Free (ADE-DRM) Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods [Science]

[ATDrake]

Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods by Richard B. Primack (faculty profile), a Professor of Biology at Boston University, is his accessibly-written historical climate data study filled with seasonal nature observations, free for a limited time courtesy of the University of Chicago Press.

This is their featured Free Book of the Month for April. The author uses the device of tracking the effects of changing climate upon the modern flora and fauna of the famous site near the town of Concord, Massachussetts (hometown of philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau (Wikipedia)) by comparing them with Thoreau's own journal notes from over a century ago. There are also a few illustrations in it, and a good deal of information and analysis about Thoreau and his methods, as well as the methods used by the recording team.

Currently free until the end of April @ the university's dedicated promo page (ADE-DRM ePub available worldwide in exchange for your valid email address, approx 6 mb), and you can read more about this title on its regular catalogue page

Description
In his meticulous notes on the natural history of Concord, Massachusetts, 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. Primack finds that many wildflower species that Thoreau observed—including familiar groups such as irises, asters, and lilies—have declined in abundance or have disappeared from Concord. Primack also describes how warming temperatures have altered other aspects of Thoreau’s Concord, from the dates when ice departs from Walden Pond in late winter, to the arrival of birds in the spring, to the populations of fish, salamanders, and butterflies that live in the woodlands, river meadows, and ponds.

Primack demonstrates that climate change is already here, and it is affecting not just Walden Pond but many other places in Concord and the surrounding region. Although we need to continue pressuring our political leaders to take action, Primack urges us each to heed the advice Thoreau offers in Walden: to “live simply and wisely.” In the process, we can each minimize our own contributions to our warming climate.

[ATDrake]

Just a reminder that this will probably be the last day to pick up the freebie, if you think you might be interested.