Frog Blog

Nature-Based and Natural Solutions

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

Earth Day 2024 is on April 22. To quote Gaylord Nelson, widely credited for being the catalyst for the first Earth Day in 1970, “Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures”.

As you contemplate what you can do on Earth Day 1970 which has become the largest secular day of protest in the world, here are some numbers.

One imperative is habitat connectivity. As the global climate changes, habitat is shifting and wildlife is on the move. Our fragmented conversion of land to suit our needs has created barriers to this movement. Establishing safe corridors through land management and planning can increase the probability that myriad species will be better able to adapt.

“Thoughtful, strategic conservation and restoration approaches need to consider the true diversity of needs, uses, and functions, of landscapes”

Heidi Roop

We all must consider how we interact with the landscape, and educate ourselves how that landscape will change in the coming years. For those of us who live in suburban areas, our options may be only to provide a landscape for native plants, birds, and pollinators.

We can support the organizations that are working for conservation and restoration, become a voice in your local and state government for habitat protection, and direct your investments for climate and conservation friendly financial impact.

And have a thoughtful Earth Day. Check out The 2024 Earth Day Action Toolkit.

“The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”

Gaylord Nelson

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 71: Go Green with Your Infrastructure

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

Nature-Based and Natural Solutions

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

We burn fossil fuels and emit carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere. The majority of it stays there, and some is absorbed on land and in water. The carbon dioxide that is absorbed from the atmosphere into the ocean is called blue carbon. This is the climate term of the day, and it is important, especially what happens with carbon where the oceans meet the land.

Most of this blue carbon is dissolved directly into the ocean. From there it finds it way into sediments, dissolved molecules, marine life, and coastal vegetation and soils. It is the coastal blue carbon that has a big impact, because of how humans are changing how the oceans interact along coastlines.

It is difficult to estimate the length of all the coastlines on Earth. In fact, there is an interesting mathematical treatment called the coastline paradox which seems to preclude ever knowing for sure. Depending on what grows there – mangroves, marsh vegetation, or seagrass – these areas where ocean and land meet have more potential for storing carbon than inland areas. Healthy coastal wetlands are an important carbon sink for blue carbon and a critical part of a climate change mitigation strategy.

The total blue carbon cycle is complex. You can learn more about it here:

• Understanding blue carbon at NOAA Climate.gov
• Blue carbon page at NOAA National Ocean Service
• Coastal blue carbon at NOAA Sea Grant
• Protecting blue-carbon habitats from NOAA Fisheries

There is a built-in danger if these coastal areas are not preserved and managed, as they can become net emitters of greenhouse gases through decomposition processes. The simple act of building a road or dike that disconnects the coastal wetlands from the ocean may disrupt the natural processes needed for carbon storage. These human-caused disruptions of coastal wetlands is estimated to result in up to 450 million tons of CO₂ being released every year.

The IPCC recognized in 2014 the importance of coastal wetlands, in climate change mitigation and generated guidelines for incorporating coastal blue carbon into planning for and managing greenhouse gas mitigation. These are sensitive, dynamic biodiverse environments that are important to humans in so many ways, highlighted in a report by the Coastal Wetlands in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories from the International Partnership for Blue Carbon.

The IPCC urges restoration of these areas to reestablish their function as a carbon sink, which could be upwards of 0.5 percent of annual emission. In addition to promoting biodiversity, the flood mitigation power of well-managed coastal can become a key defensive strategy for increased flooding from rising seas and more substantial tidal surges during hurricanes amplified by a warming climate.

We don’t all live in a coastal community. If you do, get involved. I am confident you will find kindred spirits driven to restore the natural beauty and biodiversity of your local coastal wetlands. And if in the process we reestablish a natural cycle to maximize the storage of blue carbon, we all win.

No matter where you live, you can contribute to the effort of others like The Nature Conservancy which “is a global conservation organization dedicated to conserving the lands and waters on which all life depends”. You can use their Blue Carbon Explorer site to explore the impact of restoration projects in an area you care about.

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 70: Conserve, Restore and Reconnect Land

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

Nature-Based and Natural Solutions

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

“Mars will come to fear my botany powers”, so says Astronaut Mark Watney in Andy Weir’s novel, The Martian. Stranded on Mars, a lone astronaut must transform a lifeless collection of mineral matter into the rich soil that will yield the calories he needs to survive long enough to be rescued. From that mineral mixture that is Mars dirt he crafts a rich soil by adding air, water, and the microbes from his poop.

