Montanans respond to climate change

Did you know that "Since 1950, Montana temperatures have warmed 2.7 degrees, the fastest in the nation?" I didn't. So how are Montanans responding?

The Montana Climate Assessment website begins to answer that question. If you are interested in climate change or teach about human-environmental interaction, this site is golden. It includes information on both on how climate change is affecting Montana AND information on how Montanans are dealing with it. 

For example, check out this six-minute video on climate change and flooding, and how the Musselshell community worked together to respond to the Musselshell River's 2011 flood and rebuild infrastructure based on data. 

Or this six-minute video on how climate change is affecting agriculture and ways farmers and ranchers are adapting. 

Or read about how entomologist Diana Six is thinking about climate change and what it should mean for forest management practices. Here's a preview: "A management strategy of the future may be looking at what’s left behind after beetle kill or drought, asking why, and seeing what can be done to promote the survivors' genetics reproducing." 

Here are a few other resources on climate change's affects in Montana. The New York Times recently published this article on climate change and Yellowstone, "Your Children’s Yellowstone Will Be Radically Different." And the USGS has a website on the retreat of glaciers in Glacier National Park, along with a link to this repeat photography project, and this video designed for 9-12 classrooms, in which a climate scientist answers questions about climate change and the park.