No Maple Syrup by 2100?


Martha Carlson, Sandwich N.H.: James WestMartha Carlson, Sandwich N.H. James West

A few years ago, Martha Carlson, a veteran maple farmer, began noticing subtle changes in her 60-acre “sugar bush” in Sandwich, New Hampshire: Maple sap was unusually dark, and leaves were falling too early, never having reached postcard New England color. Her sugar maples, some of them nearly 300 years old, were sick.

At 65, Martha now leads the crusade to save the New Hampshire sugar maples—and the multimillion dollar local syrup and tourism industries they provide—from disastrous climate change. And in the process she’s mobilizing a crack team of researchers: a group of elementary school kids.

Take a peak at the Climate Desk’s slideshow of production stills from New Hampshire on Facebook (and make sure to like our page). We’re also on Google Plus. Front page image: Adam Rose/Flickr

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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