Category Archives: Climate

Ollie holding a chicken

In Your Words: Ollie Perrault

Posted on March 18, 2022 by Kaylin D.

As a 15-year-old climate activist, people often ask me at what age I first got involved and started working with Mass Audubon. While I officially started as a youth leader when I was 11, I have been involved in this work for my whole life.  

Ollie

For my generation, there was never really a time for us when climate change wasn’t a reality or when we didn’t have something at stake in this fight. Even when I was little, I understood that my very future hangs in the balance. So, I started learning about the science of climate change, the role of youth voices, and the intersectionality of these many issues. And once I understood that joining the fight against the climate crisis doesn’t just mean combating climate change, it also means fighting for social justice, I knew that I had a responsibility to add my voice to this fight.  

But at that time, it felt like no one was giving young people the tools needed to actually do something about everything that we were learning and experiencing. Instead of believing that we were simply too small to make a difference, my peers began leading the way. I was 8 years old when Xiuhtezcatl Martinez and 20 other young leaders sued the U.S. government for not addressing the climate crisis head-on. I was 10 when I first heard Greta Thunberg’s name and saw global climate strikes starting up all over the world. It was the first time I felt like I might have a voice in this.  

Ollie

Mass Audubon’s Youth Climate Leaders program has provided me and my peers with the tools to help lead the next phase of this fight. Our mission is to help other young leaders recognize that we each have a powerful voice that we can use to spark change. This program has really shown me that no one is too small to make an impact. My fellow Statewide Youth Climate Leaders and I put together a guide on how to form and manage a youth-led climate group. Visit massaudubon.org/yclp to download the Youth Climate Leaders Toolkit and learn how you can get involved. 

In Your Words is a regular feature of Mass Audubon’s Explore member newsletter. Each issue, a Mass Audubon member, volunteer, staff member, or supporter shares their story—why Mass Audubon and protecting the nature of Massachusetts matters to them. If you have a story to share about your connection to Mass Audubon, email [email protected]  to be considered for In Your Words in a future issue! 

Learning from the Latest Climate Report 

Posted on August 23, 2021 by Mass Audubon

Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its sixth major report on the science of climate change. Condensing scientific evidence from 14,000 studies, its findings paint a stark view of our future.  

Using the strongest language ever used by IPCC scientists, the report confirms with “unequivocal” certainty for the first time that human activity continues to contribute to climate change. 

bird on grass and twigs in silhouette with bright sun in the background
© Declan Schweizer

It also issues a clarion call to avoid the worst-case scenario that otherwise looms ahead by enacting transformational changes to our energy, transportation, built environment, and land systems. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres says, the report is “a code red for humanity…the alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable.” 

The IPCC’s analysis of the latest climate science shows four significant trends: 

Trend 1: Rise in Greenhouse Gases

Human activities have caused observed increases in greenhouse gas concentrations since the Industrial Revolution. As of 2019, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were the highest they have been in two million years, and methane levels were the highest in 800,000 years. The report calls on countries to cut their methane emissions to most effectively limit temperature increases. 

Trend 2: Warming Temperatures

Global surface temperatures between 2011 and 2020 were 1.09°C warmer than between 1850 and 1900, and the past four decades have been the warmest of all decades since 1850. Since 1970, the global surface temperature has increased faster than any other 50-year period in the past 2,000 years. Among the report’s most startling findings: warming exceeding 1.5°C as soon as 2040 is possible if swift action is not taken. This is at least a decade earlier than projected in earlier IPCC reports.  

Trend 3: Sea Level Rise

Since 1900, the global mean sea level has risen faster than any other century in the past 3,000 years. Additional sea level rise and glacial melting are unavoidable: sea levels could increase by 2 feet by 2100 (as opposed to the 1.5-foot rise previously predicted). 

Trend 4: Links Between Climate Change and Extreme Weather 

Major improvements to methods that link climate change to extreme weather events show that the intense heat waves experienced across North America this summer—such as 116°F in Portland, Oregon—would be “virtually impossible” without humanity’s influence on the climate system.  

The Road Ahead: Reason for Hope  

The IPCC makes clear that some climate change is irreversible—our unrelenting reliance on fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution means a degree of warming that cannot be undone. This news can feel completely overwhelming.  

But we really do still have reason for hope: a chance to avoid the worst impacts of climate change remains. We have about one decade worth of emissions at current levels remaining in the “carbon budget” to hold onto the chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C by 2100.  

Meeting this carbon budget in the next decade will require swift, decisive, and transformational changes to our current way of doing business. We’ll be advocating for these changes—and sharing opportunities for you to do the same—every step of the way.

By Anna Mervosh and Michelle Manion