Long time climate migrant
Title
Long time climate migrant
Subject
Climate migration
Creator
Fred Bowers, Ph.D.
Date
10/15/2021
Text
I’ve thought of myself as a climate migrant my entire life. I grew up in Central NJ, and summers were always hot and humid, hence we had the best tomatoes, in my opinion! However, nights never got below 80 sometimes and it was a struggle to sleep and then get up for work until we finally bought an air conditioner. But the noise and strange refrigerator effect from window air conditioning was not pleasant. We couldn’t wait for autumn to cool us off.
Winter was always a series of unpredictable snow/rain/warm weather events. One year I played outside on Christmas Day at 70 degrees. Another year, we had a Christmas blizzard and, yes, it was a delight. There was a winter in about 1993 when we had blizzards, another when we had 13 ice storms and virtually no snow. My older relatives used to describe winters of their youth as routinely snowy, cold, and they even mentioned ice skating on the Delaware River near Lambertville. I never saw anything quite like that.
So when I had the opportunity, I set off for a place I thought had a fairly stable climate. Seattle WA was always cool in the summer, and mild in winter. I lived there in the 1980s for 5 years and it was reliable. Then I moved back to NJ to take a job as a geologist/soil scientist. The first year, after Seattle, May was brutally hot, with 89 degrees and high humidity, and it didn’t let up. So Central air conditioning was becoming the new normal.
Then we witnessed forest fires from Arizona while we were on vacation in New Mexico one year. We had droughts and our well went dry. We had infestations of deer ticks, Zika mosquitoes, torrential rains that changed the course of our favorite brooks and streams. We took a vacation up to Vermont and marveled at the beauty of Rt. 100, and then we read later that tropical storm Irene had created havoc on that river road there on Aug. 28, 2011.
Well, I knew from being an environmental scientist that climate was changing, however, I didn’t think it would happen so fast.
Then one summer, 6 years ago, my wife and I sat captive in our central air conditioned house, in August, in NJ, and we said to each other “Why not look into living in Maine?” We were retired and we had experienced Maine many times in August, and we did not fear winter, so off we went. Of course, it was pleasant and a 10 degree cooler experience than NJ, so now in 2021 we’ve lived here 5 years. Unfortunately, it seems to be heating up here in Belfast, and we now have a heat pump, and unless we get going early in the morning, summer days seem hotter than we expected. However, compared to NJ heat, Seattle extreme heat, forest fires and smoke and high ozone, we are lucky to be here. I now know there is no escape from Climate Change, but I think we are in the best place we could be. We actually look forward to winter, but we also have to watch out for the ice. Climate Change means we all have to cope and adapt. I hope we can adapt to all the changes we may face in the future.
Winter was always a series of unpredictable snow/rain/warm weather events. One year I played outside on Christmas Day at 70 degrees. Another year, we had a Christmas blizzard and, yes, it was a delight. There was a winter in about 1993 when we had blizzards, another when we had 13 ice storms and virtually no snow. My older relatives used to describe winters of their youth as routinely snowy, cold, and they even mentioned ice skating on the Delaware River near Lambertville. I never saw anything quite like that.
So when I had the opportunity, I set off for a place I thought had a fairly stable climate. Seattle WA was always cool in the summer, and mild in winter. I lived there in the 1980s for 5 years and it was reliable. Then I moved back to NJ to take a job as a geologist/soil scientist. The first year, after Seattle, May was brutally hot, with 89 degrees and high humidity, and it didn’t let up. So Central air conditioning was becoming the new normal.
Then we witnessed forest fires from Arizona while we were on vacation in New Mexico one year. We had droughts and our well went dry. We had infestations of deer ticks, Zika mosquitoes, torrential rains that changed the course of our favorite brooks and streams. We took a vacation up to Vermont and marveled at the beauty of Rt. 100, and then we read later that tropical storm Irene had created havoc on that river road there on Aug. 28, 2011.
Well, I knew from being an environmental scientist that climate was changing, however, I didn’t think it would happen so fast.
Then one summer, 6 years ago, my wife and I sat captive in our central air conditioned house, in August, in NJ, and we said to each other “Why not look into living in Maine?” We were retired and we had experienced Maine many times in August, and we did not fear winter, so off we went. Of course, it was pleasant and a 10 degree cooler experience than NJ, so now in 2021 we’ve lived here 5 years. Unfortunately, it seems to be heating up here in Belfast, and we now have a heat pump, and unless we get going early in the morning, summer days seem hotter than we expected. However, compared to NJ heat, Seattle extreme heat, forest fires and smoke and high ozone, we are lucky to be here. I now know there is no escape from Climate Change, but I think we are in the best place we could be. We actually look forward to winter, but we also have to watch out for the ice. Climate Change means we all have to cope and adapt. I hope we can adapt to all the changes we may face in the future.
Collection
Citation
Fred Bowers, Ph.D., “Long time climate migrant,” All of Belfast: Climate Dialogues, accessed April 20, 2024, https://abcdbelfast.omeka.net/items/show/40.
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