PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 7, 2022
Mother Nature is telling us that climate change is happening in Maine. We need prolonged cold weather to kill ticks and pine bark beetles, to enhance the maple syrup harvest and to keep other invasive species out of Maine. Our trees, plants, birds and animals get the wrong signals from warm weather in February. Migratory birds like Canadian geese are returning early. Maine’s winter industries that bring millions of dollars into the state suffer when it rains and temperatures fall below freezing in February. Climate change is an existential threat and it is happening whether we pay attention or not. Our window for mitigation is closing. We are going in the wrong direction. Talk to friends and family about climate change. Ask them to contact Sens. Collins and King and Reps. Pingree and Golden, and tell them that there is political will to pass effective climate legislation. ~ Dodie Jones, Brunswick