http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ImpactsForests.html
If the earth warms 2°C (3.6°F) in 100 years, however, the species would have to migrate about 2 miles every year.
If habitats simply shift to cooler areas (i.e., higher latitudes or higher altitudes), many forms of wildlife could potentially adapt to global warming, just as they have adapted to the changes in climate that have occurred over the last several million years. Unlike previous climatic shifts, however, roads, development, and other modifications to the natural environment may block the migration routes. Nature reserves, often established to protect particular species, may no longer be located in a climate hospitable to that species.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ImpactsCoastalZones.html
Concerned about the need to protect property rights, Maine, South Carolina, and Texas have implemented some version of "rolling easements," in which people are allowed to build, but only on the condition that they will remove the structure if and when it is threatened by an advancing shoreline.
Sea level is rising more rapidly along the U.S. coast than worldwide. Studies by EPA and others have estimated that along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, a one foot (30 cm) rise in sea level is likely by 2050 and could occur as soon as 2025.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ImpactsMountains.html
 Robert Zavadil |
Glacier National Park's largest remaining glaciers are now only a third as large as they were in 1850, and one study estimates that all glaciers in the park may disappear completely in the next 30 years.
warm temperatures can increase air and water pollution,
which in turn harm human health.
In July 1995, a heat wave killed more than 700 people in the Chicago area
alone.
1000 people die from the cold each year, while twice
that many die from the heat
Although air-conditioning and public health programs may impose additional
costs on the public and private sectors, they would often be preferable to
the impacts on human health that would otherwise occur.
Temperate Asia - populations are increasing at an extremely fast rate. Thus, the environment in this region already is under great stress. The impacts of expected climate change may exacerbate existing environmental problems.
I am confident we will make America's environment even cleaner than it is today. - Christie Whitman
The mounting evidence for global warming caused the world's leading scientific authority on the topic to make its most conclusive statements to date. In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated, “The warming of the last 50 years due to anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gases can be identified.” The panel said temperature could rise by up to 5 degrees Celsius, or 11 degrees Fahrenheit, this century. That would be twice the entire warming after the last ice age 12,000 years ago, and it would take place in 100 years, rather than over thousands, giving the natural world and human civilization little time to adapt.
The American Geophysical Union, the nation's largest earth sciences association, recently stated, “there is no known geologic precedent for the transfer of carbon from the Earth's crust to atmospheric carbon dioxide, in quantities comparable to the burning of fossil fuels, without simultaneous changes in other parts of the carbon cycle and climate system.” Any remaining scientific uncertainty “does not justify inaction in the mitigation of human-induced climate change and/or the adaptation to it.”
A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) model shows average Cascades snowline rising from its current 3,000 feet to 4,100 feet by 2050-80. The PNNL model shows the volume of water stored in Northwest snowpack shrinking 50 percent by 2050-80. In the scenario some areas near snowline see snowpack drop by up to 90 percent. Many Northwest mountain areas in the 3,000-6,000-foot range become snow-free.
By increasing evaporation from the oceans, global warming is creating a steamier atmosphere more prone to intense rainstorms. Dr. Gerhard Berz, head of the Geoscience Research Group at Munich Reinsurance, the world's largest reinsurance company, says, “There is no longer any doubt to us that a warming of the atmosphere and the oceans is causing an increased likelihood of storms, tidal waves, hailstorms, floods and other extreme events.”
EPA proposes to revise the existing routine maintenance, repair and replacement exemption contained in EPA's regulations to make clear that two categories of activities automatically constitute routine maintenance, repair and replacement.
Dow Chemical:
Is likely the world's largest root source of dioxin;
Has major investments in facilities whose products and wastes generate dioxin;
Protects these investments by using corporate resources and power to influence scientific and public opinion; and to shape the outcome of legislative and regulatory processes;
Corrupts efforts to reach an objective scientific and public understanding of dioxin's sources and dioxin's public health impacts
It's long past time for the nation's dirtiest plants
to do their part to lower air pollution. Instead, the Bush administration
seems intent on turning their temporary break into a permanent pass.
The Bush administration moved Friday to loosen federal air pollution standards
that must be met by electric utilities, oil refineries and other heavy industries
that modernize their plants.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/11/23/MN231588.DTL
"permit thousands of the oldest, dirtiest smokestacks to continue spewing
out pollution rather than installing state-of-the-art pollution controls."
Vickie Patton, an attorney with Environmental Defense, said the changes amount
to "a sweeping and unprecedented erosion of state and local power to
protect the public health from air pollution" by thousands of power plants,
oil refineries and industrial facilities
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