Climate change in daily life?

One of my favorite debates when it comes to talking about the environment at the bar is the difference between weather and climate. A hot 100 degree day in San Francisco would be erratic weather, not necessarily indicative of a larger, deeper change in the climate of the city. Climate is a description of the prevailing weather conditions over a long period of time. Weather is whatever is happening at a given moment. When an alarmist person or article points to a single hot summer or run of storms as an example of climate change, it's easy to point back and say that person doesn't know what he/she is talking about.

Or maybe they do.

This week National Geographic reported on a study that relayed some startling news about the bloom timing of spring plants.

Using records of plant bloom times that date back to literary icons Henry David Thoreau in Massachusetts and Aldo Leopold in Wisconsin, scientists found that 2010 and 2012 had plants produce flowers at an earlier point than any other time in recorded history. Specifically, they found that plants are flowering just over four days earlier than they were when Leopold and Thoreau started keeping track.

The scientists are convinced that this is because of global warming, which makes sense. Plants bloom in response to changes in temperature. If the temperature is warmer sooner, the plants will blossom in turn. For now, though, scientists say that the plants are keeping up and doing fine, though they are uncertain if that will continue should temperatures go even higher.

Two of the last three years having the two earliest bloom times in recorded history does certainly seem to indicate a trend more than stand as an aberration. I wonder what it will take for all of us to stand up and take notice?

Image courtesy of Thai Jasmine via flickr