If you are “the greatest botanist on Mars”, amateur gardener or just appreciate nature, you know healthy soil when you see it. Rich and a dark color. Moist and a loose texture. Those of us living on clay soil know the challenge to establishing the thriving blend of organic matter, clay and sand that has a consistency that drains well but holds moisture.

Soil and the plants that grow are the essence of the natural cycles we depend on for a stable environment and thriving agricultural industry. They are, importantly, a significant carbon sink, absorbing about 20 percent of the greenhouse gases we emit.

But land use practices including deforestation and industrial agriculture has resulted in the loss of as much as 79% of the organic carbon content, which has been released into the atmosphere. A critical component of climate change mitigation is restoring organic matter to our soils, restoring their tremendous potential as a carbon sink .

The Nature Conservancy has compiled a roadmap for soil health. In addition to tackling climate change, establishing thriving soils provides for sustainable food production, protects habitat and enhances biodiversity. You can find out more in the Soil at the Nature Conservancy report.

Agricultural practices are shifting to include the use of cover crops and reducing tillage to suppress soil erosion, limiting compaction, and switching land to forage and biomass. You can learn a great deal from your local farmers and your local extension service. You can start there by getting your soil tested and seeking recommendations for improving your own local environment.

In the wider community, seek out the local farmers that are embracing climate friendly practices and visit them at your local farmer’s market. Talk to your local officials, especially in the parks department and find you how you can support them locally.

Even if you don’t know any farmers and live in an apartment with flower boxes on the balcony, reaching out to your local officials and being a loud voice promoting healthy soil and biodiversity is a powerful action we help the effort restore the soil-based carbon sinks we desperately need to tackle a changing climate.

“Centuries of research and direct experience show that soil is intrinsically connected to the wellbeing of people and the environment”.

The Nature Conservancy

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 69: Support Coastal Wetlands Conservation

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

Nature-Based and Natural Solutions

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

Carbon credits. Carbon offsets. What are we talking about and more importantly what do we need to know about each to make informed decisions on how to work them into our personal climate mitigation and adaptation plan?

Carbon offsets are a trading scheme for governments, individuals, or businesses to “offset” their emissions by investing in efforts to reduce, avoid, or remove emissions somewhere else. With the investment comes carbon credits that monetize the climate benefits of the transaction. Carbon credits, have a value and thus are a tradeable commodity. One carbon credit is equivalent to the reduction, avoidance or removal of one tonne of carbon dioxide or its carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e).

What a seductive concept. Kind of like mortgage backed securities were round about 2008. I may seem skeptical. But then again I listened when Margot Robbie explained it to me in The Big Short:

The key to this is that climate change action has to be real, and not the creation of accountants. We need reforestation and afforestation projects on a massive scale, because we are certain of the impact of forests to capture carbon dioxide. So if a carbon credit is actually backed bye the emission reduction or removal of one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (or CO2e), then they have value.

The actual offset can be verified by third parties using labels like “Verified” or “Certified” Emission Reduction. In an interesting development, the gold standard for offsets is Gold Standard for the Global Goals purports to bring “high-level integrity and credibility to the most important global goal of our time: climate security and sustainable development”.

Implementing carbon credits equitably is not a given. The climate justice campaigns of groups like Oxfam International seek to protect the poorest, those “who did the least to cause the crisis” but face not only increasing health and security impacts of a changing climate. Add to that the blowback as rich individuals and corporations attempt to offset real climate action with carbon credits.

“We need to manage land in ways that tackle climate change and hunger together and strengthen the rights and resilience of communities”

Oxfam International 2021

Oxfam has analyzed the real impact of converting land to forests to satisfy the global desire for this economic benefit will require an area equal to all of our current farmland. Implementing this on such a massive scale will surely impact low- and middle- impact countries the hardest with the potential for increase food insecurity, drought, and the likely need for displacement.

Not as likely to be an issue in our rich country. But you will encounter carbon offsets, possibly when you buy a ticket for your next flight. As of today you can Cool Effect you can buy an offset of the 0.78 tonnes of CO2e for $12.86. With one-click shopping you can buy your offset and fly guilt-free. All you have to do is trust that Cool Effect is going to take care of the carbon dioxide that will definitely be emitted during your flight.

