Vermont's Independent Voice
Browse News
Browse Arts + Culture
Browse Food + Drink
Browse Cannabis
Browse Music
Browse On Screen
Browse Events
Browse Classifieds
Browse Personals
Published October 7, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. | Updated October 12, 2015 at 9:27 a.m.
Originally published November 12, 2003
The first measurable snow of the fall collected in our field this morning. Always a signal day, the unofficial beginning of what seems to me the proper part of the year.
Depend on snow for a whistling kind of clean. Lushness has its pleasures, but nothing to match the stinging purity of a day when the cold has dried the air — dried it so much that the stars don’t twinkle in the humidity but just hang there. When a long, quick uphill climb leaves you not sweating but at a kind of perfect equilibrium, warmed enough from inside to cope with the chill pushing in.
But you can’t depend on winter, on snow, and there’s the rub. We know now that winter is only a possibility — that on a globally warming planet it becomes each year less likely.
We know, from the computerized climate models running infinitely in a dozen university labs, that our funnel of carbon into the atmosphere means in the not-too-distant future there simply won’t be winter here at some point. No season when precipitation falls as snow instead of cold rain, when liquid water somehow snaps into ice…
More By This Author
Speaking of...
-
Vermont Senate Advances Bill to Make Big Oil Pay for Climate Crisis
Apr 2, 2024 -
Court Upholds Vermont Gas' Purchase of Methane From a New York Landfill
Jan 12, 2024 -
Montpelier, Central Vermont Brace as Another Round of Flooding Hits
Dec 18, 2023 -
Key Vote on Burlington District Energy Project Looms on Monday
Nov 17, 2023 -
UVM Scientists Unearth Bad News for Our Climate Future Beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet
Oct 11, 2023 - More »
Comments
Comments are closed.
From 2014-2020, Seven Days allowed readers to comment on all stories posted on our website. While we've appreciated the suggestions and insights, right now Seven Days is prioritizing our core mission — producing high-quality, responsible local journalism — over moderating online debates between readers.
To criticize, correct or praise our reporting, please send us a letter to the editor or send us a tip. We’ll check it out and report the results.
Online comments may return when we have better tech tools for managing them. Thanks for reading.
