Massive Report Details Midwestern Climate Change Impact

[ensho]

http://progressillinois.com/2009/6/17/massive-report-climate-change-impact


Lost in the shuffle of health care politicking, Iran election drama, and David Letterman apologies, a giant multi-agency federal report was released yesterday on the current and future impacts of climate change in the United States. While it's widely understood that developing nations will suffer first and foremost from global warming, the study -- conducted by the U.S. Global Change Research Program -- predicts that rising temperatures could have serious consequences for how Americans live and work. Released just as the House of Representatives prepares to take up the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), the Obama administration hopes the new data will influence the Congressional debate. "This report is a game-changer," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official Jane Lubchenco told Grist yesterday. "This report demonstrates in concrete scientific information that climate change happening now, and it’s happening in our backyards."

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What does that mean for the state residents?

For one, we can expect poorer air quality and more frequent and severe heat waves, similar to the crisis that hit Chicago in 1995, killing over 700 people. Significant reductions in Great Lakes water levels will hamstring businesses that rely on the waterways for shipping, as well as the people that rely on them for drinking water and local ecosystems that rely on them for survival. Furthermore, the combination of precipitation growth in winter and spring, more heavy downpours, and greater evaporation in summer will lead to more frequent flooding and water deficits. Last year, floods devastated towns along the western border of the state, as well as in Iowa and Missouri.

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Last legislative session, state lawmakers passed a major bill to improve Illinois' energy efficiency and promote renewable energy production. Will the congressional delegation follow their lead?
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the report is broken down by Regions

[wildflower]

1. Thank you

I don't know why we don't see more attention given this.

[pansypoo53219]

2. well,

weather hasn't been 'notrmal' for years. and this spring more so.

[kestrel91316]

3. You should put this in E/E, too.