From Maple Syrup to Snow Pack, Global Warming Happening Here and Now
Published June 16, 2009 @ 09:02PM PT
Heavy rains are becoming more intense and frequent all over the country, although annual rainfall is decreasing in the Southwest. Both make it more difficult to manage water supplies for crops and communities.
Winter snow pack is decreasing, and melting off earlier in the year, in the West and Pacific Northwest. This is putting stress on fish that depend upon cold, ample stream and river flows for spawning; making hydroelectric power generation more difficult; and imperils fresh water supplies for people and agriculture.
Warmer winter temperatures have pushed the nexus of winter maple syrup production northward, from Vermont into Canada.
A new report released today by the federal government's affirms that the effects of global warming are being felt across the United States, affecting us in all sorts of everyday ways that may seem unconnected, but add up to big shifts in our quality and way of life.
As for how the impacts of global warming will intensify in coming years, there's a lot that's uncertain, because we don't know if human-caused emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases will rise or be reduced. Although no experts are saying that things will change for the better, they're united in recommending that sooner we cut human-propelled greenhouse gas pollution (from burning fossil fuels, industrial-scale agriculture, deforestation, and other causes), the better our chances of blunting global warming's worst impacts.
This report is a synthesis of research that's been developed and reviewed over the past decade in different sectors of the scientific community, and so contains no new science. But in taking a tight focus on how global warming is already changing the US (rather than taking a global view), researchers hope it will bring the situation -- and the need to act right away -- home to Americans, who generally feel that climate change is a problem happening in far off lands, in the far off future.
“What we would want to have people take away is that climate change is happening now, and it’s actually beginning to affect our lives,” said Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a principal author of the report. “It’s not just happening in the Arctic regions, but it’s beginning to show up in our own backyards.” (The New York Times)
In the Northeast, where I live, the annual average temperature has increased by 2°F since 1970; winter temperatures have risen twice as much. (Which is perhaps why my snowshoes have gathered dust in the basement for most of the past several winters.) And more:
Warming has resulted in many other climate-related changes including more frequent very hot days, a longer growing season, an increase in heavy downpours, less winter precipitation falling as snow and more as rain, reduced snowpack, earlier break-up of winter ice on lakes and rivers, earlier spring snowmelt resulting in earlier peak river flows, rising sea surface temperatures, and rising sea level.
These trends are projected to continue, with more dramatic changes under higher emissions scenarios compared to lower emissions scenarios. Some of the extensive climate-related changes projected for the region could significantly alter the region’s economy, landscape, character, and quality of life.
Living in a coastal metropolis, I can look forward to higher ocean levels impairing, if not destroying, the local sewage system, unless New York City takes a cue from Boston Harbor’s Deer Island sewage plant, which has been raised to avoid destructive impacts from future sea-level rise. We're already having more heat waves, and can expect more and worse flooding of low-lying areas of the city, and changing offshore ocean currents that in turn effect nearer-shore ecosystems (among other changes).
Experts from 13 U.S. government science agencies and from several major universities and research institutes, overseen by the White House Office on Science and Technology Policy, contributed to the report, online at globalchange.gov.
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Image credit: National Weather Service
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Comments (12)
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Emily is a journalist and editor covering the environment and science, and has been working in online news, community and content since 1994.
"Which is perhaps why my snowshoes have gathered dust in the basement for most of the past several winters."
Is this not an example of confirmation bias, where your opinion is influenced by the relative proximity of certain events, and you conveniently forget contradictory evidence?
Posted by Mark O on 06/17/2009 @ 07:20AM PT
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I believe the "perhaps" semantically accounts for the difficulty of demonstrating a direct cause and affect between climate change and a lack of snow in NYC over the past two or three winters.
As for what I've supposedly forgotten...fill me in!
Posted by Emily Gertz on 06/17/2009 @ 07:58AM PT
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It's wonderful that science has returned to the White House, but listening to the science is only half of the solution. The White House has to act on it.
With this report in mind, Tell President Obama: YES HE CAN STOP GLOBAL WARMING
http://www.change.org/greenpeacefund/actions/view/tell_president_obama_yes_he_can_stop_global_warming
Posted by Greenpeace on 06/17/2009 @ 07:48AM PT
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What accounts for 2008 being the coldest winter in a long time and the snow hanging around an extra month this year?
Posted by Charlie Reed on 06/17/2009 @ 06:16PM PT
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Emily, was Mass in some kind of arctic pocket? The tales of warm winters do not match up. I plowed until I was ready to drop. The garden stayed buried in snow a month longer than usual. It is June 17 and the entire family except Mom, Dad and Grandpa left My grandsons game early (6:00 pm) because of the cold. My snw shoes would no work this year either. Seriously, the snow was way too deep.
