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Climate change is happening, here’s how you can help
Talking about climate change and the impacts it is having on the animals, communities, and landscapes people care about is critical. Walking the walk demonstrates the land trust really cares about the issue and is serious about its pledge to conserve land for generations to come.
Providing community members with steps they can take is central to them staying involved and being part of the solution. Check out how one land trust is doing this…

California is turning farms into carbon-sucking factories
In a grand experiment, California switched on a fleet of high-tech greenhouse gas removal machines last month. Funded by the state’s cap-and-trade program, they’re designed to reverse climate change by sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. These wonderfully complex machines are more high-tech than anything humans have designed. They’re called plants.
Seriously though…

Brilliant teen’s invention to remove all plastic from ocean is finally becoming a reality
A solution to the catastrophic plastic pollution in the ocean, now a problem even in the Great Lakes, is getting a major boost. When Boyan Slat was 16 years old, he found himself coming across more plastic than fish while diving in Greece. It was then that he decided to dedicate a high school project to investigating ocean plastic pollution and how he could make a difference.
Check out what’s about to happen off the coast of California this summer…

Is there plastic in your beer? Probably
Love beer? How about water? According to a new study published in the Public Library of Science’s open access journal, micro-plastics found in the Great Lakes are making their way into the region’s beer. That’s not a good thing for your health…

Climate change: Giant hail set to batter North America
Research is documenting that extreme weather is on the rise that will wreak havoc on farms and ranches. As a result, it is likely there will be increased need to cover crops and provide animals shelter to avoid critical damage from hail. That will likely mean drafting long-term conservation agreements (conservation easements) that want farming and ranching to succeed to allow for structures beyond the farmstead areas (building envelopes).
To get a sense of what we are talking about, check out the video or you can read the short article…

Audubon’s Birds and Climate Change Report
“The National Audubon Society has completed a continental analysis of how North America’s birds may respond to future climate change. Using extensive citizen science data and detailed climate layers, we developed models that characterize the relationship between the distribution of each species and climate…”

How is climate change impacting birds?
National Audubon’s 2014 Report is relevant, although there is growing concern that the predictions are understated given new research of an acceleration of climate change.

Leading by example: Tackling the climate challenge in the Granite State
Rather than talk about fighting solar and wind, consider linking them to the positive impact needed and how climate change, left unchecked, will destroy much of what we are working to conserve. Talk about balance and the need to think about conservation and renewables with new eyes. Here’s a good example…

Renown climate communicator and scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, Honored With Stephen H. Schneider Award
“For many years, Katharine Hayhoe has been a unique voice in the climate communication world,” said Naomi Oreskes, a juror for the award and a professor of the history of science at Harvard University. “With her patience, her empathy and her abiding Christian faith, she has been able to reach audiences that other climate scientists have not been able to reach…”

Talking about solar as part of the solution
“As a conservation organization, Otsego Land Trust understands that climate change is an enormous conservation challenge. Our work protecting forest and farmlands, wetlands, open space, and wildlife habitat makes a positive contribution to mitigating the negative damage of climate change…”