Editor’s Note: Science is a world of theories and factions in which the truth ultimately emerges from vigorous debate. The events cited in this timeline are intended to paint a picture of Earth’s long history and how climate changes large and small have helped transform the planet. The… Read More
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,… Read More
Climate surrounds us from the day we’re born until the day we die. Yet, unless you’re being pounded by a nor’easter or broiled in a heat wave, it fades into the background of catching that bus, making that call, getting dinner to the table on… Read More
Vast ice sheets (similar to the ones that now cover Greenland and Antarctica) once blanketed a significant portion of the North American continent. During the last million years, roughly the time during which humans have existed as a species, Earth experienced about a dozen glaciations. During the greatest… Read More
The history of Maine is literally beneath our feet. Rocks alongside the road tell tales of glaciers and ancient life, and marine clay soils in flower beds as far north as Millinocket paint a picture of oceans stretching far inland. But to understand the past,… Read More
Today, blueberry bushes drenched in the greens of spring or aflame with the colors of autumn blanket the ridges of Maine’s Down East region. But somewhere between 23,000 and 28,000 years ago, when a mile-deep mountain of ice was beginning the long, slow retreat that… Read More
The first biological “footprints” of climate change have begun to appear. Lilacs are blooming earlier. Snow is melting sooner. Bird-watchers say that migratory birds, the heralds of spring in New England, could be among the first to be affected by an altered climate. A 1999… Read More
The Staples family has been watching climate change happen just a “stone’s throw” from their front door for 128 years. Since 1878, this Washington County family has volunteered to keep the official record of when the ice recedes from West Grand Lake, data scientists now… Read More
On June 6, 1816, more than 5 inches of snow fell in communities across Maine. “The extraordinary cold state of the atmosphere during the week past, surpasses the recollection of the oldest person among us,” reads the Portland Argus from the week after. googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
It was “an old ring-tail snorter of a snowstorm,” wrote New Englander George Lang in his February 1893 diary – not exactly scientific precision, but a vivid statement nonetheless. Descriptive climate observations can bring tallies of temperatures and rainfalls to life, but increasingly scientists are… Read More
The Interstate was down to one barely passable lane, and hundreds of travelers abandoned their cars to huddle together in booths at the old Pilots Grill, waiting out the storm of the century. On Dec. 30, 1962, Bangor was hit with 25.5 inches of snow… Read More
By late spring 1989, equipment was on the ice in Greenland to begin a project that would last the next five spring-summer seasons, led by Paul Mayewski, an internationally recognized leader in climate change research who now serves as director of the Climate Change Institute at the University… Read More
Polar ice caps, continental ice sheets, glaciers, permafrost and all other frozen aspects of the planet are collectively known as the cryosphere. Polar ice holds at least 80 percent of the planet’s fresh water. The biggest share is in the Antarctic, whose ice sheets constitute… Read More
Hundreds of thousands of years are locked away within the ice crystals that make up every glacier on Earth. The glaciers chronicle the history of the world, but drop by melting drop, they are vanishing. “It’s equivalent to losing the only library on Earth that… Read More
Glaciologists Leigh Stearns and Gordon Hamilton have spent countless hours poring over satellite photos of several glaciers in East Greenland, watching as the mountains of ice gradually retreat into their valleys and become the first casualties of global warming. But the unexpected chance to catch a ride on… Read More
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and secure the rights to use the source materials in this publication. Omissions will be rectified in subsequent reprintings, following written notification. The Bangor Daily News is grateful to the following for contributions and permissions to use their… Read More
Every year, schoolchildren hear the tale of George Washington and his band of barefoot soldiers in ragged clothes huddled in the bloodstained snow near the Delaware River during the bitter winter of 1777. Today, Chester County in Pennsylvania, where Valley Forge is located, is known for its mild… Read More
When the wind starts to blow and the rain starts to fall, most people don’t blame the oceans for their plight. But the waters that cover more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface are intimately linked to the planet’s climate. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More
“The Oceans and Rapid Climate Change: Past, Present and Future” Dan Seidov, Bernd J. Haupt and Mark Maslin, editors googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length;… Read More
ATMOSPHERE – The mixture of gases surrounding the Earth, held in place by gravity. It forms distinct layers at different heights. The Earth’s atmosphere consists, in ascending order, of the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, the thermosphere and the exosphere. The atmosphere is composed primarily of nitrogen (78… Read More