The individual choices you make about optimizing your air travel and other actions that may have an impact on the climate should be taken with care, thought, and research. The same for carbon offsets and credits, where in addition to research the program that may fit your values, you should look for valid third-party certification and even take the next step of verifying that project actually exists.

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 68: Make Your Soil Healthy

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

Nature-Based and Natural Solutions

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

Forests are our premier carbon sinks, in that they absorb and store more carbon dioxide than they produce. Once turned into wood, the carbon produced by photosynthesis remains with the tree until it decomposes or is burned in a fire.

“In the US, forest have stored about 14 percent of the country’s CO₂ emissions!”

Managing forests to optimize their role as a carbon sink is a key part of our mitigation strategy aimed at being net zero as soon as we can. Heidi points out that perhaps with purposeful management, the Earth can support about 25 percent more land covered with trees than we have now.

We will have to plan 500 billion new trees and manage them to take full advantage of the available land. If we do, we would create a sink for 25 percent of current atmospheric carbon which represents 20 years of human-caused emission.

Groups are organizing the effort, for instance with The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees program. And consistent with all climate action, “a billion begins with one”

To have a significant impact

Will planting trees “solve climate change”? No. By now we know that no one action will “solve climate change”. But we know that trees are effective carbon sinks. But planting trees to address climate change effectively requires planning and management. Planting trees as a climate action is important enough that we will explore the approach in more depth in upcoming posts.

“Sadly, it’s much easier to create a desert than a forest”

James Lovelock

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 67: Carefully Consider Carbon Offsets

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

Nature-Based and Natural Solutions

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

Today is carbon-based acronym day on The Frog Blog! On Day 65 we explored CDR or carbon dioxide removal. CDR is one the strategies in the general approach called CCUS, which stands for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage.

The CC or carbon capture part of CCUS includes DAC – direct air capture of carbon dioxide from the air, and point source capture where CO₂ is removed as it is produced, say at a natural gas power plant. Once you capture it you can utilize it to make other chemicals or you can store it, thus the US in CCUS. Carbon capture, utilization and storage.

But wait, there’s more. Once CCUS process is referred to as BECCS or Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage. It is a complex but important approach with the potential for negative emissions of carbon dioxide. At it’s most hopeful expression, natural materials that are planted and grown to capture CO₂ are burned to generate electricity or heat and the subsequent carbon dioxide is captured and stored in the process.

In short “bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) involves any energy pathway where CO₂is captured from a biogenic source and permanently stored”. Or pull CO₂ out of the air by growing your fuel, burn it for useful energy production, and store the resulting emissions. Seems perfect!

The fuel to be grown is collectively called biomass. This is a renewable resource (because it can be regrown) that includes trees, woody debris, algae, corn, grasses and food waste etc. Biomass can be burned for energy, converted directly fuels like ethanol and other chemical intermediates. If you have a flexible fuel vehicle, and fill up with gasoline blended with ethanol (i.e., E85), you may think you are participating in the BECCS supply chain (assuming that the ethanol is sourced from corn, a likely prospect in the US).

The ethanol-agricultural complex in the US is a controversial as subsidized ethanol production is accompanied by intensive water use, pollution from fertilizers, and significant GHG emissions of fossil fuel based agriculture practices.

Still, the US Department of Energy published a life cycle analysis report on the use of ethanol in transportation fuels which concluded that “displacement of petroleum gasoline by corn ethanol in the transportation fuel market resulted in a total GHG emission reduction benefit of 544 MMT CO2e during the period 2005 to 2019”. This was mainly mainly a result of heavy government subsidies that were translated by the industry into optimized corn yields from improved agricultural practice.

But ethanol production for transportation is not truly a BECCS process because there is no capture of the resulting carbon emission. If the process is designed and implemented with capture and storage, BECCS holds the promise of being carbon negative because some portion of the atmospheric carbon dioxide stored in the plant is not released back to the atmosphere in the production of energy.

Princeton provided a clear overview of the process and prospects of BECCS in climate change mitigation.

