The report outlines how climate change is already affecting the United States and possible mechanisms for coping with it.
The report is a publication of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which is made up of 13 federal departments and agencies. It predicts how climate change will affect individual regions of the country, as well as different sectors of the economy.
Though some still question climate change, the authors of this report say it’s real. It’s affecting the United States already, says Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“I really believe this report is a game-changer,” she said. “I think that much of the foot-dragging in addressing climate change is a reflection of the perception that climate change is way down the road, it’s in the future and that it only affects remote parts of the planet.
“And this report demonstrates, provides the concrete scientific information that says unequivocally that climate change is happing now and it’s happening in our own backyards and it affects things people care about.”
This report isn’t the first to discuss the effects of climate change in the United States, but this report’s timing is significant: It comes as Congress is debating a massive energy bill that would put a cap on carbon emissions, such as those from coal-fired power plants.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., has been vocal about her opposition to the bill. In an April interview, she said that she felt the legislation would disproportionately affect West Virginia.
“There’s got to be some evening out of the brunt of this,” she said. “When you look at a state like California, it’s the least likely to be affected but it has millions and millions of people and it can spread out the burden of a cap-and-trade system among its population a lot better than a place like West Virginia.”
Dr. Alan Ducatman is the chairman of the Department of Community Medicine at West Virginia University. He says climate change will affect West Virginia in numerous ways, but the most obvious is in the energy economy.
“People don’t think about the sources of energy when they want the electricity and heat to be in their homes, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that for a variety of reasons, we have to think about both the change in the oil economy, because there are limited amounts,” he said. “There’re even limited amounts of coal, looking further downstream, and very importantly, coal is a source of climate change, as are oil and natural gas. So those things really do affect West Virginia.”
There will be other impacts of climate change, as the report outlines.
The sea level is rising, endangering American coastal cities. Warmer temperatures translate to less water in some areas, which will stress already overtaxed water resources. Crop production will be jeopardized.
The report doesn’t discuss West Virginia specifically, but another study by the Environmental Protection Agency predicts temperatures could increase by 3 degrees, and precipitation by 20 percent over the next century. That’s a lot more water for some parts of the state that are already having problems dealing with flooding.
We can anticipate that both droughts and especially flooding might be more severe if in fact the climate change scenarios play out,” Ducatman said.
Rainstorms in the Northeast are 67 percent heavier than they were a century ago, the report says.
Ultimately, no one can say how soon these predictions may come to pass. Jerry Melillo of the Marine Biological Laboratory was one of the report committee’s co-chairs, and says some of the worst potential effects can still be avoided.
“The good news, however, is that we can act now to avoid the worst impacts,” he said. “Reducing heat-trapping pollution will reduce the amount of climate change and the severity of these impacts.”
It’s a combination of adaptation and mitigation, Melillo says. Adaptation includes not building on land that’s likely to be flooded, while mitigation deals with more active pollution controls.