Climate Change in the Southern Appalachian Mountains
It's pretty easy to have a winning stance on climate change. If there is one thing that never changes about the natural world it's that it is always changing. If only it were that simple. The controversy surrounding the global warming issue shows no sign of cooling off anytime soon.
Recent weather doesn't make it any easier to understand. Beijing just had its coldest morning in 40 years. It started snowing in western North Carolina in mid-December and hasn't let up yet. On the other hand, in Winnepig the average temperature in January was an unheard of 45 degrees and there's no snow for the Winter Olympics. What's going on here?
The issues surrounding climate change are complex and confounding, making it hard to explain or understand, and even harder to predict .... especially when the weather is colder than normal. It is important to remember, however, that this phenomena is referred to as global change. Local weather will be as unpredictable as ever.
Although there is a skeptical viewpoint, which will be represented in this report by Dr. John Everett, a 31 year veteran with the federal government's NOAA, the vast majority of scientists agree that the climate is warming. All of the federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, which has included climate change as one of its six strategic planning goals, are actively engaged in planning for adaptation to a changing climate.
What will all this mean to southern Appalachian mountain ecosystems? It's hard to say. There's a micro-climate over every rise in the mountains. It is difficult for researchers to predict results on a local scale but almost all agree that changes are coming. As Sam Pearsall with the Environmental Defense Fund said, "No one is sending messages from 2070". It has been our experience, however, that the state and federal land managers, biologists and ecologists we come into contact with are a sincere and hard-working lot. They've put a lot of time, effort and money into coming to the conclusion that it is time to pay attention to these predicted climate changes.
We hope you will explore the information we are presenting here. Whether you are a believer, a skeptic or someone who is on the fence, we believe the information we have gathered will be valuable in understanding this important issue.
- To read an overview of climate change issues, click here. In addition to general information on climate change, this report focuses on how land managers in the southern Appalachians are planning to adapt to a changing climate.
- Click here to read a report from the 2009 SAMAB Conference on climate change. SAMAB, Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere, is a group of professional state and federal land managers, university participants and non-profit conservation goups like The Nature Conservancy and the Southern Highlands Reserve, who meet once a year to present research and discuss how to address issues affecting the southern Appalachian region. This year's topic was climate change.
- Click here to view the National Academies 2008 Report on Climate Change, a comprehensive report on climate change from A to Z - what it is, how it was caused and what can be done about it. Interesting information also about the research behind the report. The National Academy is a non-government, non-profit organization made up of the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Engineers and the Institute of Medicine, that was set up to provide independent scientific and technological advice to the US government and the nation.
- Click here for a detailed account from the EPA on adaptation techniques for land managers as they address the impacts on ecosystems of climate change.
- Visit the U.S. Global Change Research Program website. The USGCRP coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and its implication for society. The program began as a presidential initiative in 1989 and calls for "a comprehensive and integrated U.S. research program which will assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change." This site presents the latest information from federal researchers.
- Here is a section of the US Global Change website that focuses on the southeast and climate change impacts to be expected. For nationwide impacts, click here.
- For the skeptical view on climate change, click here. This website is written and managed by Dr. John Everett, who has held 13 positions in 31 years with the federal government's NOAA as a researcher, analyst and manager in fisheries and ocean programs.