Posted by Charlie Reed on 06/17/2009 @ 06:23PM PT
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Emily, My above comment is dead serious and honest. I believe you to be honest, so I have to ask, Is the rest of the country experiencing a different situation than Mass?
Posted by Charlie Reed on 06/18/2009 @ 10:21AM PT
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Sorry if I've seemed unresponsive -- I was at a journalism workshop most of the week and couldn't dig into the comments with my usual verve!
Charlie, I can't speak specifically to Mass. this past winter. Overall, though, there are a few things to keep in mind about recent weather vs. global climate trends.
One is that human-propelled climate change is happening against the backdrop of natural variations in weather and climate conditions from year to year (such as the El Nino/La Nina cycle). So even with the climate changing, this year might be cooler than last year for other reasons.
From what I've read, we're in a cooler period right now relative to the beginning of the decade.
Against this "background noise" of natural variation, though, temperatures have gotten warmer over the past fifty years or so. Average global temperatures are clearly higher than they were a decade ago, and a decade before that, etc.
Changing climate doesn't just mean warmer -- it means instability and unpredictability, like weird cold snaps, say. This is why scientists have generally been adopting the term 'climate change' over 'global warming' -- they feel it's a more accurate description of what we're dealing with.
My guess is that your incredibly cold winter in Massachusetts falls within the natural range of variation for New England winters. It will be several years before we can look back and see if it was part of an unusual weather trend that rises above the background noise of normal variations.
Posted by Emily Gertz on 06/19/2009 @ 08:21PM PT
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So I know it's just one chart in one report, but this exemplifies the kind of poor science I am seeing practiced by politicians who want to push an agenda:
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2009/06/update-on-climate-chart.html
"In 1997, the EIA (and Makins himself) took over the compilation of this data, which had previously been haphazard, and made a big push to get all utilities to report as required. They made a second change and push for reporting in 2001, and again in 2007/2008. He told me that most of this slope is due to better reporting, and not necessarily any underlying trend. In fact, he said there still is some under-reporting by smaller utilities he wants to improve so that the graph will likely go higher in the future."
Posted by Mark O on 06/19/2009 @ 11:21AM PT
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Spinning the data is never a good idea, I agree -- and when it comes to climate change, it's not even necessary to making the points that need to be made.
Posted by Emily Gertz on 06/19/2009 @ 08:24PM PT
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Emily thank you for the info. I'll pass it along to the guys i work with, an i will include a slight (told ya). I hope You enjoyed My adopted home state, and hopefully you got to get together with Leigh while you were there?
Posted by Charlie Reed on 06/20/2009 @ 05:49PM PT
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Alas, no! Totally packed schedule. It was fun though -- three intense days of non-stop lectures on nano-technology from research, policy, ethical and business perspectives. (Yes, this is what science and environment journalists call "fun.")
I visit western Mass. at least a couple times a year to visit family, and do love it. I wish I'd gotten up there this past winter to do my snowshoeing...
Posted by Emily Gertz on 06/21/2009 @ 10:48AM PT
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Plants require carbon dioxide to conduct photosynthesis. Because of low current atmospheric concentration, carbon dioxide is practically the limiting factor of the Earth life, as compare to two other similarly important components - water and sun light. While plants "in wild" are optimized for this, plant-intense greenhouses may (and of large size - must) enrich their atmospheres with additional CO2 to sustain plant life and growth, because the low present-day atmosphere concentration of CO2 is just above the "suffocation" level for green plants. A photosynthesis-related drop (by a factor less than two) in carbon dioxide concentration in a greenhouse compartment would kill green plants, or, at least, completely stop their growth. At very high concentrations (a factor of 100 or more higher than its atmospheric concentration), carbon dioxide can be toxic to animal life, so raising the concentration to 10,000 ppm (1%) or higher for several hours will eliminate pests such as whiteflies and spider mites in a greenhouse.
It has been proposed that carbon dioxide from power generation be bubbled into ponds to grow algae that could then be converted into biodiesel fuel.[11] Carbon dioxide is already increasingly used in greenhouses as the main carbon source for Spirulina algae. In medicine, up to 5% carbon dioxide (factor 150 as compare to atmospheric concentration) is added to pure oxygen for stimulation of breathing after apnea and to stabilize the O2/CO2 balance in blood.
[edit] Lasers
Posted by R K on 06/22/2009 @ 10:56AM PT
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