The IPCC and IEA are concerned about the potential negative environment impacts and challenges in deploying BECCS processes at a scale to make a difference. The IPCC assumes that the approach will evolve to be a critical process for emissions reductions, but points out potential “adverse side effects” related to land-use, crop diversity, food insecurity, and stresses on ecosystems.

The US Department of Energy is hopeful about and actively promoting the use of biofuels from sources like algae as solutions to hard-to-decarbonize industries like aviation and commercial shipping. Successful implementation will require a sustained and focused research and development effort. The IEA included an analysis of biofuels in their 2021 outlook, which highlighted the challenges.

I do not have a strong individual action to offer here except encouragement in building awareness and understanding of the complexities of the technology solutions being considered for climate change mitigation.

My stance is “hopeful skepticism” at the promotion of a technology to “solve climate change”. This can lead one to understand the potential beneficial role of approaches like BECCS, and even to purposefully supporting their development, “while not becoming overly reliant on hard-to-scale or yet-to-be proven technologies and systems”.

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 66: Help Keep Forests Healthy and Intact

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

Nature-Based and Natural Solutions

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

Humans have been pumping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere since the early 1800s. Fossil carbon dioxide is the main driver of global warming because it is a potent greenhouse gas and is very long-lived in the atmosphere once produced. We have an exhaustive record since we started of how carbon dioxide was produced (sources) and where it went (sinks).

When we started burning fossil fuels with purpose in the mid 1800s, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 286 ppm. On February 26, 2024 it was 426 ppm. Given that 1 ppm represents about 7.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, humans burnt enough fossil fuels that even with the ocean and land absorbing a considerable amount, 1092 gigatonnes has ended up in the atmosphere. This massive amount of carbon dioxide pollution disrupts the heat cycle in the atmosphere, trapping it. What we call the greenhouse effect.

It is important to note that the Earth does not care that we are screwing with its natural thermostat. What we must do is not about saving the Earth, rather it is about saving the humans that live on the Earth.

If we do nothing or too little, the temperature will rise to the point where the humans will be killed off or reduced to irrelevant numbers. At that point, new fossil carbon emissions will cease by definition. The Earth will then be free to start the many many million year process of removing all that anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It is likely that the the concentration of carbon dioxide will slowly sink until it is below 300 ppm, where on geological timescales the Earth seems to like it.

We don’t have that much time. If we want humans to live on this planet, we have to get to net zero emissions by the end of the century.

The IPCC data shows that achieving the aggressive global targets of net zero greenhouse gas emissions that limit global temperature rise to 2°C or lower by 2100 will first require immediate and deep reductions in those emissions. This will require “rapid and profound decarbonization of the energy supply”.

But it is not enough. The IPCC acknowledges that we are now at a point where limiting the global temperature will also require a global reduction in fossil carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. This process is referred to as carbon dioxide reduction or CDR, which refers to “deliberate technologies, practices, and approaches that remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere”.

Some of the processes covered under CDR include reforestation, afforestation (planting forests where there were none before) and land management, sequestration on land, biochar and bioenergy, and direct air carbon capture and storage technology.

It is this direct air capture (or DAC) technology that is tempting to nominate as the “silver bullet” to mitigate carbon capture. The technology has been investigated and deployed at small scale over decades and is technically sound. The US Department of Energy is pushing hard on technology development and deployment as part of the Carbon Negative Earth Shot. But as of 2021 only 19 DAC systems were in operation at some scale. The deployment of systems with enough capacity to make a difference is a daunting prospect.

While the US DOE is seriously pushing and funding carbon removal technology, fossil fuel companies are using “carbon capture” as a big part of their defensive rebranding and offensive greenwashing campaigns. They want to “use carbon capture to enable fossil fuel facilities to keep operating – and polluting – while claiming to be part of the climate solution”, as quoted here.

As ever, ExxonMobil is the master in carbon capture disinformation.

For your part, you might be tempted, pushed, or encouraged to consider purchasing carbon offsets as part of balancing your person climate spreadsheet. Or maybe a company you are investigating touts the carbon offsets they are using as part of their overall emissions management strategy. Many of these carbon offset programs have CDR as a main strategy, claiming to plant trees or other approaches.

Research before you commit and then verify that the projects your offsets claim to be based on actually exist. Decarbonization, carbon capture, carbon dioxide reduction, carbon offsets… the landscape is evolving, complex and subject to disinformation and abuse. This is a critical area in which to become deeply educated and savvy in decision making.

