Global Warming In the News

Many say climate change already here
New Hampshire activists hail report

By Katherine Webster
The Associated Press

April 08. 2007 10:00AM

Environmental activists say the effects of climate change are already evident in New Hampshire, but a new international report shows more drastic changes ahead if global warming is not halted.

"Sections of this report read like the Book of Revelations," said Virginia Robnett, of Environment New Hampshire. "But there is still time to protect future generations if Congress puts strict limits on global warming pollution."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report Friday that predicted increased hunger and water shortages in the poorest countries, massive floods and avalanches in Asia and species extinction around the world. The 1,572-page report is intended to be a policy guide for governments.

Jan Pendlebury, director of the state's chapter of the National Environmental Trust, said the first local signs of change include warmer winters, periods of extreme dryness alternating with intense rain and flooding, lackluster fall foliage, declining maple syrup production and greater threats from infectious diseases such as West Nile Virus.

"There are strong indications that the forests themselves are beginning to unravel," Pendlebury said.

Other, more local studies have predicted the collapse of northern New England's maple syrup industry by mid-century, as northern hardwoods including sugar maples are replaced with less commercially valuable species like hickory.

Northern softwoods such as hemlock, which provides shelter for deer during the winter, also could die out, experts predicted. Changes to mountain fir-spruce forests could also harm rare and endangered species including lynx and pine marten, said Rick Van de Poll, president of Ecosystem Management Consultants.

"Basic forest ecosystem processes are at risk from ... the absence of frozen ground in winter, dramatic storm events and the influx of insect pathogens, both invasive and native," he said.

A rise in sea levels from melting glaciers would seriously alter the region's coastline and wetlands, Robnett said.

Great Bay, a major estuary that serves as a breeding ground for many marine species, could be seriously altered, she said. That would also affect many birds.

Global warming also could eradicate trout populations in other waterways and lead to flooding, she said.

Global warming is certain to hurt revenues from tourism because it will affect many of the things that draw tourists in the first place: the beaches, ski areas, lakes, fall foliage and mountain scenery, she said.

All called for Congress to pass a bill that would require the nation to reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

Robnett said that's not only do-able, but could be profitable. She cited a study estimating that if New Hampshire were to get 20 percent of its electric energy from renewable sources by 2020, it would cut total energy costs by $130 million and create 350 new jobs.

The state House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday requiring the state's electric utilities to get almost 25 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2025. House Bill 873 now goes to the Senate.