Exploring the Science Behind Climate Change

In 1973, Billy Barr dropped out of college and decided to live in the forest. He made an abandoned mining shack his home which is at the base of Rocky Mountain at a nearby Gothic city. It was the sense of solitude, that made him move to the Rockys. Eventually, he got bored and started experimenting with measurements with his surroundings.

From his first winter, he measured animal tracks, snow levels, and birds returning dates at the end of winter. He filled his notebooks with observations and continued this practice for the next 44 years.

“I watch it snow and record it. That’s pretty much all I do. You do anything for a long period of time and there’s going to be some intrinsic value in it,” Barr said. His data collection made him an amateur climate scientist. His insights were crucial evidence on the effects of climate change.

How did Billy record his work?

In Billy’s records there were variables like temperature, precipitation, and total snow size at his off-the-grid house. He also recorded the migration date of the animals, birds like stellar jay, robin, red winged blackbird, junco, flicker tree swallow, sapsucker, fox sparrow, ruby crowned kinglet, yellow-rumped warbler, ground squirrel, hummingbird, and others that migrate to the higher mountains for the summer months. Similarly, the first day of the year when animals such as marmots, chipmunk hibernate. He also recorded the date of first flowering of wildflowers.

The above figure shows that on an average, snow is melting 15 days earlier for the year 2010 as compared to the winter from 1975. This shift has huge consequences on everything from local wildlife to the water resources downstream. This also resulted in an increase in the ecosystem temperature, and we can see that there is a slight decrease in the yearly snowfall in the Rocky Mountains region over the period of 35 years.

The interconnectedness of ecosystems becomes evident through Barr's observations of wildlife. Species that once thrived in the cold, snowy environment are facing challenges as winters become less intense. Birds like the hummingbirds, adapted to colder climates, find themselves at risk as their habitats change. Barr's records serve as proof to the vulnerability of these species in the face of climate change.

When the broad-tailed hummingbird arrives in the Rocky Mountains it makes a whistling sound, and Barr tracked that sound, as the bird relies on the nectar of glacier lily. Previously, hummingbirds used to be there in the warmer springs' way before the glacier lily flowering but now that’s changing. Four decades ago, this bird was flying around 17 days earlier than the flowering bloomed. But in the next two decades, the hummingbird will not be able to find the glacier lily’s nectar.

The Time to Act is Now

A similar impact is going to happen not only on the hummingbirds but also on bees, hibernating mammals, and butterflies. This phenomenon will happen not only in the alpine ecosystems but also across the world.

99% of climate scientists are now in agreement that climate change is real because of the enormous and rapid additions of greenhouse gases. These greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which are emitted into the atmosphere as a result of human activities.

Effects of global warming include sea level rise, extreme weather events, and changes in precipitation and temperature patterns globally and hence more floods, droughts, heat and cold waves on the different parts of the world. However, it is less clear exactly how climate will change at any one location and even less clear how organisms and ecosystems will respond to predicted changes.