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Certain environmental phenomena, like flowers and plants blooming early and migratory birds travelling prematurely, is more than nature working ahead of schedule.
New research posits that the seasons changing ahead of time could be a result of climate change and the warming of average global temperatures, resulting in a prolonged summer. These balance shifts could have dangerous implications for agriculture and natural environments, as well as human health.
Published in the journal of Geophysical Research and Letters, the study looks at climate and seasonal data spanning 1952 to 2011 in the Northern Hemisphere. Collecting temperature data over these years helped scientists track when each of the four seasons began on average.
The results indicate that the average duration of summer increased from an average of 78 days to 95, while spring, winter, and fall all saw decreases in length ranging from three to nine days.
Extrapolating this data, scientists found that if this trend continues at the current rate, summer could last nearly six months by 2100.
"This is the biological clock for every living thing," the study's lead author, Yuping Guan, a physical oceanographer at the State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told NBC. "People argue about temperature rise of 2 degrees or 3 degrees, but global warming changing the seasons is something everyone can understand."
New research posits that the seasons changing ahead of time could be a result of climate change and the warming of average global temperatures, resulting in a prolonged summer. These balance shifts could have dangerous implications for agriculture and natural environments, as well as human health.
Published in the journal of Geophysical Research and Letters, the study looks at climate and seasonal data spanning 1952 to 2011 in the Northern Hemisphere. Collecting temperature data over these years helped scientists track when each of the four seasons began on average.
The results indicate that the average duration of summer increased from an average of 78 days to 95, while spring, winter, and fall all saw decreases in length ranging from three to nine days.
Extrapolating this data, scientists found that if this trend continues at the current rate, summer could last nearly six months by 2100.
"This is the biological clock for every living thing," the study's lead author, Yuping Guan, a physical oceanographer at the State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told NBC. "People argue about temperature rise of 2 degrees or 3 degrees, but global warming changing the seasons is something everyone can understand."
New study says Earth could see six-month summers
Scientists cross-referencing climate data with seasons suggest longer summers and shorter winter seasons.
thehill.com
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