Reports: NM, West are in for a gloomy century with global climate change
Trout streams in New Mexico and elsewhere in the Rocky Mountains could lose half their fish, Colorado's ski season could shorten or disappear and Nevada could dry up — all are gloomy predictions for the western United States if nothing is done to curb global warming, according to a spate of new reports.
A decade ago, such reports were a rarity. Now, when even the Bush administration agrees that human sources are causing global temperatures to rise, climate change studies are coming out often enough as to become background noise in the worldwide conversation about greenhouse gas reduction.
In May, as reported in the Independent, the Natural Resources Defense Council took a nationwide look at global warming and found it could cost the United States $4 trillion a year to deal with the anticipated flooding, drought, higher electrical demand and other factors if temperatures continue to rise through the year 2100.
In a new report issued last week the NRDC focuses on Rocky Mountains trout streams. The cold, clear waters that trout need to survive from southern New Mexico to northern Montana already are getting hotter. Another five degrees Fahrenheit could reduce trout habitat throughout the region by half, the report says. Continued warming threatens not only the fish, but the industry that relies on healthy trout streams.
In New Mexico, the world-class trout streams in the Gila Wilderness are identified by the study's authors as particularly vulnerable, but the New Mexico branch of the fishing advocacy group Trout Unlimited is nervous about all of the state, spokesman Greg McReynolds told the Independent.
And it's not just higher temperatures that are a threat, he said. Climate scientists predict longer periods of drought as well as more frequent floods, both of which can be bad for trout streams, he said. In fact, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is, for the first time, considering the potential effects of climate change as it considers whether to list the Rio Grande cutthroat trout as an endangered species, McReynolds said.
In the meantime, his group is working to improve and extend trout habitat wherever possible, including removing obstacles and reconnecting streams. "Our ultimate goal is to have intact river systems that allow the fish to survive whatever comes," he said.
In Nevada, decision-makers are considering a new report from the Center for Integrative Environmental Research at the University of Maryland which suggests the state take a long, hard look at its water resources as global temperatures ratchet upward. The report -- Nevada is one of eight states profiled by CIER and the National Conference of State Legislatures -- says lower precipitation eventually could cost the Silver State $25 billion a year in lost tax receipts and wages.
Also profiled by the research center was Colorado. It stands to lose skiing, one of its more important industries, if global warming remains unchecked, researchers said. Not only will there be less precipitation coming down as snow, but the lowest elevation of mountain snows will rise by hundreds of feet, snowpacks will melt earlier in the spring and forests could be decimated by insects such as pine beetles, the Vail Daily reported.
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