the following year cannot be classified as a trend. Still, these statistics point to the conclusion that climate change is real and is constantly happening.

Temperatures from February 2015 (Credits: http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/andover-mn/)

Temperatures from February 2016 (Credits: http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/andover-mn/)

Today we see climate change everywhere: not only in our local community of Proctor but also in the world. The warming of our planet, the rise in sea-levels, and the decrease in arctic ice are all examples of global evidence of this phenomenon. Scientists are working to predict the magnitude of this change. Average global temperatures are predicted to increase by 0.5F to 8.6F by the end of the century. Precipitation levels are expected to increase, though in different proportions depending on region. The United States itself is expected to warm by up to 12F by 2100. (http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/science/future.html) For me, it's a little bit frightening to know that this change is happening so rapidly.  A world 12F warmer could potentially be the world that my children and grandchildren grow up in. While the issues have manifested themselves in life on campus, the problem is much larger than just affecting a boarding school in New Hampshire. I was aware of climate change as an issue before writing this photo blog, simply by virtue of the fact that I live through its effects everyday: walking through puddles on my way to class or having trips to Ragged mountain canceled due to lack of snow. However, this only means that I am now more conscious of this rapidly growing issue, and makes me curious about the ways we as a community can begin to contribute to a solution.