The debate is less about whether the climate is capable of great change – the scientific record bears sufficient proof of that – but rather about how such change occurs and how human activities are affecting naturally occurring cycles and events.

In this special section, Bangor Daily News reporter Misty Edgecomb, Graphics Editor Eric Zelz, Assistant Graphics Editor Jonathan Ferland and photographer John Clarke Russ present information about climate change as seen through the eyes of researchers and scholars, written and illustrated in a way that is easy to understand.

An awareness of the numerous factors that influence climate seems particularly important given the devastating reminders of nature’s power demonstrated for us in the hurricanes, earthquakes and

tsunami of the last several months. Such dramatic natural events also serve to fuel debate about global warming, greenhouse gases, pollution and human impact on climate change.

By working with the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute and many other sources, the Bangor Daily News strives here to present a broad picture of how climate has changed and how piecing together the history of natural phenomena may help us predict the future of “Our Changing World.”

REPORTING: Misty Edgecomb

GRAPHICS AND DESIGN: Jonathan Ferland, Eric Zelz

PHOTOGRAPHY: John Clarke Russ consultant: Kirk Maasch, Climate Change Institute

Editors: Scott Haskell, Rick Levasseur, Brian Robitaille, Eric Zelz

ASSISTING EDITORS: Becky Bowden, Greg McManus, Janet Sargent

RESEARCH ASSISTANCE: Charlie Campo, head librarian

Special thanks to Paul Mayewski, Harold Borns, Dave Smith, George Jacobson, Gordon Hamilton and the faculty of the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine; Robert Kates, National Academy of Sciences; Woody Thompson, Maine Geological Survey; Greg Zielinski, Maine State Climatologist.