Page 4 - Kind News, May/June 2023

Around the world, climates
are warming faster than ever before. At
Yellowstone National Park in the western these changes affect the whole ecosystem.
United States, the warmer air has meant fewer There are fewer wetlands for amphibians to
days with snow and snow that is not live in. The year’s first grass and other plants
as deep. Water comes into streams earlier, come earlier, which affects ungulates (hoofed
and there’s less of it. Because of this, flooding animals like deer and bison) who eat the
patterns change. Ann Rodman, Physical plants and predators like wolves who follow
Sciences Branch Chief at Yellowstone, says the ungulates.

Weather describes changes in the air outdoors from day to day such as temperature, wind, clear skies, or rain.
Climate is about changes over long periods of time—usually 30 years or more. Someone at Yellowstone has
been noting the air temperature each day for 100 years!

A warming climate can affect the tiniest
animals who have an impact on the mightiest!
This is seen on a mountainous 37,000-acre
wildlife sanctuary run by the Harris Center for
Conservation Education in New Hampshire.
“I’ve been living in New Hampshire for 30
years,” says Susie Spikol, “and we don’t have
as much snow as we used to. We used to get
long periods of cold weather and snow; now
we get snow and then rain.” Spikol is a
naturalist, someone who studies animals and
plants in nature. On one outing in December,
she found what looked like a flying saucer on

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