Report warns Pennsylvania about global warming effects

Apples and sweet corn, brook trout and smallmouth bass, fall foliage and winter snow cover will all disappear from Pennsylvania if emissions causing global warming continue at their current rates, according to a detailed, state-specific climate change report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The report says that if emissions of carbon dioxide are not significantly reduced, the state's climate by the end of the century will closely resemble what Alabama and Georgia experience today.

"After Texas and California, Pennsylvania is the third-largest emitter of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and the emissions caps we choose now will determine how much our climate will change," said Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

By the end of the century, Ekwurzel said, if emissions continue unabated, Pittsburgh and other cities in the state will experience three months -- whole summers -- with 90-degree temperatures and 24 days with temperatures over 100 degrees.

That kind of sustained heat would make the state unsuitable for valuable black cherry trees and the maple and beech forests that cover much of the state.

"Winter temperatures would warm at an even more rapid rate, causing a dramatic decline in snow-covered winters," said Ekwurzel. "The number of days available for snowmobiling would be greatly reduced and the sport would be under a severe risk."

Bridget Shields, a Pittsburgh resident who fly fishes in the Laurel Highlands, said she's noticed streams getting warmer and shallower earlier over the last five years, the result of changing climate that has caused reduced snow packs and drought conditions in 13 of the last 15 years.

"If something is not done we will lose an important part of our heritage. Trout depend on cold, deep water and we have streams drying up in July and August," she said.

"It's not just scientists but people like myself who are noticing the changes. It's frustrating when people don't take the issue seriously."

With new data, the report amplifies one released last year by the national public interest group that analyzed climate change in the Northeast. It comes a week after a University of Maryland study found the warming already under way will cost Pennsylvania billions of dollars in flood damage, water treatment costs and losses in milk production.

Erika Spanger-Siegfried, Northeast climate project manager for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the report is intended to provide a useful resource for ongoing climate change assessment work by Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Climate Initiative is working on an action plan that aims to reduce city emissions over the next 20 years to the levels they were in 2000. Pennsylvania is doing a statewide inventory of emissions and putting together a plan for reductions.

Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey(at)post-gazette.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com