Climate Change in the Adirondacks
The Path to Sustainability
Published on 15. June 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
200 pages
978-0-8014-7651-8 (ISBN)
Description
Although global in scale, the impact of climate change will be felt at the local level. Refocusing our attention away from the ice shelves disintegrating in the Antarctic, the flooding of Pacific islands, and carbon inventories measured in billions of tons, Jerry Jenkins turns to changes that are already occurring much closer to home, changes that threaten to transform one of America's great wildernesses, the Adirondack region, into a damaged and unfamiliar landscape.
With the aid of comprehensive color illustrations, graphs, charts, and maps, Jenkins demonstrates the fundamental reality of climate change on a local level and presents his analysis and discussion of the available data for the Adirondacks. The region's culture, biology, and economy are already shifting rapidly: boreal species such as the spruce grouse are in decline, pests such as the mountain pine beetle and black-legged tick are moving in, and ski areas are suffering from lack of snow. Jenkins goes on to deliver a critical message: changes in personal energy consumption can fundamentally alter the present trajectory of global warming. Climate Change in the Adirondacks provides a road map for how individuals and communities whether inside the Blue Line or beyond can reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and lead the way toward a more responsible future.
With the aid of comprehensive color illustrations, graphs, charts, and maps, Jenkins demonstrates the fundamental reality of climate change on a local level and presents his analysis and discussion of the available data for the Adirondacks. The region's culture, biology, and economy are already shifting rapidly: boreal species such as the spruce grouse are in decline, pests such as the mountain pine beetle and black-legged tick are moving in, and ski areas are suffering from lack of snow. Jenkins goes on to deliver a critical message: changes in personal energy consumption can fundamentally alter the present trajectory of global warming. Climate Change in the Adirondacks provides a road map for how individuals and communities whether inside the Blue Line or beyond can reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and lead the way toward a more responsible future.
Reviews / Votes
The book is an extensive gathering of data on local climate change problems, and as importantly, what Jenkins calls 'An Adirondack Strategy' that includes suggestions for moving from fossil fuels (coal and oil) to renewable energy (sun and wind). What makes this book so valuable is that Jenkins has crafted a readable and useful reference developed with local Adirondack conditions in mind: our excessive automobile and home energy use; the increasing loss of ice and snow cover and winter recreation businesses and facilities; the northern movement of the boreal forest and invasive species from the south; the loss of northern climate cultural traditions.- John Warren (Adirondack Almanack) This fantastic book is probably the most important, accessible book ever written on climate change, realistic CO2 abatement, and community sustainability in a carbon-neutral (or as close as we can get) world. Unassumingly authoritative, it can be read and appreciated by audiences from high schoolers to professional scientists to energy scholars. Using the Adirondacks as a microcosm, Jenkins examines its economy, ecology, population behaviors, carbon footprint, energy usage and distribution, community structure, infrastructure, and industry to determine how and if the region could realistically reach carbon neutrality and energy sustainability in the next 20 years. Figures are clear and simply rendered. Caveats, assumptions, and uncertainties are clearly identified but not allowed to overwhelm the presentation. The result is a comprehensive, thoughtful analysis resulting in a realistic, sustainable community plan that could work in the present political and economic climate.... Summing up: Essential.
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More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Publishing group
Cornell University Press
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 278 mm
Width: 220 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
839 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8014-7651-8 (9780801476518)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Jerry Jenkins is a researcher for the Wildlife Conservation Society and author of Acid Rain in the Adirondacks: An Environmental History, also from Cornell, and The Adirondack Atlas: A Geographic Portrait of the Adirondack Park. Bill McKibben is the author of books including The End of Nature.