A warmer, wetter Pacific Northwest

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2011688159_guest26kreidler.html

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980412&slug=2744699

A warmer, wetter Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest has been a region of tremendous environmental, economic and climatic opportunity. However, according to Robert G. Fleagle, in his Seattle time article “Nature's End Northwest's Climate Is Changing”, this region stands in coming decades to be transformed with shorter ski seasons, more winter flooding, reduced summer water supplied, increasingly destructive wildfires and further-stressed salmon runs due to over time climate change.

The most serious of these changes for the Northwest is likely to be the reduced winter snowpack. The University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group’s (an interdisciplinary research group studying the impacts of natural climate variability and global climate change in the Pacific Northwest) temperature records indicate that Pacific Northwest temperatures increased 1.5°F since 1920. Increased participation is also projected, which causes wetter autumns and winters and drier summer. These changes in temperature and precipitation will affect decreasing in snow pack, stream flow and water quality throughout the Pacific Northwest region. Jorge Carrasco, superintendent of Seattle City Light, emphasizes the importance of snowpack in the region, “Climate is a core business issue for Northwest utilities like Seattle City Light, which depends on hydropower. Snowpack in the mountains stores the fuel for our power supplies. Warmer temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns and shrinking glaciers threaten our hydroelectric resources.”

Because climate change is abstract in time, in scale and in its effects, most people tend to view it as a future problem. Moreover, uncertainties in incomplete understanding of the processes of climate change also hard to catch public’s attention. Fleagle says that “If we wait for better estimates, the consequences and the costs of taking corrective actions are likely to be much greater.” One way to solve this problem is to make connections to immediate experiences such as, for example, local weather events and using media to keep inform and educate the local people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbrRUuea6Q

When the overwhelming majority of earth scientists, research group, and the media say climate change is occurring, it seems like scientific evidence still unable to communicate the urgency of the climate crisis to a larger public. Mike Kreidler and Jorge Carrasco argue that we need government action; they say “it is the time for Federal climate legislation”. There are many environmental organizations, media, and activist group that involved and put so much effort to save our environment and now it’s time for government to take more responsibility on environmental issues.

by Rachel Pak