Virtual talk explores effects of climate change

MILLERTON — Through meaningful exploration and entertaining experiments, local residents considered the effects of climate change on both the Hudson Valley and the world around them during the virtual “Estuary Live! Climate Change” talk organized by the NorthEast-Millerton Library on Tuesday, Nov. 24.

The talk was originally scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 19, before it was postponed to Tuesday, Nov. 24. Viewers tuned in via Zoom at 6 p.m., and were introduced to Chelsea Moore, an environmental educator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) out of Norrie Point Environmental Center in Staatsburg. Moore dove in by differentiating between weather and climate change.

When talking about climate change, Moore took temperature and precipitation into account. She said, “weather is a mood, climate is a personality,” to describe how weather can fluctuate and how climate refers to the average temperature and level of precipitation in an area over several years. Climate change, she explained, comes down to carbon dioxide, specifically an increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and its role in the earth’s hydrologic cycle, water cycle, temperature and precipitation. 

Describing the Earth as a closed system, Moore attributed the greenhouse effect as the reason life is able to persist on Earth: also known as “the Goldilocks effect.” She said Earth has the perfect amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to keep it at a temperature to sustain life. However, when it comes to climate change and the greenhouse gas effect, she said, “What we’re talking about is human-induced climate change, which means humans are contributing to the amount of CO2 that’s going into the atmosphere… and essentially creating a really thick blanket around the Earth trapping in heat.”

Moore highlighted ways of measuring carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere over time and the human impact on climate change. She touched on the ocean’s role in balancing the atmosphere and stabilizing climate, how temperature plays a role in water density and movement, the impact of climate change on wildlife and how extreme weather events can contribute to climate change. Throughout her presentation, Moore used simple, but effective experiments to illustrate the specifics of climate change as well as maps and other resources.

As far as what the community can do to reduce the impact of climate change, Moore suggested that it use a carbon footprint calculator. This tool is used to examine a person’s lifestyle to determine their carbon footprint, what aspects of their lifestyle are contributing the most carbon dioxide and what they can do to change that. In the Hudson Valley, she said there’s a Climate Department that’s focused on climate change, adding that it wants to mitigate the impact of climate change rather than adapt after the damage is done. Mitigation, Moore said, refers to changing what a person does to reduce carbon dioxide (such as planting more trees and switching to solar energy) while adaptation refers to “living with the fact that you might be impacted by sea level rise” and other like elements of climate change. She also highlighted some of the projects that the Hudson Valley has undertaken as part of the adaptation model, such as building structures on the shorelines to reduce erosion from sea levels rising.

Once her presentation ended, Moore received a warm response and positive feedback from her viewers, and she engaged with them as they considered their role in climate change. 

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