TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Global Warming Effects Being Felt, Federal Report Warns

ADVERTISEMENT

The Washington Post

Published: May 28, 2008

WASHINGTON - Global warming is already affecting the nation's forests, water resources, farmland and wildlife and will have serious negative consequences during the next 25 to 50 years, according to a report issued Tuesday by the federal government.

The scientific assessment by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, which was commissioned by the Agriculture Department and carried out by 38 scientists inside and outside the government, provides the most detailed look in nearly eight years at how climate change is reshaping the American landscape.

The report, which runs 193 pages and synthesizes a thousand scientific papers, highlights how human-generated carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have translated into more frequent forest fires, reduced snowpack and increased drought, especially in the West.

Anthony Janetos, director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute of the University of Maryland and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said the document aims to inform federal resource managers and dispel the public's perception that global warming will only be felt years from now.

"They imagine all these ecological impacts are in some distant future," said Janetos, one of the lead authors, who pointed out that many animals and plants have shifted their migratory and blooming patterns to reflect recent changes in temperature. "They're not in some distant future. We're experiencing them now."

Researchers said of 1,598 animal species examined in more than 800 studies, nearly 60 percent have been affected by climate change.

The number and frequency of forest fires and insect outbreaks are "increasing in the interior West, the Southwest, and Alaska." And "precipitation, stream flow, and stream temperatures are increasing in most of the continental United States" and snowpack is declining in the West.

The Agriculture Department, the study's lead sponsor, issued a statement Tuesday highlighting some of the report's findings for farmers. The department's statement said that higher temperatures mean that grain and oilseed crops will mature more rapidly but face an increased risk of failure and "will negatively affect livestock."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT