Snow is one of the most contradictory cues we have for understanding climate change.

As in many recent winters, the lack of snowfall in December seemed to preview our global warming future, with peaks from Oregon to New Hampshire more brown than white and the American Southwest facing a severe snow drought.

On the other hand, January has brought some heavy snow to New England, and record blizzards in early 2023 buried California mountain communities, replenished parched reservoirs, and dropped 11 feet of snow on northern Arizona, defying our conceptions of life on a warming planet.

Now, a new Dartmouth study authored in part by PHD student Alex Gottlieb cuts through the uncertainty in these observations and provides evidence that seasonal snowpacks throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere have indeed shrunk significantly over the past 40 years due to human-driven climate change.

Alex and I talk about what those changes mean to all of us.

Mary Schäffer Warren (1861 - 1939) was 43 years old and recently widowed when she bucked Victorian-era conventions and reinvented herself as a mountain explorer, writer, and photographer.

Over a century later, outdoor writer and historian Meghan J. Ward is entering her forties with new questions about her identity and her relationship with adventure and the natural world.

The result is a documentary called "Wildflowers".

Meghan and I discuss the upcoming film and the challenges, including fundraising, involved in producing it. We also talk about the recreation of a part Mary Schäffer Warren's trip to Maligne Lake.

The production group is looking for sponsors and has launched a fund-raising campaign on indiegogo.

Jane Marshall has traveled the world and discovered on three continents found hidden valleys known locally as "Happy Valley". Her quest: to discover what makes them happy and learn from their indigenous keepers. The result is a book that is part memoir, part travelogue, and part epic adventure that chronicles Jane's journey to find the wisdom that can save the planet and our own hearts.