Climate Change News

Massachusetts has more than 80 pick-your-own apple farms. But warming weather is hurting apple and fruit crops across New England. Al Rose, co-owner of Red Apple Farm, and Jon Clements, an educator with the Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment at UMass, talk about this year's apple season and how they're thinking about climate change's impact on future crops.

UMass Clean Energy Extension (CEE) is part of a groundbreaking collaboration between Western Mass arts and culture nonprofits and UMass Amherst Extension units; the team has been awarded a substantial grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) to spearhead a transformative climate action project, entitled Clean Energy in the Cultural Sector. This dynamic partnership aims to address pressing environmental challenges, accelerate clean energy adoption, and water the seeds of a resilient, low-carbon arts and cultural sector in Massachusetts.

New research, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, finds that the ecological effect of invasive species alone is comparable to the combined effects of invasives plus warming temperatures, drought or nitrogen deposition. This suggests that a critical preparation for climate change is to manage invasive species at the local level.