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Monday, January 21st, 2013

Climate Change to Profoundly Affect the Midwest in Coming Decades

Author:     JIM ERICKSON
Source:     University of Michigan
Publication Date:     18-Jan-13
 Link: Climate Change to Profoundly Affect the Midwest in Coming Decades
Stephan:   Here is more on the emerging picture of the future that climate change is promising. However, at Federal level, I see very little actually happening. The Republicans, indentured as they are to corporate special interests, particularly carbon based energy, will do everything in their power to block programs that harm their masters. The draft National Climate Assessment report is available at http://ncadac.globalchange.gov. A summary of associated technical input papers is available at www.glisa.umich.edu.

ANN ARBOR — In the coming decades, climate change will lead to more frequent and more intense Midwest heat waves while degrading air and water quality and threatening public health. Intense rainstorms and floods will become more common, and existing risks to the Great Lakes will be exacerbated.

Those are some of the conclusions contained in the Midwest chapter of a draft report released last week by the federal government that assesses the key impacts of climate change on every region in the country and analyzes its likely effects on human health, water, energy, transportation, agriculture, forests, ecosystems and biodiversity.

Three University of Michigan researchers were lead convening authors of chapters in the 1,100-plus-page National Climate Assessment, which was written by a team of more than 240 scientists.

University of Michigan aquatic ecologist Donald Scavia was a lead convening author of the Midwest chapter. Dan Brown of the School of Natural Resources and Environment was a lead convening author of the chapter on changes in land use and land cover. Rosina Bierbaum of SNRE and the School of Public Health was a lead convening author of the chapter on climate change adaptation. Missy Stults, a research assistant with Bierbaum and a doctoral student […]

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