State braces for climate change

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By K.C. Mehaffey
World staff writer

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

If you go

What: Climate change meeting

When: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10

Where: Wenatchee Public Library, 310 Douglas St., Wenatchee

Document

Climate Change Impacts assessment

Download .PDF

WENATCHEE — Officials from several state agencies will gather in Wenatchee early next month to ask people here how the state should prepare for climate change.

“Significant impacts are projected in some sectors as early as the 2020s and certainly by the 2040s — these are not ‘far in the future’ impacts,” according to an executive summary in the Climate Impacts Group’s impacts assessment, released this summer.

A warmer climate will affect everything from snowpack in the mountains, to sea levels on the coast, the report says.

Scientists say temperature records show that the Pacific Northwest has warmed about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1920. That warming is predicted to hasten, with latest models from the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group showing that in another 10 years the average temperature will be 2 degrees warmer, and in 70 years, it will be more than 5 degrees warmer.

To prepare for these impacts, the state Legislature directed several state agencies to develop a strategy by December 2011.

The state departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Ecology, Fish and Wildlife, Natural Resources and Transportation are being asked to come up with ways to address or adapt to the effects of a warmer climate.

Seth Preston, spokesman for the state Department of Ecology, said impacts will vary in different locations of the state. In North Central Washington, water supply will be a critical aspect of climate change, and could have major impacts on farmers, power production, and fish habitat.

A smaller snowpack could also leave the region with drier forests, which could result in larger or more severe wildfires, he noted.

“What happens if there’s less runoff, and not only less, but it’s happening at different times of the year than it has historically?” he asked.

“Those are the kinds of things that people need to be looking around and asking, ‘If these things start happening, what can be done?’”

Among the impacts predicted throughout the Pacific Northwest by the Climate Impacts Group:

• April 1 snowpack will drop by almost one-third across the state by the 2020s, and more than one-half by the 2040s.

• The quality of habitat for salmon will be reduced, particularly in the interior Columbia River Basin and Lake Washington Ship Canal.

• The area burned by wildfires will double by the 2040s, and triple by the 2080s, increasing to more than 2 million acres in a given year.

• Significantly more heat and air pollution-related deaths will occur throughout the century. The group predicts 101 additional deaths among people over 45 years old by 2025 in the Seattle area alone.

The state is asking local agencies, businesses, farmers and residents to help them develop a strategy to prepare for these changes. One of two meetings to gather suggestions is in Wenatchee on Dec. 10, and all are welcome to attend.

K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512

mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com

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