Climate Lessons From Last Year's Storms

AP/Toby Talbot

Downtown Waterbury in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in August. The state's Climate Change Team says that Vermont will get more extreme rain events in the future.

Climate scientists have said that the major weather events in the last year give Vermonters an idea of what the future effects of global warming may bring to the state in the coming decades. Meanwhile the Agency of Natural Resources has been working across its departments to highlight ways the state can prepare for and avoid the effects of climate change.

On the next Vermont Edition, we talk Justin Johnson, deputy commissioner of Environmental Conservation, and Kari Dolan, manager of the Ecosystem Restoration Program, about what Irene and other storms have taught the state's Climate Change Team about resiliency and adapting to a changing climate.

Also in the program, two Vermont organizations and a Hinesburg farm have joined a lawsuit against Monsanto that seeks to prevent the company from filing future lawsuits against organic farmers. At stake is who is responsible when genetically modified seeds cross-pollinate with organic seeds. Jane Lindholm talks with Daniel Ravicher, the plaintiffs' attorney in the case.

And we visit Middlebury Chocolates, where Andrew and Stephanie Jackson start out with whole unroasted cocoa beans from all over the world and transform them from bean to bar.