Critical Issue

Climate change is a very hotly debated topic, in spite of the mountains of evidence supporting its existence. It affects the planet countless different ways, including effecting the average temperature of the seasons. This could mean a winter far colder or warmer than what is on record for the affected area. In New England, this has largely meant shorter winters with less snow. This is a problem as the cold normally kills off many of the bugs that feed on the people and animals up there. This has not been the case as of late, and the Winter tick, sometimes called the moose tick is a great example of this. Currently, these ticks have exploded in population and it’s causing a major problem in the moose population. Researchers and hunters are finding moose with as many as 90,000 ticks on them (1). The stress of this has caused some moose to rub themselves bald on trees, a phenomenon common enough to earn the name “ghost moose” (1). Thankfully, these infestations are largely survivable for the adult moose population, but the adolescents are a different story. The majority of them are not surviving these infestations, with almost 90% of moose calves dying from them in 2021 (1). Many of the carcasses show signs of anemia. These infestations cause such prolonged blood loss that it kills (1).