Panel: US faces change as climate warms (Gorebalism Alert!)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/13/07 | Edith M. Lederer - ap

[NormsRevenge]

UNITED NATIONS - Chicago and Los Angeles will likely to face increasing heat waves. Severe storm surges could hit New York and Boston. And cities that rely on melting snow for water may run into serious shortages.

These are some of the findings about North America in a report by hundreds of scientists that try to explain how global warming is changing life on Earth. The scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a summary of their findings on global warming last Friday and outlined details of the report focusing on various regions on Tuesday.

According to the panel, global warming is already having an effect on daily life but when the Earth gets a few degrees hotter, the current inconvenience could give way to danger and even death.

And North America will not escape the impact of climate change, and the impact will be felt from Florida and Texas to Alaska and Canada's Northwest Territories, the panel said.

"Canada and the United States are, despite being strong economies with the financial power to cope, facing many of the same impacts that are projected for the rest of the world," Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program which co-founded the panel, said in a statement.

He said the findings underline that the best way to reduce the effects of global warming is "deep and decisive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid dangerous climate change in the first place."

The panel warned that shifts in rainfall patterns, melting glaciers, rising temperatures, increased demand and reduced supplies of water in some places are likely to increase tensions between users — industry, agriculture and a growing population.

"Heavily-utilized water systems of the western U.S. and Canada, such as the Columbia River, that rely on capturing snowmelt runoff, will be especially vulnerable," the report said.

A temperature warming of a few degrees by the 2040s is likely to sharply reduce summer flows, at a time of rising demand, it said.

By then, the panel estimated that Portland, Oregon, will require over 26 million additional cubic meters of water as a result of climate change and population growth, but the Columbia River's summer supply will have dropped by an estimated 5 million cubic meters.

Meanwhile, it said, just over 40 percent of the water supply to southern California is likely to be vulnerable by the 2020s due to losses of the Sierra Nevada and Colorado River basin snow packs.

The panel also said "lower levels in the Great Lakes are likely to influence many sectors" and exacerbate controversies over diverting water to cities such as Chicago, and the competing demands of water quality, lake-based transport, and drought mitigation.

Cities could also be at risk from high tides and storm surges, it said.

Near the end of the 21st century, under a strong warming scenario, the New York City area could be hit by increasingly damaging floods from surges, "putting much of the region's infrastructure at risk," the panel said.

Boston's transportation network may also be at risk from a sea level rise and the increased probability of a powerful storm surge, it said.

As for the impact of rising temperatures, the panel said a 25 percent increase in heat waves is projected for Chicago later this century, while the number of heat-wave days in Los Angeles is projected to increase from the current 12 per year to between 44 and nearly 100.

By the mid-21st century, regions in Alaska and Canada's Northwestern Territories are likely to be at "moderate to high risk" due to coastal erosion and thawing of permafrost including the report said.

North American producers of wood and timber could suffer losses of between $1 billion and $2 billion a year during the 21st century if climate change also sparks changes in diseases, insect attacks and forest fires, the panel said.

[NormsRevenge]

Tourists try to protect themselves after a strong wave hit the resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, Monday, April 9, 2007. The unusual waves could be the result of swells just reaching some Pacific coasts from a powerful storm that occurred last week off the western coast of South America, thousands of miles to the south, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. Scientists have warned that rising global temperatures may produce stronger and more frequent storms that will affect coastal cities in Latin America and could change the face of tourism.(AP Photo)

[San Jacinto]

Hogwash!

[irishtenor]

***By then, the panel estimated that Portland, Oregon, will require over 26 million additional cubic meters of water as a result of climate change and population growth, but the Columbia River’s summer supply will have dropped by an estimated 5 million cubic meters. ***

Aren’t statistic wonderful? The above statement sounds very bad, scary in fact, but the flow of the Columbia is astoundingly more than that every day. The mouth of the river is about a mile wide.

[Realism]

They’re predicting 14-18 inches of global warming here Sunday-Monday.

[beethovenfan]

More GoreBull$hit.

[irishtenor]

I’m hopeing that UPPER NY where you live. I am going to NY next Thursday.

[SF Republican]

The above statement sounds very bad Recently a Berkeley Professor said with Global Warming San Francisco could have weather like Tijuana - sounds terrible, if he has said weather like La Jolla (which is 10 miles away from TJ) it would have sounded like paradise (which it would be).

[migjig]

These are the type of people that Goreists are trying to save,the ones in that picture that stare in awe as a giant tidal wave comes to kill them! All the research that I have done myself on global warming has led me to conclude that the climate of the earth is warming which it has done throughout history, then it will cool itself off again. Plain and simple, nothing we can do about it but just sit back and enjoy the tropical temperatures and if you don’t like it hot then get in the shade.

[Always Right]

To call these scenarios put out by computer models a ‘prediction’ is a flat out lie. Nobody working with these models think they are predictions. They are just one scenario based upon a thousands of assumptions. This is pure fantasy bull crap, not science. These guys should be tarred and feathered.

[Realism]

Yep, hopefully the storm will be a flop, I’ve had my fill of snow up here, ready for spring now.

[canuck_conservative]

I’ve got a serious question: why don’t nice days get blamed on Glbal Warming?

You know how, everytime we get a bad stretch of weather somewhere, the granola-heads instantly say GW is responsible? Because GW is so pervasive it’s the cause of all our weather now, right?

So whenever we get a really nice day, warm, sunny, no wind, shouldn’t we thank GW too?

Start saying it - “This beautiful weather, brought to you by Global Warming”!

[massgopguy]

The Boston Marathon is in danger of being snowed out on Monday.

[NormsRevenge]

Drudge upper left hand links..

Severe Storms Precede Nor`easter...
May have historical impacts...
Heavy Rain, dangerous winds set for NYC...
Watches/Warnings...
Wind Alert Ends; Widespread Power Outages Linger in Los Angeles...

Damn GW!

[tumblindice]

`US faces change as climate warms’

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`War Dims Hope for Peace’
`Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures’
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and finally, you might have been wondering:

`Is There a Ring of Debris Around Uranus?’

[RightField]

The Boston Marathon is in danger of being snowed out on Monday.

My son's college baseball game tomorrow has also been snowed out in upstate NY. They've already rescheduled the last two weeks worth of game because of snow, also. Daily double-headers through May ... pitchers and catchers to suffer the most.

[poobear]

It’s a good thing I’m in the Commercial HVAC business. Warm her up!

By the sounds of weather channel, it looks like the NE is going to need some heat!

[Anti-MSM]

The current 36-hr forecast:

On the winter side of the new storm there will be a band of heavy snow from northern New Mexico to southeastern Colorado out through western Kansas. Winter storm warnings are flying for a large portion of this region with snow amounts of 4 to as much as 12 inches. Blizzard conditions will develop later this afternoon into the evening from southeast Colorado to western Kansas. Use extreme caution driving through Friday night in this area. The snow will streak out toward Kansas City and Topeka by later tonight and into Saturday.

[William Tell]

From the article: "Boston's transportation network may also be at risk from a sea level rise and the increased probability of a powerful storm surge, it said. "

It's good to see that some of these AP authors have a sense of humor. Or do you suppose this was inadvertant?

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks!

Doesn’t look good for Nascar races in Texas this week-end, Yikes!

Considering the drought conditions, let it rain and snow..