Climate change is already being felt across the United States, from the shifting migration pattern of butterflies to heavier downpours in the Midwest and East. At this point, no matter what we do, we’ll still continue to see some worsening effects in the coming years.
That’s the conclusion the United States Global Change Research Program, a joint scientific venture of 13 federal agencies and the White House, has reached after a study on natural and human-caused effects on the environment.
From The New York Times:
Some of the effects being seen today and cited in the report are familiar, like more powerful tropical storms and erosion of ocean coastlines caused by melting Arctic ice. The study also cites an increase in drought in the Southwest and more intense heat waves in the Northeast as a result of growing concentrations of carbon dioxide and other climate-altering gases in the atmosphere.
Reduced mountain snowpack means earlier melt-offs and reduced stream volumes across the West and Northwest, affecting residential and agricultural water supplies, habitats for spawning fish and reduced hydroelectric power generation, the study found.
But the speed and severity of these effects in the future are expressed with less certainty in the report and will depend to some extent on how quickly the United States and other nations move to reduce emissions.
Climate change skeptics will be singing a different tune when their own families and homes are being affected. Why is it that so many of us aren’t fired up to act until the damage is clear in our own backyards?
Link [The New York Times] Photo credit: Flickr user Tidewater Muse
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