Not long ago, I was having dinner at a restaurant with some
friends. We were talking about environmental concerns when someone
mentioned climate change.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” said the man seated to my
right. “We are actually going into the next ice age, and the
weather is getting colder.”
Stunned, all I could say was, “I don’t even know how to respond
to that.” I was not in the mood to give a scientific lecture, nor
did it seem like the time to engage in an angry debate — so I
changed the subject.
Ever since, I’ve been wondering what I should have said. I’m
sure I could have discussed whether humans are to blame for the
fact that temperatures are becoming more extreme. For example, the
average annual temperature has exceeded the 138-year average every
year since 1976. (See
NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.) The
evidence of human influence is pretty compelling, but even if you
find fault with the data or want to blame natural causes, the
warming trend is clear.
How climate change could alter life in the Puget Sound region is
the focus of a new report from the University of Washington’s
Climate Impacts Group.
A 1997 landslide on Bainbridge
Island killed a family of four and resulted in five homes being
condemned. Landslides can be expected to increase in the future
because of changes in precipitation patterns.
Kitsap Sun file photo
In concert with the report’s release, I’m writing three stories
for the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound, all focusing on specific
aspects of the report, beginning with landslide risks. See
“Shifting ground: climate change may increase the risk of
landslides” on the Puget Sound Institute’s blog.
As the new report describes, increased flooding, more frequent
landslides and decreased salmon runs are likely, along with
declines in some native species and increases in others. We are
likely to see more successful invasions by nonnative species, while
summer drought could cause more insect damage to forests and more
forest fires.
“When you look at the projected changes, it’s dramatic,” said
lead author Guillaume Mauger in a
news release. “This report provides a single resource for
people to look at what’s coming and think about how to adapt.”
The report includes examples of communities taking actions to
prepare for climate change, such as merging flood-management
districts to prepare for increased flooding in King County and
designing infrastructure to contend with rising sea levels in other
areas.
“In the same way that the science is very different from the
last report in 2005, I think the capacity and willingness to work
on climate change is in a completely different place,” Mauger
said.
Sheida Sahandy, executive director of the Puget Sound
Partnership, said the people of Puget Sound must be prepared for
changes that have already begun.
“To protect Puget Sound, we need to plan for the ever-increasing
impacts of climate change,” she said in a
news release. “This report helps us better understand the very
real pressures we will face over the coming decades. The effects of
climate change impact every part of what we consider necessary for
a healthy Puget Sound: clean water, abundant water quantity, human
wellbeing, and a Puget Sound habitat that can support our native
species.”
Work to compile the report was funded by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency via the Puget Sound Institute at UW Tacoma, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state of
Washington.
The report will become part of the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound,
where my climate-change stories will reside after publication over
the next three weeks. I’m currently working part-time for the Puget
Sound Institute, which publishes the encyclopedia and is affiliated
with the University of Washington — Tacoma.
For other news stories about the report, check out:
