Aug. 13, 2019
Extreme climate change has arrived in America
Extreme climate change has arrived in America
LAKE HOPATCONG, N.J. — Before climate change thawed the winters of New
Jersey, this lake hosted boisterous wintertime carnivals. As many as
15,000 skaters took part, and automobile owners would drive onto the
thick ice. Thousands watched as local hockey clubs battled one another
and the Skate Sailing Association of America held competitions,
including one in 1926 that featured 21 iceboats on blades that sailed
over a three-mile course.
In those days before widespread refrigeration, workers flocked here to
harvest ice. They would carve blocks as much as two feet thick, float
them to giant ice houses, sprinkle them with sawdust and load them onto
rail cars bound for ice boxes in New York City and beyond.
"These winters do not exist anymore," says Marty Kane, a lawyer and head of the Lake Hopatcong Foundation.
That’s because a century of climbing temperatures has changed the
character of the Garden State. The massive ice industry and skate
sailing association are but black-and-white photographs at the local
museum. And even the hardy souls who still try to take part in ice
fishing contests here have had to cancel 11 of the past dozen
competitions for fear of straying onto perilously thin ice and tumbling
into the frigid water.
New Jersey may seem an unlikely place to measure climate change, but it
is one of the fastest-warming states in the nation. Its average
temperature has climbed by close to 2 degrees Celsius since 1895 — double the average for the Lower 48 states.
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