EPA press release on Williamsburg youth job training, Dec 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document ’I A Mittenless Autumn, for Better and Worse By PAM BELLUCK And Alaska, where wanning has and ANDREW C. REVKIN been most pronounced, is undergoing Across the Northeast; people opened their doors a host of changes. Glaciers are re--' yesterday to discover something unfamiliar: a chill in ceding, permafrost melting, shrubs the air. spreading across previously barren Weeks later than usual, temperatures have fi­ tundra. The start of the Iditarod dog nally descended into something like their normal late- race this year had to be moved north December range. The cold snap followed an autumn because the trail near the usual in which sidewalk cafes stayed open into December, starting point was too mushy. golf courses were packed with plaid and the first But the growing variability of die World Series game ever played in November felt weather may be as troublesome as more like May. The unseasonal curveball that the the warming. This weekend, after a weather threw at the calendar affected almost every- mittenless fall, temperatures are one, for better and for worse. plummeting quickly across the coun­ Varel Bailey, a cattle and pig farmer in Anita, try. And the prospect of a sudden, Iowa, has been spending 5 percent to I<) percent less sustained cold snap is making many on grain because cattle eat less when it is not cold. people uneasy. . In New Mexico, Ski Santa-Fe, a snow-starved Will birds that delayed their ritual resort, hadjo postpone its planned Thanksgiving Day migration be trapped up north by opening to Dec. 8, and even now has less than half its frigid weather? Will buds that skiing areas open. i bloomed in December’s warm chi­ In the natural world, daffodils bloomed, and the canery burst their pipes and suffer grass at the New York Botanical Garden was a lush winter damage? green the week before Christmas. In Pennsylvania, a “The party is almost over for peo­ baby kOldeer hatched in December instead of ApriL ple who like warm weather,” said And in Massachusetts, Bill Davis, a state wildlife Jon B. Davis, a meteorologist for biologist, came home from a deer station one recent Salomon Smith Barney in Chicago. “Wednesday’s 49 degrees in Chicago day with a sunburn. was probably the warmest we will “It’s global wanning, dude,” said Pito Robles, 28, see until late March. We are headed an auto mechanic who on Thursday was dangling his into a major-league cold pattern.” fishing line into the Hudson River near West 66th Street in Manhattan, “I don’t care if the whole planet Labor and industry bums up in a hundred years. If I can get me a fish today, it’s cool by me.” Even if this winter is about to earn In fact, the warm spell that settled over much of its reputation, the fall’s warm weath­ the nation this fall may not be caused by global er has made its mark — economical­ warming, the gradual but potentially calamitous rise ly, environmentally and in other in worldwide temperatures that most scientists at­ ways. tribute, at least in part, to fuel-burning human activi- It has been a boon to workers at ties like making electricity and driving. When burned, the site of the World Trade Center fuels release carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse disaster. Joe Bradley, the foreman of gases” that trap heat in the atmosphere. a crew of machine operators strug­ The fall weather could have been a fluke, clima­ gling to clear rubble at ground zero, tologists agree, because in the short run weather often said the mild weather allowed them does unanticipated things. to clean up the site quickly and to But the unusually balmy fall seems to fit at least recover bodies they might not have two longer-term patterns. One is that the weather has otherwise found. become significantly more erratic and variable, and “It gave us an opportunity to get that is lik^^ continue, scientists say. the bulk of the work done,” Mr. Brad­ Anotlie^ithat the warming is destined to ley said. “It was a gift from God, a continue. This year is expected^ t^^ the second real miracle.” warm^ ran-fiar& since 1860, w]^ temperatures Economically, the warm spell has cut both ways, benefiting some in­ were first-ffieasur^ systematically. dustries while hurting others. Warm Nine of the 10 warmest years have weather, it turns out, may get people occurred since 1990. And <me of the out of their houses, but not necessar­ world’s leading forecasting agencies, ily into stores. Foot traffic may have the Hadley Center for Climate Pre­ increased, retailers say, but people diction and Research in Britain, says tend to window-shop. And they are ' there is a 75 percent chance that next not buying the winter supplies that year will be even warmer than this stores have stocked. As a result, re­ year. tailers have slashed prices on things So far, the results of global warm­ like coats, scarves and gloves. ing in North America seem to be a mix of good and bad. Since 1960, New England has seen the last hard -freeze come a day earlier every three years, extending the growing season. But in the Middle Atlantic and the South, shores are receding as NYTimes. seas, slowly raised by melting gla- •CKrs, eat away at coasts.

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