Farewell to Summer? 'Haze' and 'Trash' Among Earth's New Seasons as Climate Change and Pollution Play Havoc

Shifting seasons expose how climate change and pollution are rewriting nature’s calendar

Human-driven changes in climate and land use are erasing familiar seasonal cycles and creating new ones defined by haze, trash, and disrupted rhythms.Felicia Liu and Thomas Smith write for The Conversation.In short:Researchers describe emergent “haze” and “trash” seasons caused by deforestation fires and plastic tides in Southeast Asia.Long-standing seasonal markers, like seabird breeding in northern England or predictable snowfall in alpine ski…

Farewell to summer? 'Haze' and 'trash' among Earth's new seasons as climate change and pollution play havoc

Throughout history, people have viewed seasons as relatively stable, recurrent blocks of time that neatly align farming, cultural celebrations and routines with nature's cycles. But the seasons as we know them are changing. Human activity is rapidly transforming Earth, and once reliable seasonal patterns are becoming unfamiliar.

Farewell to summer? ‘Haze’ and ‘trash’ among Earth’s new seasons as climate change and pollution play havoc

Throughout history, people have viewed seasons as relatively stable, recurrent blocks of time that neatly align farming, cultural celebrations and routines with nature’s cycles. But the seasons as we know them are changing. Human activity is rapidly transforming the Earth, and once reliable seasonal patterns are becoming unfamiliar. In our recent study, we argue that new seasons are surfacing. These emergent seasons are entirely novel and anthro…

Has summer disappeared? And what seasons are replacing it?

Research suggests new seasons are surfacing – such as ‘haze’ and ‘trash’ seasons – while some are entirely disappearing By Victoria Heath In temperate and sub-polar regions of the earth, the seasons are traditionally divided into spring, summer, autumn and winter. Many tropical regions have two seasons: the monsoon or rainy season and the dry season. Seasons can also be dictated in some parts of the earth by the timing of important ecological ev…