Did Salem miss a few witches? According to Salem State University and UMass-Amherst, New England has experienced a warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Study: New England warms faster than rest of world
Every season is affected, the authors say
BOSTON –
A disturbing new report on climate change warns that New England is warming faster than the rest of the planet and that rapid changes will threaten elements of the region’s economy.
In one paper Published earlier this month by the journal Climate, authors affiliated with Salem State University and UMass-Amherst analyzed average temperatures for individual states and the region as a whole.
They found that temperatures in the region increased by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius between 1900 and 2020.
This warming is diminishing New England’s distinctive four-season climate, leading to changes to the region’s ecosystems and threatening rural economies throughout the region, the authors write.
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The abstract of the article;
Overall warming with seasonal decrease: Temperature change in New England, USA, 1900–2020
via Stephen S. Young first, * and Joshua S. Young 2firstDepartment of Geography and Sustainability, School of Arts & Sciences, Salem State University, Salem, MA 01970, USA2Department of Linguistics, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA*Authors that are relevant should be addressed. Academic Editor: Chiara Bertolin
ClimateYear 2021, 9(12), 176; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9120176
Received: November 4, 2021 / Revised: December 2, 2021 / Accepted: December 2, 2021 / Published: December 6, 2021
abstract
New England’s ecology, economy and cultural heritage is based on its seasonal and seasonal climate which is currently changing as the world warms due to human activity. This study uses temperature data from the United States Historical Climate Network (USHCN) to analyze annual and seasonal temperature changes in the New England region of the United States from 1900 to 2020 at the region and state. The results show four broad trends: (1) New England and individual states (yearly and seasonally) have warmed significantly between 1900 and 2020; (2) all states and entire regions exhibit three general stages of change (warming, cooling, and then warming again); (3) winter is experiencing the greatest warming; and (4) minimum temperatures are generally warming more than averages and maximums, especially since the 1980s. Mean annual temperatures (analyzed as 10-year averages and 5 years) for every state, and New England as a whole, has increased by more than 1.5°C between 1900 and 2020. This warming is reducing New England’s four-seasonal climate, leading to changes changes to the region’s ecology and threatens rural economies throughout the region.
Read more: https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/9/12/176/htm
New Englanders used to be quite sensitive to bad weather. Some believe that years of unusually cold and poor harvests kicked off the trials of the infamous Salem witch.
Did cold weather cause the Salem Witch Trials?
Via Natalie Wolchover published April 21, 2012
Historical records show that, worldwide, witch hunts were more frequent during cold times, possibly because people sought scapegoats to blame for crop failures and general hardship. Economic. Consistent with this pattern, scholars suggest that cold weather may have prompted the infamous Salem witch trials in 1692.
The theory, first put forward by the economist Emily Oster in her senior thesis at Harvard University eight years ago, suggests that the era of most active witch trials in Europe coincided with 400 years of lower-than-average temperatures known to climatologists. as if “Little Ice Age.” Oster, now an associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago, has shown that as the climate varies from year to year during this frigid period, lower temperatures are associated with a greater number of witch accusations. higher.
Oster argues that the correlation may not be surprising, based on textual evidence from that period: popes and scholars both believe that witches have the ability to control the weather, and thus, numb food production paralysis.
The Salem witch trials fell on an extremely cold spell that lasted from 1680 to 1730 – one of the fiercest periods of the Little Ice Age. The notion that weather may have fueled those experiments is being revived by Salem State University historian Tad Baker in his forthcoming book, “A Storm of Witchcraft.” Oxford University, 2013). Building on Oster’s argument, Baker found clues in diaries and lectures that a harsh New England winter may indeed have set the stage for accusations of witchcraft.
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Read more: https://www.livescience.com/19820-salem-witch-trials.html
The study authors appear to be primarily concerned about the pests that survive the winter and the disruption to the region’s ecology. In my opinion, these fears are overblown.
Agricultural sprays can deal with economic pests – New England can import some bug sprays from places that have experienced mild winters.
As for temperature change, cold weather is a much bigger threat than warm weather.
Tropical Queensland grows large amounts of temperate climate products such as strawberries and Maine potatoes, along with tropical products such as sugar cane and pineapple, in climates much warmer than the northern states of the United States. Australian farmers compensate for the much warmer Queensland climate by adjusting planting times to maximize yields.
Too cold weather will be more difficult to manage. If it’s too cold for crops to grow, costly interventions such as mulching the field with plastic or dirty pots to dispel frost can help, but ultimately cold is the real plant killer.
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