By Sid Perkins
From San Francisco, at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union
Global warming, rather than increasing opportunities for development in cold northern regions, can detrimentally affect a region’s economy. In New Hampshire, for example, the trend toward earlier spring thaws has significantly lowered logging revenues, a new study suggests.
During the past 4 decades, winter temperatures in New England have risen about 2°C, says Jennifer B. Wurtzel, a climatologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. That warmer winter weather, in turn, has reduced the number of days on which unimproved roads are frozen and therefore able to support the weight of a truck loaded with fresh-cut timber.