Ground Truth: A Guide to Tracking Climate Change at Home

Description

Before you read this book, you have homework to do. Grab a notebook, go outside, and find a nearby patch of nature. What do you see, hear, feel, and smell? Are there bugs, birds, squirrels, deer, lizards, frogs, or fish, and what are they doing? What plants are in the vicinity, and in what ways are they growing? What shape are the rocks, what texture is the dirt, and what color are the bodies of water? Does the air feel hot or cold, wet or dry, windy or still? Everything you notice, write it all down. We know that the Earth’s climate is changing, and that the magnitude of this change is colossal. At the same time, the world outside is still a natural world, and one we can experience on a granular level every day. Ground Truth is a guide to living in this condition of changing nature, to paying attention instead of turning away, and to gathering facts from which a fuller understanding of the natural world can emerge over time. Featuring detailed guidance for keeping records of the plants, invertebrates, amphibians, birds, and mammals in your neighborhood, this book also ponders the value of everyday observations, probes the connections between seasons and climate change, and traces the history of phenology—the study and timing of natural events—and the uses to which it can be put. An expansive yet accessible book, Ground Truth invites readers to help lay the groundwork for a better understanding of the nature of change itself. Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 PART ONE......Page 16 Prologue......Page 18 1. Intimate and Momentous......Page 20 2. Seasons and Circulations......Page 38 3. Lilacs and Passing Time......Page 58 4. Noting with a Climate Eye......Page 78 5. Bedrock and Baselines......Page 96 PART TWO......Page 116 6. The Green World......Page 118 7. Wriggles, Buzzes, and Calls......Page 140 8. Feathers and Phenophases......Page 158 9. Warm Blood and Live Birth......Page 176 10. The Atmosphere at Home......Page 192 PART THREE......Page 212 11. Ground Truth......Page 214 Acknowledgments......Page 230 Further Reading......Page 234 Index......Page 240