Feelin' the Heat: Higher Temps, Less Water for Oregon (AUDIO)

New Federal Report Makes Big Climate Change Predictions.

Salem-News.com

(PORTLAND, Ore ONS) - Warnings for the Pacific Northwest are dire in a new federal report on climate change. In the works since 2007, "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States" compiles years of data from more than a dozen federal agencies.

It says Oregon, Washington and Idaho will see hotter temperatures and less water in rivers for fish and wildlife, hydropower, agriculture, wildfire control...and drinking water for people.

One of the scientists who contributed to the report is Amanda Staudt with the National Wildlife Federation.

"Declining springtime snowpack in the Cascade Mountains will reduce summer stream flows and strain water supplies in Oregon. The western slopes could see runoff decrease by 30 percent or more by mid-century, if we fail to address climate change."

The agencies also conclude that greenhouse gas pollution is worse than earlier studies indicated, and the report suggests more aggressive action be taken now to curtail it. Staudt calls the report a hopeful sign, however, because it shows the United States is getting serious about addressing climate change... although some critics still are convinced that the warming climate is a natural cycle, not linked to human action.

In the North Cascades, where some of Oregon's water supply originates, scientists measuring the glaciers this summer say they're melting faster. That not only means less water, but warmer water. Geologist Jon Riedel of the National Park Service says salmon are not the only fish that will have trouble surviving as a result.

"There are also endangered trout, like the bull trout, that depend on the cold glacial water. The glaciers, you know, kind of buffer our streams and lakes. If we're losing that summer 'buffering capacity,' we call it, that certainly can't help the salmon or the trout."

Riedel says the North Cascades glaciers have lost half their volume in the past century, and the melting has accelerated in the last 16 years. The report also indicates that the average air temperature in the Northwest will rise from three to 10 degrees in this century, due to the types of pollution scientifically linked to climate change.

"Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States," issued by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, a NOAA project, is available at www.globalchange.gov/usimpacts.

Special thanks to Oregon News Service
Producer/Reporter Chris Thomas