In a stark and largely unreported speech at Georgetown University this week, President Barack Obama laid out in the clearest language of any recent American leader the threat that a changing climate poses to our country and planet.
“I don’t have much patience for anyone who denies that this challenge is real,” he said. “Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it’s not going to protect you from the coming storm. And ultimately we will be judged as a people and a society and as a country on where we go from here.”
Does this topic belong in a paper like ours, one determined to be “relentlessly local,” to quote an editorial we wrote earlier this year? We’ve asked that question as we’ve thought about how to do a better job of reporting on the “natural” Harvard that residents say they treasure. Our answer is, “Yes, it does.”
Here’s why. Our healthy pond, bountiful aquifers, abundant conservation land, forested trails, well-tended farms and orchards are all features that make Harvard a special place. But their future, in a warmer environment, is not guaranteed. If, as scientists tell us, our climate is changing, these will change as well. You can’t report on one without reporting on the other. Dead spruce trees and fires in Colorado and floods in Bangladesh can seem far away, yet we are not immune to other effects unique to our region.
The signs are all around us—some subtle, like changing bird populations, others less so, like increases in extreme weather events. Some may ultimately require a response from our town, state, and regional governments, leading to new policies, regulations, and, potentially, costs.
As citizens, we seem to be behind the curve. In its annual survey of attitudes toward the subject, Gallup found that among a sample of adults living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, 54 percent believe the climate is changing, an increase from the 51 percent reported a year ago. That percentage is far below the percentage of scientists who have written on the subject and say the phenomenon is real and man-made; that number is 97 percent, according to a recent review of scientific literature.
To help bridge the gap, we’re trying something new in this issue. In a story by Sydney Blackwell, we take note of the heavy rainfall that the town experienced in June and its impact on our community. It’s been unusual, but is it a sign of climate change? Rather than leave that question hanging out there, we’ve decided to go one step further with a dive into the data and a review of the science that may offer some answers. We’re doing that by introducing a science column, this one written by Harvard resident and engineer Steve Matson, who has been teaching related subjects to Tufts undergrad and grad students for the past several years. In future issues, when the occasion is right, we’ll draw on Steve’s expertise and that of other authorities living in Harvard to supplement our reporting on our local environment.
“Push back on misinformation. Speak up for the facts,” Obama said in his speech this week. Well, OK then. Let’s give that a try. We hope you’ll write to tell us what you think.
