many researchers repeat again and again that the changes are consis-
tent with such a warming. Even cautious, middle-of-the-road climate
scientist Philip Mote of the University of Washington wants to “under-
score” that waiting for proof before taking concrete steps to combat cli-
mate change “would not be a prudent course.”
Hikers have long enjoyed picnicking in heather meadows at
Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. But as tem-
peratures rise (the 1990s were warmer than the 1980s, and the 1980s
warmer than the 1970s, says Mote), trees are filling in the park’s sub-
alpine meadows. The trees are taking advantage of a longer growing
season—8 to 10 weeks, compared to 6 to 8, says David Peterson, a
USGS researcher and forest ecology professor at the University of
Washington.
“Why do people go to Paradise? To see the flowers,” Peterson says.
“And the flowers are starting to disappear.”
Spring is arriving earlier as temperatures rise.
Big clusters of light purple lilacs now begin to bud and release
their heady, sweet fragrance on average 8 days earlier than they did
back in the 1960s. That is an advance of about 2 days per decade, notes
a 2001 study published in in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological
Society. Honeysuckle vines heavy with the tiny thin-tubed flowers of
yellow, red, cream, or purple now begin to bud and give off their sweet,
almost cloying scent about 10 days earlier.
Lilac fans noticed as early as 1984 that their favorite flower was
blooming earlier than normal in the American West and Northeast.
Their discovery sparked interest from scientists such as Daniel R.
Cayan, lead author of the American Meteorological Society study and
director of the climate research division of the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in La Jolla, California. He soon found that the West was
not alone in ushering in an earlier spring. European botanical gardens
in the past few decades have noticed flowers are beginning to bloom 6
days earlier and the growing season has extended by 1 to 2 weeks.
Quaking aspen trees in the Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta, now
bud 8 days earlier than in the 1930s. So do the shrubby thickets of
choke cherry and small deciduous serviceberry.
144 Sally Deneen