Climate Change

New Hampshire will host the kick-off meeting of a federal offshore wind task force for the Gulf of Maine. The meeting is set for Dec. 12 at the University of New Hampshire.

It will be open to the public, with time for public input.

Franklin Pierce University is creating a new institute that’ll focus on combating climate change.

The Institute for Climate Action will focus on community outreach, education on campus, finding ways to make campus operations more sustainable and partnering with local organizations.

Last year’s report on climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change spurred the creation of the institute. The report said that significant actions need to be taken in the next decade to curb the effects of climate change.

A new study from the Audubon Society says climate change could push some state birds out of their home ranges – including New Hampshire’s purple finch.

The report, released Thursday in a major follow-up to a less detailed 2014 Audubon study, says even a moderate warming scenario could push the iconic finch out of much of New Hampshire.

But senior conservation biologist Pam Hunt with the state Audubon society cautions that the true climate picture for birds may be more complicated than that.

New Hampshire and other Northeast states are considering a carbon pricing system to curb emissions from passenger vehicles.

The transportation sector is New England's top source of the greenhouse gases that exacerbate the effects of climate change.

In New Hampshire, transportation – especially passenger vehicles – contributes more than 40 percent of emissions, while electricity generation contributes around 20 percent.

People in nearly a dozen New Hampshire cities and towns are rallying for action on climate change Friday, as part of a global week of strikes and protests, urging policy-makers to do more to lower carbon emissions.

Climate strikes are planned all over the state, led by activists, businesses, students and parents.

There are nearly a dozen "climate strikes" being organized in New Hampshire on Sept. 20 to urge local, state and federal leaders to take tougher action on climate change. Below is a list of the events in the Granite State:

Seacoast towns are testing out a new state framework to help plan for rising seas, stronger storms and other coastal risks expected to increase with climate change.

Congressman Chris Pappas spoke with The Exchange on a variety of issues including climate change legislation, background checks, and the I-93 expansion.  Here are some highlights from that conversation. 

Listen to the show and read the transcript. 

Five Democratic presidential candidates in the span of 24 hours have released sweeping plans to address climate change, ahead of a series of town halls devoted to the issue.

On Wednesday, California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg each unveiled their climate plans. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Obama cabinet member Julián Castro each laid out theirs on Tuesday.

Voters at a presidential campaign forum about climate change Thursday night say the issue still isn't getting enough attention.

The event, at yogurt-maker Stonyfield's factory in Londonderry, featured Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan and former Maryland Congressman John Delaney, both Democrats.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee had been slated to appear, but ended his climate-focused campaign earlier this week.

Voters like Elizabeth Deutsch, a nurse from Vermont, worry the issue will remain sidelined in the race.

  Every other Friday on Morning Edition NHPR’s Sam Evans-Brown tracks down answers to questions about the environment and outdoors for our listeners in a segment we call “Ask Sam.”

Rich from Hudson, NH asks: “I’ve noticed that last summer I noticed an awful lot of dragonflies in my neighborhood. And they were beautiful and they were much larger. I really liked it, and I wonder if this has something to do with the global warming that we’re experiencing?”

A new study says New Hampshire and the nation will see far more days with dangerous heat over the coming decades – especially without more action to curtail climate change.

New research from the University of New Hampshire recommends that the state should invest in thicker asphalt roads. The state's roads are likely to see more damage due to rising temperatures and sea levels.

When asphalt is exposed to hotter springs and summers, it's more likely to crack under the weight of vehicles and create rougher surfaces. Damaged roads can lead to reduced fuel efficiency, more safety hazards and more traffic due to construction and road closures.

Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren visited voters in Windham and Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday to pitch a plan she says will fight the influence of big corporations and rebuild the middle class.

Presidential candidate Joe Biden used a swing through New Hampshire Tuesday to highlight his new proposal to combat climate change. The former Vice President is embracing what he calls the frameworks of the Green New Deal, including a $1.7 trillion federal investment in climate related policies.

A first-of-its-kind study from UNH shows that slower rates of global warming can make seasonal change more predictable.

The study looked at the period between 1998 and 2012, when global temperatures increased more slowly than in years prior. Scientists still aren't sure exactly why.

A new study from Dartmouth College shows how warming in the Arctic is rapidly changing an important landscape.

The research, by Ph.D candidate Rebecca Finger Higgens, says lakes in the Arctic tundra are shrinking as global temperatures rise.

Finger Higgens spent a summer in Greenland studying these lakes, which are scattered across a vast glacial landscape of rolling hills and low shrubs.

"It's a place where one degree of temperature change can make a really big difference."

Arctic temperatures have risen around 2.5 degrees celcius since 1985.

Former Texas Congressman and presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke says climate change needs to be more of a priority in the 2020 election. Fresh off a campaign stop in flood-ravaged regions of Iowa, O’Rourke told voters in Hooksett:

“It’s not God. It’s not Mother Nature. It is us - our emissions, our excesses, our inaction in the face of the facts. And we know that this will get exponentially worse over time unless we change course now.”

The conversation on climate change has a new vigor in recent months, thanks in part to the Green New Deal. Though it was voted down in a procedural vote in the U.S. Senate, the non-binding resolution has intensified conversation on climate and yielded climate policy packages from both sides of the aisle: Republican Rep. Max Gaetz’s Green Real Deal and Senator Lamar Alexander’s A New Manhattan Project.