The IPCC is the data driven source for the details on the urgent actions we have to take right now to be net zero in carbon emissions in time to give our grandchildren a chance at a livable planet. To the IPCC, “the deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to counterbalance hard-to-abate residual emissions is unavoidable if net zero CO₂ or GHG emissions are to be achieved”. So we should take it seriously.

Analysis: What the new IPCC report says about how to limit warming

I have a desire to believe the greenwashing and disinformation from the fossil fuel industry about whatever they think “carbon capture” is. Of all industries, they have the proven capability to create the massive industrial infrastructure needed for direct air capture of carbon dioxide that is deployable at a scale for meaningful impact. We need them to commit to helping to address the calamity that they are largely responsible for unleashing.

Alas I am not that naïve.

“Victory will be achieved when average citizens ‘understand’
(recognize) uncertainties in climate science”

Internal memo by the American Petroleum Institute, 1998

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 65: Learn About Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Storage

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

Actions Around the Home

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

Calculate your carbon footprint. Or better yet. Don’t. Heidi’s book is predicated on the idea that we should resist the forces conspiring to shift the “responsibility and blame to solve the climate crisis” to you and me as individuals. As Heidi points out, mitigating the worst of the changing climate requires massive systemic changes that we cannot implement as individuals such as:

• revising building codes and design standards
• adopting utility-scale renewable energy, storage, and grid modernization
• reducing the supply chain (Scope 3) emissions of corporations

“… throughout this book, individual actions are supplemented by clear calls for collective action”

Heidi Roop

By all means, calculate your personal or household carbon footprint. It is a useful exercise that may help you discover easy actions to take to reduce emissions. The EPA’s Carbon Footprint Calculator is available for your use. It focuses on home energy, transportation and waste, and provides a rough estimate of your carbon footprint based on US averages. Be sure to check the assumptions that form the basis for the calculation.

For a committed individual, a carbon footprint calculation cannot begin to capture the totality of your actions. Take the sterile spreadsheet equation of how you use energy and add to it your influence among your friends and family and the impact you make in your community. Figure in your efforts to reach your colleagues at work, the creativity you tap into being a voice for change, and the leadership you show in connecting with your elected officials. And then add the unseen secondary impact as those you reach make their voices heard.

“The world needs each and every one of us to bring our strengths, creativity, and ideas to this work”

Heidi Roop

All of this constitutes your “full and balanced portfolio of climate work”. And if you choose to amplify any part of that portfolio, the biggest impact is “advocating for and supporting the systems-based change we know is required to move us toward a better, brighter future”.

Ways to take action on the bigger issues from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 64: Understand the Prospects of Carbon Renewal

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

Actions Around the Home

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

Each of us produce 5 pounds of waste everyday on average. Plastic waste is a big part of that with 36 million tons produced of which 75 percent went to the landfill. Because a large percentage of us don’t have access to a recycling stream, only about 10 percent of the plastic waste is recycled.

And let’s not forget that plastic recycling is a lie. Virgin plastic is so much easier to make stuff out of. The fossil-fuel industry would like to keep taking fossil carbon from underground and make it into plastic and sell it to consumers. They actively oppose plastic bans. It won’t stop anytime soon, even with the increasing accumulation of plastic pollution and the worsening health and climate impacts of microplastics.

Let’s leave the plastic for a moment. First reduce the amount of waste you generate. And at the same time, be thoughtful about what do with your food scraps and yard waste. Taken together, these two sources of organic material make up close to one-third of the waste you produce. You can have a big impact on the climate by keeping it out of the landfill and effectively composting it.

There is some good news in recycling, mostly what what we do with paper and cardboard waste which makes up about 23 percent of what we throw away. The industry and demand for recycled paper and cardboard materials is well-established, accounting for 67 percent of all the recycling in 2018. Recycling glass and aluminum seems to make sense to us as well and we are used to taking action to keep glass and aluminum containers circulating in the economy.

It really is the decisions that we have to make about plastic that are confusing. You might just give up and wishcycle. Think back to the last time you paused in front of a recycling bin with a container or product in your hand and wondered if it was actually recyclable. If you just went ahead you throw it in the bin anyway in hopes for the best, you were a wishcycler.

