Climate Change and Gardening

• Climate Change Basics and Evidence - Learn more about why air and ocean temperatures are rising and how scientists know that climate change is real.
• Climate Change Impacts in Maryland - Learn more about how sea level rise, increasingly severe storms and tidal flooding are already affecting Maryland.
• Adapting your Garden to the Impacts of Climate Change
• Native Plants and Climate Change

• Maryland Grows Blog Posts on Climate
• Additional Resources
  • How is Climate Change Affecting your County? - Cornell University
  • What Will Climate Feel Like in 60 Years? - UM Center for Environmental Science
  • Gardening for Climate Change - National Wildlife Federation
  • (PDF) Gardening in a Warmer World Course Book - Cornell University
  • Hot Times in the Urban Forest: Climate Change and What It Means for Insects- Mike Raupp, Ph.D.

Climate Change is Real and is Affecting Maryland Now

There is no scientific controversy: 99% of scientists agree that our climate is changing and that global temperatures are increasing as levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases rise in the atmosphere (CO₂, methane, nitrogen dioxide, water vapor).

Global measurements of temperaturesince weather records began in 1884 show a clear long-term trend toward warming. The animation below shows a clear trend in temperature, even though there can be substantial year-to-year and place-to-place variation in weather. 

ABOVE: Yearly observations of global temperatures since 1884. This animation shows the temperatures across the globe as differences from the average temperature between 1951-1980 (the baseline):  blue shows areas cooler than that baseline, while yellow-orange shows areas warmer than the baseline. Although there is considerable variation in temperature from place to place and year to year, the overall trend is clearly toward warming.