![\"Ripples](\"https:\/\/media.socastsrm.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1960\/files\/2021\/12\/highbush-cranberries.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHighbush cranberries by Nancy Nabak<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The following article was written for the Ripples from the Dunes series by Woodland Dunes Nature Center and Preserve by Executive Director Jim Knicklebine.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Since I was young people have joked about the climate in Wisconsin- the whole \u201cIf you don\u2019t like it now, wait 10 minutes\u201d kind of thing.\u00a0 That variability seems to be increasing as time goes on, especially in winter.\u00a0 In my late teens, I attended the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc, and experienced some really brutal winters.\u00a0 My 1965 Rambler, which was parked next to my dad\u2019s barn so as to be sheltered from the wind with a light bulb to keep the battery warm often struggled to start in the morning.\u00a0 The temperature was sometimes south of 20 below zero F, and the old car barely warmed up between our house and UW.\u00a0 After graduating and working in Illinois for a few years, I thankfully returned in 1993 only to be met with late December temperatures in the mid -20\u2019s below zero.\u00a0 Streets in Green Bay were lined with cars with frozen gas lines.\u00a0 Water pipes froze, and storm doors were caked with frost.\u00a0 About that time we picked up my sister, who had just graduated from college in Milwaukee, on a day when the high was -15F and we were just about the only vehicles on the recently opened I-43.\u00a0 It was an exciting, and miserable time to grow up.\u00a0 On cold nights, the walls of the old farmhouse would thump as they contracted- trees and ice on the Manitowoc River did the same.<\/p>\n This year we are experiencing another where sandhill cranes and Canada geese are still hanging around, and earthworms were crawling on the driveway on the 16th of December.\u00a0 The weather seems to swing wildly now, instead of the rock-solid cold of much of the past.\u00a0 According to the USEPA, the climate has warmed 2 degrees F in the past 100 years.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t sound like much, but it is, and it affects many aspects of the world around us.\u00a0 It results in less snow, more ice, and greater fluctuations in both temperature and precipitation.\u00a0 It will result in more precipitation in the summer, and more events which are extreme in terms of precipitation, and result in flooding.\u00a0 Winter sports are likely to be hampered, agricultural output may be reduced, and migratory birds will have to adjust their timing during migration.\u00a0 Still, the overall impact on the Great Lakes is something we don\u2019t understand- warmer water may favor bass over trout and other cold-water fish.\u00a0 And warm- loving trees and other plants over the colder species.\u00a0 It is likely that the changes will be gradual, but in the end profound.<\/p>\n While it is possible for me to reflect about the changes I perceive over time, I could certainly be biased.\u00a0 What isn\u2019t biased the fact that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 40 percent since the 1700\u2019s.\u00a0 That is a significant difference, and it would be very unlikely for there not to be some effect.\u00a0 So while I enjoy not having extreme cold and snow to deal with, those earthworms on the driveway may be something to be interested in but not necessarily feel good about.\u00a0 With all that\u2019s happened in the past few years, we could all use something to feel good about.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n