杏吧原创

Walden Pond: a warning to us all (Image: Peter Dennen/Aurora Photos)

A hymn to citizen science, Walden Warming by Richard Primack seeks the reality of climate change in the effects that ordinary people have recorded

IN 2001, at the age of 52, Richard Primack packed the records of 21 years of research on tropical rainforests into a filing cabinet.

Despite a cool reception from his colleagues at Boston University, the professor of biology had decided to leave that research behind, and see what he could do to make the threat of climate change more tangible. He wanted to find evidence of warming that would be so 鈥渦p close and personal鈥� that people could not remain unconcerned by change that is too slow for most of us to feel.

Primack had a eureka moment early on, which explains why he called his book Walden Warming: Climate change comes to Thoreau鈥檚 woods. Henry David Thoreau was the 19th-century author of Walden, which gave an account of the time he spent living close to nature in a cabin near Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts. His writings of those 鈥渄elicious鈥� evenings when 鈥渢he whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore鈥� were to change the American psyche.

Primack was astonished to find that Thoreau also kept a detailed record of the flowering times of more than 300 plants around Walden, gathered over many years of walking for 4 hours a day. Primack was on his way, with a historical baseline from one of the US鈥檚 most revered authors and environmental pioneers.

The book tells the story of Primack鈥檚 struggle to replicate Thoreau and find changes in flowering times, but soon broadens into a hymn to citizen science. Primack finds many others who are not conventional scientists but keep careful records of myriad things, from the times that migratory birds arrive to the date butterflies emerge and ice melts on ponds. It is these extraordinary people who make the book a rich, rewarding read And there is also the inspiring message that anyone with a keen eye for nature can make a difference, with an afterword on how to become a citizen scientist.

聯There is the inspiring message that anyone with a keen eye for nature can make a difference聰

With many shoulders to stand on, signs of local climate change emerge. For example, for every degree Fahrenheit (0.56 掳C) the temperature rises in Massachusetts, plants flower on average 1.7 days earlier 鈥� at least the lucky ones do.

Frighteningly, temperatures have risen around 4掳 Fahrenheit since Thoreau鈥檚 day, and many of the plants he saw have vanished. Analysis suggests plants that can change their flowering time survive, while less adaptable species don鈥檛. The harsh message of climate change is 鈥渁dapt, move or die鈥�. For plants that can鈥檛 adapt or move their range to cooler climes, local extinction is likely. It is a message that may also apply to humans, if we don鈥檛 heed the advice Primack suggests we take from Thoreau: 鈥渓ive simply鈥�.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淐limate up close鈥