Walden Warming -- Climate Change Comes to Thoreau's Woods by Richard B. Primack, Chicago UPress '14, 253 pages, ASIN #0226682684. Index, further reading, appendix, b&w images sprinkled through text.
Those still dubious or agnostic on the issue of climate change beware -- prepare to have your mind changed. In his review of Richard B. Primack's new book, a Thoreau biographer writes, "Primack's book is important in three ways: it is a report on what global warming has already done to a much-loved bit of American space -- Walden Pond; it is a detailed warning about what we are now facing; and it is a stirring call to arms, especially to young Americans and students about how they can help."
From the dust cover:
"In his meticulous notes on the natural history of Concord, MA, Henry David Thoreau records the first open flowers of highbush blueberry on May 11, 1853. If he were to look for the first blueberry flowers in Concord today, mid-May would be too late.
"In the 160 years since Thoreau's writings, warming temperatures have pushed blueberry flowering three weeks earlier, and in 2012, following a winter and spring of record-breaking warmth, blueberries began flowering on April 1 -- six weeks earlier than in Thoreau's time. The climate around Thoreau's beloved Walden Pond is changing, with visible ecological consequences.
"In Walden Warming, Richard B. Primack uses Thoreau and Walden, icons of the conservation movement, to track the effects of a warming climate on Concord's plants and animals. Under the attentive eyes of Primack, the notes that Thoreau made years ago are transformed from charming observations into scientific data sets."
Author Richard B. Primack is professor of biology at Boston University, has written two previous books on conservation biology, and is editor-in-chief of the international journal Biological Conservation.