Inside Wick Park in Youngstown - a space especially sensitive to its effects - came the latest chapter in the Valley's conversation about climate change.

"We're seeing longer growing seasons and we're seeing more drastic changes in our temperature and precipitation," said Dr. Felicia Armstrong, who joined fellow YSU professor Dr. Colleen McLean and others Thursday to keep that conversation top of mind, with Earth Day on Friday.

While our Valley won't see the types of impacts places like Miami or LA will, the professors laid out in no uncertain terms the reality we'll face.

"We're going to have periods of drought much longer than we've had in the past and then we'll get more intense rainfall," said Dr. Armstrong.

The truth of climate change will also mean consequences for everything from our insurance costs to our infrastructure.

"We should definitely be future-proofing our infrastructure as much as humanly possible," says 21 News Chief Meteorologist Eric Wilhelm. "The increase in precipitation we've seen in recent years and recent decades, there's nothing to indicate that that is going to slow down. In fact, the number of high-impact precipitation events will probably continue to rise."

Which lays the onus on us to help reverse that trend as much as we can.

"Eat more plant based material," says Dr. Armstrong. "Get a hybrid or an electric car...switching to LED lights is a great way to save electricity."

Efforts Dr. Armstrong says control what we can to help avoid what we can't.