Climate Change and the Ozark Society
By Jennifer Ailor, Climate Committee Chair Climate change is the existential threat of our times. Where is it, you may ask. Melting glaciers, devastating hurricanes and tornadoes, raging forest fires, drought, 130-degree temperatures in Pakistan and India, massive flooding, warming ocean waters and expanding dead zones, these events are far away from the Ozarks and our beloved Buffalo River. Watch out. Stream water is warming In the Ozarks, and we’re experiencing hotter summers, milder winters and shifting shoulder seasons. Invasives are moving in. Amphibians and fish counts are changing. Forests may begin drying out. Bird migration patterns and numbers are responding to hotter temperatures and habitat loss. We’re seeing wetter springs and drier summers. The Ozark Society states will not be spared further climate change impacts. The worst is yet to come. It seemed fitting in this 50th anniversary year of the Buffalo becoming the country’s first national river that the Ozark Society take a stand on climate change. In February, Alice Andrews, Brian Thompson, David Peterson, myself and Dr. Stephen Boss of the University of Arkansas put together a positioning statement and collected links to studies on climate change now posted at https://www.ozarksociety.net/about-us/os-climate-change-statement/. [...]