Global Warming Changes Thoreau's Walden

27% of species have disappeared from Mass. pond author made famous
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 28, 2008 3:33 PM CDT
Global Warming Changes Thoreau's Walden
A boy walks around a replica of Henry David Thoreau's one-room cabin at Walden Pond in Concord, Mass. in this June 20, 2003 file photo.   (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

While living at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau collected detailed data on the plant species native to Concord, Mass. Scientists studying climate change have compared those records to present-day biodiversity—and found chilling evidence of global warming’s effects, the Boston Globe reports. 27% of the species Thoreau documented are gone, and another 36% have been diminished to the brink of extinction.

Concord remains largely undeveloped since Thoreau’s time, but ambient temperatures have risen 4 degrees. Because that makes pollinating insects arrive earlier, species that reacted to the rising temperatures by flowering a week before the dates Thoreau recorded have survived, while those that didn’t have largely died off. “Climate change is throwing off the synchronicity of nature,” remarked one scientist. (More climate change stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X