Record Breaking Winter Stalls Maple Syrup Season in New England

BRISTOL, R.I.__The 2014-2015 winter broke snow records across New England and the lasting cold has played a negative role on the regions maple syrup harvest. New England produces almost 65% of the nations maple syrup but not when the trees are still frozen.

Maple Syrup Sunday is an event that takes place on the fourth Sunday every March and attracts nearly 100,000 visitors. Sugarhouses offer tours, free samples and games to illustrate how their syrup is made. However, this year many farms in Maine may not participate because their trees have not yet produced sap.

As the warm weather breaks, the sap will begin to flow. Day time temperatures need to reach a few degrees above freezing for the trees to produce sap. Every year, this is a sure sign that spring is coming. Farms in southern Maine saw sap in early March but as temperatures dropped again the run was short lived. Farms in northern Maine were hit with 18 more inches of snow in mid March to further push back their season. However, this week’s weather forecast looks promising for farmers in northern Maine.

Climate change also posses a lasting threat to maple trees in the region. As temperatures gradually increase the trees will not be able to survive. Federal climate models predict that the region could lose most of its maple trees by next century, meaning the region would lose 2.5 million gallons of syrup annually.

Video courtesy of Chris Toy

If not now, then when?

BRISTOL, R.I.__ New Englanders have recognized climate change for decades. During the 1980s scientists warned that the city of Boston was at risk to flood if the climate continued to change. So why then have we not seen a greater push to action? Is it because some people still don’t believe climate change is happening at all or is it because only 40 percent of Americans believe climate change is caused from human impact? Either way, the facts tell the story.

Since 1970 the average temperature in the North East has risen two degrees Fahrenheit. By the end of the century New Hampshire summers could be as warm as those in North Carolina. From 1961 to 1990 Boston, on average, experienced one day a year that was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Given the same projections this number will likely increase to 24 days per year by the end of the century.

The rise in temperatures also has a large impact on various animal species. The polar bear for example, which has long been associated with climate change, struggles to survive with a decreased amount of ice in the Arctic. Polar bears are almost entirely dependent on ice caps to hunt and survive. A 2007 report from the U.S. Geological Service estimated that as a result of sea-ice decline, today’s population of about 22,000 polar bears would decrease by two-thirds by the year 2050.

Photo courtesy of Smudge 9000 via Flickr

Nicholas Carr, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Visits RWU

BRISTOL, R.I.__ Nicholas Carr, Pulitzer Prize nominated author for “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” spoke to the public on March 2 at Roger Williams University.

Carr’s most recent book, “The Glass Cage: Automation and Us,” plays on the same major themes of “The Shallows.” The crowd of nearly 200 listened to Carr’s claims that our society has become too dependent on technologies which have taken a negative impact on our brain function and specific skill sets for example.

“We are looking to computers to take over tasks we used to go,” Carr said.

Carr supported this thesis when he first explained the hunting habits of the Inuit people. In a land that was covered by snow and ice throughout most of the year, the Inuits had no guidance from roads when they were out on a hunt. Rather, they developed a sense of direction and perception to lead them through the frozen tundra. In 2000 when GPS tracking devices were acquirable by the general public things began to change for the Inuit people. Soon there after they relied solely on the GPS and they started to have many more accidents. If the batteries in the GPS died or the technology failed somehow, they had no way to lead themselves home. The prolonged reliance on the GPS depleted their own skills to identify their location.

The Inuit people have traded their sense for a computer aid. Carr explained the substitution myth, that you can substitute a human for a piece of technology and there are no further consequences. However, for the Inuit people the consequences are potentially death when lost in -20 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures.

Technologies aim to take the friction out of life. However, Carr argued that frictions bring out the best in us. If we continue to rely on technologies we lose skills we once had and can no longer solve adversity when faced with a problem. It is necessary to keep the brain engaged in everyday activities so that we can always remain in control of a situation.

Jamie Warner, a senior at RWU said, “I just never realized how far technology had come.”