The next time that happens, take a moment and ask yourself what is the probability that you are making the next step in the supply chain more difficult. Let’s make the plastic recycling industry more attractive and slightly more profitable. If in doubt, i is probably better to throw that plastic container in the trash bin instead.

“New waste fee structures, redeemable deposits, advances in processing, reduction in packaging use, and improved industry regulation are all likely to help accelerate both residential and commercial recycling”

Heidi Roop

The good news is that you can take action with impact by reducing and reusing what you buy and educating yourself on how to be a more informed recycler. There is an app for that! If you are fortunate to have curbside pickup of your recyclables, think about (figuratively) following the truck and find out what happens to your waste next. It will be enlightening. Recycling centers are surprisingly sophisticated. With that understanding, you can become and advocate for broader access to and improved processes for recycling.

If you want take one, effective action keep single use plastic bags out of your recycling bin. They are ruining recycling.

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 63: Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

Actions Around the Home

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

If you are a gardener you know the climate is changing. The US Department of Agriculture knows it, and in response have highlighted the changing climate by revising the plant hardiness zones, which are based on average annual minimum temperatures in a region. You can explore your region in the interactive map.

My area has been revised from the Zone 4b (-25 to -20°F) in 2012 to Zone 5a (-20 to -15°F) today. As the world warms, the temperature is driving the changes in the types of plants that will thrive in your gardens. You may need to adapt and say goodbye to some of your favorites. While the changes might open up new opportunities for plant diversity, invasive species are taking hold in new areas.

When we first moved here in the early 90s, I wanted to plant boxwoods which are a fragrant memory from my time in Maryland and Virginia. We were told they would not grow here. Fast forward to a couple of years ago and our three boxwood shrubs are thriving in our front garden. Thank you climate change!

It is the trees that may suffer the most profound changes. A study by the USDA suggests that 70 percent of tree species studied are showing tree range migration. Do you like spruce and firs? They may disappear into the north. Economically important trees like sugar maples may be gone as well. Already under stress with drought and pests, whole forests may be lost.

“Although people’s worries about global climate change most often focus on things like summer heat, drought, flooding, rising sea levels, and polar bears, there’s another big worry that isn’t so well publicized – the effects of all these changes on plants, particularly trees. People and animals can walk, run, swim, or fly to a more suitable habitat, but trees can’t escape the heat.”

Dennis May, Program Director,
Forest Inventory and Analysis, St. Paul

This is nature responding to humans changing the planet. The study of the timing and cycles in the natural world is called phenology. This is an exciting and now critical area of study, data collection, and analysis that support natural resource management.

This warm winter has been weird in the upper Midwest. Has spring already started? What do you use as an indicator? In warm weather the temptation is to get out and do yardwork and prep gardens. When do you do that this year?

The USA National Phenology Network is tracking spring and you can help! They would like for you to become an observer. You can sign up for Nature’s Notebook, where you choose a location and the plants and/or animals you wish to observe, and then make weekly observations to record seasonal changes. You can be a solo observer or look for a local community to join.

And there are specific campaigns if you are passionate about certain plants or animals. You can participate in regional campaigns to answer specific questions and have a first glimpse at what is really going on. My favorite is Nectar Collectors. There are many others like Pollen Trackers, Desert Refuge, Flowers for Bats, and Mayfly Watch.

And as for your own lawn and gardens, please recognize that gasoline powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers are the dirtiest tools in the shed. Look closely. Is there a catalytic converter on the exhaust? Not likely. Not only are you subjecting yourself, family, and neighborhood to the health impacts of NOx and fine particulate pollution, but they are noisy! And tough on the climate: the unconstrained use of fossil fuel powered lawn equipment is estimated to have emitted more than 30 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2020.

So go electric. Model the action and become an advocate. Check in on your local parks department and other yard services providers and convince them to make the switch. And consider petitioning your elected officials to enact replacement incentives or phased ban on the use of the equipment. California is leading the way, with some locations requiring this type of equipment to be zero emission this year.

And while you are doing all that, join the new movement to Make America Rake Again! Or better yet enthusiastically embraced the approach of Leave the Leaves! Just leave all of it and let it be what it wants to be – habitat for invertebrates and pollinators over winter. And model the behavior for your neighborhood by proudly declaring your intention and displaying a sign like the one available from The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 62: Reduce Waste and Recycle

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com