Is Autumn Disappearing? How Climate Change is Changing our Seasons

Often times, people associate Autumn, the calm transition season between Summer and Winter, with colder weather, shorter days, and changing leaves, but this fall, there is a chance you look outside on October and notice the weather has hardly changed since August. Why? Climate change and it's effects. My mother grew up in Ireland, and every year, when we would visit during the fall, there's a strong breeze and plenty of rain. Lat year, though, as we walked through the sunny streets of Dungarvan, I noticed she looked upset. After asking about it, she told me she had never walked through the town sweating because of the sun. I didn't understand why it was such an issue back then, but now that I reflect on the my memories of being there as a child, I feel a sense of loss when I realise the familiarity of the Irish rain and breeze that was alway's there had disappeared and I hadn't even payed attention. It no longer felt like my childhood home, and so I couldn't imagine what my mother must have felt. This is the reality of climate change for many families. Climate change alters many environmental conditions which influence Autumn, and it has much to do with temperature. Warmer temperature's effect when tree's change colour, when they lose leaves, and how long this transition season lasts. In many area's, trees lose chlorophyll, the green pigment that is responsible for photosynthesis, and allows yellow, orange, and red pigments to become more visible on leaves. So, scientifically speaking, what is actually changing? NASA's research on climate show that Earth's average surface temperature has increased by a concerning amount since the pre-industrial era, mainly due to human activities that increase greenhouse gas emissions, trapping heat in our atmosphere. So, the average temperature of Earth's surface area increasing has given us warmer fall's overall, even though we may get some variation. The reason many leave's change colour because of climate change's increase in our global surface temperature can be explained by the fact that warmer conditions delay the development of certain pigment that help tree leaves to change colour, and drought's brought about by heatwave's can lead to less vibrant foliage, although it should be noted that many scientist's consider factor's other than just temperature, as tree's also respond to daylight duration and moisture. Seasonal mismatches may become more common due to climate change, with animal migrating and preparing for hibernation later. These mismatches can have serious effect's on nature. For example, warmer conditions which cause a plant to flower earlier, would mean that the insect which pollinates the plant does not adjust at the same rate, affecting reproduction of that plant, potentially leading to less in the future. It should be noted, however, that Autumn is not changing identically everywhere. For example, many area's in Europe have completely different climates, like the Mediterranean regions vs the Northern forest's, and will have different-looking season's all year round, which is why it is important to compare change for each area individually as well. In summary, while Autumn is here to stay, in the coming years, you may start to notice that the September chill feels like it begin's in late November, and the leaves stay either green or dead much longer than normal, but you may also notice no difference at all, depending on the place you live. After all, climate change effect's will differ from country to country, depending on the environment and typical climate of the area. But these effect's will surely change the way many experience the season in years to come.

Source's Cited:

• https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/
• https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/evidence/