Climate Change in the Adirondacks - by Jerry Jenkins (Paperback)

About the Book

Although global in scale, the impact of climate change will be felt at the local level. Refocusing our attention away from the ice shelves disintegrating in the Antarctic, the flooding of Pacific islands, and carbon inventories measured in billions of...

Book Synopsis

"Thanks to Jerry Jenkins, I think the future has been plotted more firmly for the Adirondacks than perhaps any other region on the planet. With his trademark ability to work across disciplines, he has taken evidence from every branch of the sciences, including the social sciences, to paint a devastating picture of where we are headed. These are the biggest changes the park has faced since the last Ice Age, and if we allow them to play out in full many of the glories of the Adirondacks will simply be gone. Jerry Jenkins has emerged as the information source for our mountains. This book is a great resource and a great gift; we are all in his debt."--from the Foreword by Bill McKibben

Although global in scale, the impact of climate change will be felt at the local level. Refocusing our attention away from the ice shelves disintegrating in the Antarctic, the flooding of Pacific islands, and carbon inventories measured in billions of tons, Jerry Jenkins turns to changes that are already occurring much closer to home, changes that threaten to transform one of America's great wildernesses, the Adirondack region, into a damaged and unfamiliar landscape.

With the aid of comprehensive color illustrations, graphs, charts, and maps, Jenkins demonstrates the fundamental reality of climate change on a local level and presents his analysis and discussion of the available data for the Adirondacks. The region's culture, biology, and economy are already shifting rapidly: boreal species such as the spruce grouse are in decline, pests such as the mountain pine beetle and black-legged tick are moving in, and ski areas are suffering from lack of snow. Jenkins goes on to deliver a critical message: changes in personal energy consumption can fundamentally alter the present trajectory of global warming.

Climate Change in the Adirondacks provides a road map for how individuals and communities whether inside the Blue Line or beyond can reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and lead the way toward a more responsible future.

Review Quotes

The book is an extensive gathering of data on local climate change problems, and as importantly, what Jenkins calls 'An Adirondack Strategy' that includes suggestions for moving from fossil fuels (coal and oil) to renewable energy (sun and wind). What makes this book so valuable is that Jenkins has crafted a readable and useful reference developed with local Adirondack conditions in mind: our excessive automobile and home energy use; the increasing loss of ice and snow cover and winter recreation businesses and facilities; the northern movement of the boreal forest and invasive species from the south; the loss of northern climate cultural traditions.

This fantastic book is probably the most important, accessible book ever written on climate change, realistic CO2 abatement, and community sustainability in a carbon-neutral (or as close as we can get) world. Unassumingly authoritative, it can be read and appreciated by audiences from high schoolers to professional scientists to energy scholars. Using the Adirondacks as a microcosm, Jenkins examines its economy, ecology, population behaviors, carbon footprint, energy usage and distribution, community structure, infrastructure, and industry to determine how and if the region could realistically reach carbon neutrality and energy sustainability in the next 20 years. Figures are clear and simply rendered. Caveats, assumptions, and uncertainties are clearly identified but not allowed to overwhelm the presentation. The result is a comprehensive, thoughtful analysis resulting in a realistic, sustainable community plan that could work in the present political and economic climate.... Summing up: Essential.

About the Author

Jerry Jenkins is a researcher for the Wildlife Conservation Society and author of Acid Rain in the Adirondacks: An Environmental History, also from Cornell, and The Adirondack Atlas: A Geographic Portrait of the Adirondack Park. Bill McKibben is the author of books including The End of Nature.