Posted on 03/30/2008 9:42:15 AM PDT by blam
American West Heating Nearly Twice As Fast As Rest Of World, New Analysis Shows
Colorado River, Utah. The West's most pronounced temperature increase is in the Colorado River basin, which has warmed more than twice as much as the global average, with effects that put at risk a major water supply. (Credit: iStockphoto/Eric Foltz)
ScienceDaily (Mar. 30, 2008) — The American West is heating up more rapidly than the rest of the world, according to a new analysis of the most recent federal government temperature figures. The news is especially bad for some of the nation’s fastest growing cities, which receive water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. The average temperature rise in the Southwest’s largest river basin was more than double the average global increase, likely spelling even more parched conditions.
For the report, the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) analyzed new temperature data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for 11 western states. For the five-year period 2003-2007 the average temperature in the Colorado River Basin, which stretches from Wyoming to Mexico, was 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the historical average for the 20th Century. The temperature rise was more than twice the global average increase of 1.0 degree during the same period. The average temperature increased 1.7 degrees in the entire 11-state western region.
“We are seeing signs of the economic impacts throughout the West,” said study author Stephen Saunders of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. “Since 2000 we have seen $2.7 billion in crop loss claims due to drought. Global warming is harming valuable commercial salmon fisheries, reducing hunting activity and revenues, and threatening shorter and less profitable seasons for ski resorts.”
The Colorado River Basin is in the throes of a record drought, shrinking water supplies for upwards of 30 million people in fast-growing Denver, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego. Most of the Colorado River’s flow comes from melting snow in the mountains of Wyoming, Utah and Wyoming. Climate scientists predict even more and drier droughts in the future as hotter temperatures reduce the snowpack and increase evaporation.
To date, the governors of Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington have signed the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), an agreement to reduce global warming pollution through a market-based system, such as cap-and-trade. The WCI calls for states to reduce their global warming emissions 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Conservationists say the states should commit to meeting these targets, and that there should also be a firm target of an 80 percent reduction by 2050.
A growing chorus of leaders across the political and economic spectrum says more aggressive action is needed at the national level. Supporters say the Lieberman-Warner bill, “America’s Climate Security Act” (S. 2191), is the strongest global warming bill moving through Congress. The bipartisan bill is the first climate legislation ever to be passed out of a Senate committee. The full Senate is expected to vote on the bill by summer, by which time supporters are optimistic about strengthening the bill even further.
“We need strong leadership from western senators to pass America’s Climate Security Act,” said Spencer. “The longer we wait to put a concrete cap on global warming pollution, the greater the threat to all Americans.”
The NRDC-RMCO report, “Warming in the West,” analyzed temperature data from Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The report is available online at http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/west/contents.asp.
Adapted from materials provided by Natural Resources Defense Council.
Somebody is making series money from this GW scam. One route to wealth could be webpages following the example of viral politics.
How can Global Warming/Climate Change be selective?
Must be from all of those nuclear tests in the desert 50 years ago. They are finally catching up with us. < /s >
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(Wink, wink) Lots of cars in California and Nevada. Lots of lights in Las Vegas.
Is it following the exodus of Californians as they despoil the closest states first or is it the influx of from our southern neighbor?
What area of the North American Continent has always been considered a desert? Duhhhhh. ummmm I bet it is the West!
What happens in a desert? It gets HOT. And it rarely RAINS.
That makes water SCARCE. What did the people expect to find otherwise?
The desert heat has hard boiled a lot of BRAINS.
Maybe the urban areas are growing up around the NOAA thermometers?
At least we’re making progress; we got the rest of the world cooled down now we only have to freeze out the west.
Just like your kitchen, how far apart are your stove and your refrigerator?
It’s been averaging about 8 degrees below normal here for the last week.
Maybe the temperature monitoring stations in the west are suffering from the urban heat island affect. Move them from downtown Las Vegas, Phoenix and such into the country and your temperature increase will disappear. Easy fix to the problem of Globull Warming these nuts are talking about.
I’d say it’s the large collective of Global Whiners in that part of the country. (somebody’s fudging the results?)
So the temp is rising fastest in the areas with the least inhabitation and automobiles?
I believe the very first headline in a newspaper that “Humans caused global warming” was int he New York Times in 1865.
Can someone verify for me? Thanks.
SIMPLE:
Hollywood’s hot air, and SF’s gay friction.
When alarmist stories like this come out, I’ve come to treat them as lies. The polar bears drowning was the last straw. I learned the GW crowd will tell any lie, stab any back to push their socialist agenda.
Ya know, this could be solved if everyone would just dump out their ice makers and take the ice to the river. We could call it Earth Hour II.
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