The latest victim of climate change is apparently emerging in Vermont – the colour of Autumn. Warmer temperatures are preventing “New England’s richest colours” from coming forth, according to a widely syndicated AP story. This is bad news for Vermont, where millions of visitors spend even more millions of dollars on the strangely named activity of ‘leaf peeping’.

This could all be down to Al Gore’s implacable foe, climate change. According to AP the National Weather Service data show temperatures in Burlington have been above the 30-year averages in September and October for the past four years (except for October 2004). This not only slows the breakdown of chlorophyll, it means better conditions for fungi that attack some trees. So, says Barry Rock, a forestry professor at the University of New Hampshire, “The leaves fall off without ever becoming orange or yellow or red. They just go from green to brown.”

But the New Hampshire Union Leader has been doing some additional digging. They reckon the leaf peeping season is about a week longer than usual down their way. It is, according to Alice DeSouza, director of the state Department of Travel and Tourism, “absolutely beautiful”. But she’s paid to say things like that.

Meanwhile, here at the Great Beyond, talk of falling leaves means only one thing: It’s time for our annual look at Carl Zimmer’s many blog posts on the subject

Image: Getty