Global warming and global climate change are common terms. But there is no one forecast for climate change. In some places, global warming may actually mean cooler temperatures or more rainfall. For example, the winter of twenty fourteen was unusually cold in the Northeast. At the same time it was warmer than normal in the West. But the local impacts are often glossed over in the conversation about global climate change.

In his book Virginia Climate Fever, journalist Stephen Nash explores the impact of climate change on Virginia’s state culture, economy, and history. Nash wants to make the conversation more personal for Virginians by discussing local impacts, such as the effects of extreme heat on Virginia’s forests, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic shoreline. Additionally, infectious diseases carried by mosquitoes may become more common.

Nash: “We’re able now to look on a regional and even local basis at what climate projections are telling us is going to happen in the future. It’s really important in bringing the issue home.”

Nash believes journalists and educators can help the public understand that climate change is here and now and will affect all of us, locally and globally.

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.
Photo: An osprey surveys his surroundings from the top of a tall pine tree overlooking the James River in Virginia. Copyright protected.

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Exploring Stephen Nash’s Virginia Climate Fever