Climate change shifts seasons, and it’s throwing everything off
Fall officially starts on Tuesday in the Northern Hemisphere, which typically means we get a break from the summer heat.
Fall officially starts on Tuesday in the Northern Hemisphere, which typically means we get a break from the summer heat. Instead, most of the United States will see above-average temperatures through October and November. Meanwhile, Western Europe is experiencing September heat like never before.
In an increasingly warm world, springs start earlier, summers grow longer, fall comes late (if at all), and winters are shorter. In fact, since 1960, summer in the U.S. and Canada has grown a week longer, while winters have shortened by two weeks.
This often-overlooked climate burden, informally known as season creep, affects everything from species migration to tourism. And it can throw off entire ecosystems.
When spring comes early, it’s likely that plants will bloom early, too — which puts plants at risk of freezing over before it’s actually warm again, hurting their ability to produce fruits, nuts, and seeds. The plants also end up dying before the main growing season is over.
But that’s not the only way climate change will hurt agriculture. As everything warms up, planting zones shift north, leaving people who rely on farming in the dust. Literally. A climate-changed future means more crop-damaging, long-lasting droughts and floods.
“This new level of risk and uncertainty [makes] some farmers really question whether they can keep farming,” Sophie Ackoff, co-executive director of the National Young Farmers Coalition, told Grist this year. “Our farmers are definitely feeling the impacts first, much sooner than their customers are.”
Migratory species, such as birds, are also affected by shifting seasons. Birds are especially sensitive to weather when traveling — even changing winds alter their migration — and warmer temperatures completely throw off their internal clocks. Since 1995, hundreds of species have migrated a little earlier each spring and a little later each fall. These thrown-off migrations also disrupt ecosystems: Birds may migrate to a spot that no longer has food for them or their young.
If birds aren’t what gets you excited about fall, then it might be the foliage. Leaf peeping (the tourism related to the color change in leaves) is typically a $3 billion industry. But climate change dulls the colors of the leaves, and again, throws off timing.
“From an economic point of view, we don’t want to see it go away,” said Howard Neufeld, a plant physiologist at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, in an interview with Scientific American. “[Autumn is the] one season that gets people to go out and see nature. [It’s] kind of a subtle way to increase environmental awareness.”
Climate change is happening right in front of us, reminding us of all we still stand to lose.
The World Health Organization estimates that climate change impacts — malnutrition, heat stress, infectious diseases — will cause more than 250,000 additional deaths annually between 2030–2050. By 2100, heat-related deaths alone could surpass deaths from all infectious diseases combined.
This November, vote like your life depends on it — because it does.