Climate Point: Ghost forests, clawbacks and more scary news

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. From unseasonably warm New Hampshire, I'm Janet Wilson. It's Halloween week, and right on cue, we've got more haunting news.

First up, so-called "ghost forests," spooky tracts of dead trees, are becoming increasingly common along the Eastern Seaboard, writes Paste BN's Doyle Rice.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they are "the watery remains of a once verdant woodland" that brackish salt water from advancing seawaters have slowly poisoned. And new research suggests the deathly landscapes are home to tiny organisms that play a fascinating role in climate change, converting fast-acting methane into a less potent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

“Ghost forests” appear from Maine to Miami, bending back along the Gulf of Mexico. University of South Florida researchers concluded that Florida's Big Bend’s coastal forest is dying at “an unprecedented rate." In the Chesapeake Bay region, more than 80,000 acres of forest have turned to marsh in the last 150 years. That number could increase fivefold by 2100. Scary.

Feeling batty? They creep out at night and flee the sky by dawn. With faces that conjure vampire movies, long pointy ears and gnarly teeth, bats can be the stuff of nightmares, writes Chad Gillis for the Fort Myers News-Press, and with breeding season over in Florida and elsewhere, now is the time to remove them (gently) from your attic or roof.

The furry, winged creatures may be scary, but they're also heroes of the sky, gobbling blood-sucking mosquitoes, and are a part of many natural ecosystems. Warm-blooded mammals, Florida's 13 native bat species are protected by state law, and they may not be removed by any method between mid-April and mid-August.

But love or hate them, bats can do severe damage to homes and other structures over time, because they are highly social and can form maternity colonies of thousands - including in your roof, garage or chimney. For great advice on how to get a lone bat out of your living room (hint, don't use a baseball bat) and other tips, read the piece.

Feeling nutty? It's a "mast" year for certain types of acorns in New England, which means bumper crops underfoot or clonking you on the head out in the woods, as Alex Kuffner explains for the Providence Journal.

If you're tempted to fell a flourishing tree though, don't, experts say. Oaks provide copious shade in the summer, sequester large amounts of carbon, enrich the soil, and allow rain to percolate into the ground through their vast root systems, preventing runoff. They also offer a majestic landscape presence, including a towering white oak on one Rhode Island road that grew from an acorn that germinated about when the Pilgrims arrived in North America.

Feeling overwhelmed? Hard to believe, but by this time next week, the elections will be over. That doesn't mean the results will all be in (or that everyone will agree on them), but the blizzard of campaign mailers, TV and radio ads, annoying text messages and robocalls, and most importantly, the actual voting, will be done.

Across the U.S., voters are being asked to factor climate change into their ballot, or are already doing so. On the Jersey Shore, the closer you live to the Atlantic Ocean, the more likely you are to oppose giant windmills, and more than a quarter of New Jersey coastal residents surveyed said offshore wind was an important issue when they considered candidates, per Amanda Oglesby with the Asbury Park Press.

Some Massachusetts residents who see climate change as one of world's the most pressing issues feel apathetic about the choice of presidential candidates — saying neither has a strong enough climate platform to address the crisis, reports Emilia Wisniewski in MetroWest Daily news.

But in Phoenix, veteran climate researcher and activist Bill McKibben urged a "silver wave" of senior voters who are more informed about and motivated by climate impacts to get out and vote, noting they could potentially swing the swing state toward Harris and other progressives. That's the theory anyway, writes Joan Meiners for The Arizona Republic.

Crying foul. The Iowa Department of Agriculture destroyed about 1.3 million chickens after failing to find a buyer for the birds, the state said Friday.

The department took charge of the birds under an emergency court order after Pure Prairie Poultry filed for bankruptcy, saying it could no longer afford to feed them feed. Although Perdue offered to buy the potential broilers, creditors balked. State officials also sought to have them processed to distribute to hungry families, but those efforts failed. State and federal agricultural officials traded barbs over the mess, as Donelle Eller chronicles in the Des Moines Register.

Home wet home. Between billion dollar damages from the two record-breaking storms that battered the Southeast in October, and the spiraling costs of property insurance and taxes across the country, it might seem like climate change is the final nail in the coffin for homeownership.

But for now, despite all the headwinds stacked against it, U.S. homeownership was basically unchanged in the third quarter, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. At 65.5%, it was right in line with the 20-year average of 66%.

At the same time, reports Andrea Riquier, natural disasters and other events have nudged the insurance industry to start incorporating climate risk into its pricing models. In some areas, homeowners' insurance premiums have nearly doubled over the past five years - and in others, there are no private-sector policies to be found.

Clawback. In one final horror story, feds are still seeking $80,000 from a Point Pleasant, New Jersey couple 12 years after Superstorm Sandy chaos. It's what’s known as a “clawback,” reports the Asbury Park Press's Jerry Carino, and 12 years after Sandy, it’s a painful reminder for thousands of victims that even now, the disaster isn’t done wreaking havoc.

How did this happen? There are four categories of federal aid, and in the wake of Sandy, with nobody in government offering clear guidance on the matter, displaced homeowners understandably took help from wherever they could get it. State officials and advocacy groups are pushing for reform and debt cancellation, but until then, they urge folks seeking federal aid to obtain qualified advice so they can be on firm ground.

Don't forget to keep an eye peeled for trick or treaters on what is a warm, dry evening in many spots, or to turn your clocks back on Sunday.

Read on for more, including rare footage of a glacier that's not only melting, but smoking. Some stories below may require a subscription. Sign up and get access to eNewspapers across the Paste BN Network. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox for free once a week, sign up here.