climate change Archives - The Mount Observer

(Archive February 2019) Go Green: A Global Warning!

By editorialteam on April 3, 2025

By Dylan Cernoia | Observer Contributor

It’s an undeniable fact that climate change is a major issue facing us today and MWCC is making moves to help students learn how to better respect the environment.

MWCC has an entire club dedicated to the environment called the Green Society. President of the Green Society and MWCC student Christine Nelson talked about the club’s main goals saying “We aim to problem-solve. I love that the Mount has wind turbines and solar panels to reduce the school’s fossil fuel usage. But there is more we can do for the environment.” read more

(Archive December 2018) A Dire Warning Concerning Global Warming

By editorialteam on April 1, 2025

By Dylan Cernoia | Observer Contributor

Hurricane Florence passed over the Carolinas in early September.
Image from Wikimedia

In the wake of the two hurricanes, Michael and Florence, that hit the East Coast in 2018, one professor said that these storms might be proof of a much larger problem.

Tom Montagno, Biology professor, said global warming is contributing to the severity of the two hurricanes that hit Florida. Global warming has many negative effects including melting polar ice caps, causing water levels to rise, and flooding. However, it also creates warmer oceans, which Montagno said, “fuels a hurricane.” “That’s why that last hurricane became a tropical storm to almost a category 5 hurricane in two days,” said Montagno. read more

Op-Ed: The Most Pressing Threat to Human Life Persists, Mostly Unnoticed

By editorialteam on March 14, 2025

By Holden Baird | Observer Contributor

California wildfire with glowing orange smoke in the Sierra Nevada mountains (2021).
Photo by Ross Stone on Unsplash

Recent headlines illustrate the news media’s fractured focus between a bewildering number of immediate domestic and international concerns. The stock market hiccups as tariff negotiations stumble, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine rage on, the newly-minted DOGE initiative continues its disruption of the federal government, the executive branch issues a dizzying flurry of executive orders, controversy erupts over alterations to immigration policy, and a steady rollback of LGBTQ+ rights and protections pushes on. In general, the average American is largely preoccupied by skyrocketing living costs, which played a significant role in determining the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, energy bills are up 40% and groceries by 25% since 2020. Housing prices surged nearly 18% in 2021 alone as indicated by the Freddie Mac House Price Index. Despite this, Congress has not approved a federal minimum wage increase since 2007 and it presently sits at an astonishing $7.25 per hour. Understandably, public consciousness is dominated by day-to-day matters of survival; a few have the remaining mental real estate available to concern themselves with the more far-reaching issues detailed above. Yet the greatest threat, the wide-reaching consequences of which manifest in nearly every realm of public interest, has predominantly been pushed to the periphery.Anthropogenic climate change- that is, alterations to the world’s climate system that can be concretely traced back to human activity- threatens the present and future wellbeing of humanity on a magnitude far greater than any economic fluctuation or military conflict. read more

(Archive September 2017) Climate Change and You – A Look at the Next 25 Years

By editorialteam on January 8, 2025

By Jennifer Ballou | Observer Contributor

In summer, some polar bears do not make the transition from their winter residence on the Svalbard islands to the dense drift ice and pack ice of the high arctic where they would find a plethora of prey. This is due to global climate change which causes the ice around the islands to melt much earlier than previously. The bears need to adapt from their proper food to a diet of detritus, small animals, bird eggs and carcasses of marine animals. Very often they suffer starvation and are doomed to die.
Andreas Weith; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Endangered_arctic_-_starving_polar_bear.jpg

Picture a cup of water. Now imagine that cup overflowing. It would be quite disastrous, wouldn’t it? Nowhere for that excess water to go, just continuously causing a mess and damaging what is around it.
This is how physics Professor Nathanael Fortune of Smith College wants people to view the world. Fortune recently gave a speech about the science and basics of climate change to the North Quabbin Energy group at the Millers River Environmental Center in Athol. He explains his analogy, stating that “our earth is that cup and we are filling our atmosphere with carbon dioxide two times faster than it can remove it.” read more

(Archive April 2017) Present Negative Effects on Climate and Its Impact on the Future

By editorialteam on September 10, 2024

By Jennifer Ballou | Observer Contributor

Most of us think about the future and what incredible changes are going to happen. But what about the negative changes that are starting to happen right now? How will they affect us?

This is exactly what former Senator Stephen Brewer is concerned about. Now the special assistant to the president at MWCC, he recently attended a retreat put on by the East Quabbin Land Trust. The EQLT works to sustain the natural resources around us, including farmlands, woodlands, and water, by working with the communities, government agencies, and other land trusts. Brewer is an active member of the group. read more

Massachusetts’ Response to Climate Change

By editorialteam on September 20, 2023

MWCC Professor and Microbiologist Discuss Global Warming

By Hallie Coulter | Observer Contributor and Elysian Alder | Editor-in-Chief

Climate change is known to be one of the most important issues today. After years of industrialization, a growing population, and continuously burning fossil fuels, the earth has felt its effects. Fortunately, the state of Massachusetts and many of its residents have stepped up to do their part.

Heather Conn, the department Chair of Natural Science at Mount Wachusett Community College, shared that although she does not usually consider herself an activist, she believes that raising awareness about climate change, helping change others’ behaviors, and being mindful of the way we live our lives can go a long way toward slowing the effects of global warming . “We need to learn about modifying behaviors to slow it and live with it,” Conn explained. “It’s happening.” read more

(Archive February 2020) Climate Change: Should We be Worried?

By editorialteam on January 22, 2020

Professor Montagno Offers His Expertise on Climate Change

By Ryan Lyesiuk | Observer Contributor

Is climate change real? Are we experiencing global warming at this very moment? If so, is there anything we can do to reverse this process? Professor Thomas Montagno provides his expoert opinion on these questions.

According to Montagno, climate change is a reality, with the warmest global temperatures ever recorded in the month of October in 2019. Montagno stated, “In the last ten years we have recorded the highest temperatures worldwide in recorded history.” read more

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