Climate change an urgent issue, says Maine NRC

PORTLAND – Maine is getting warmer, and although there is no straight line connecting sport-utility vehicles to the earlier ice-melt that scientists have observed, the anecdotal evidence for global warming is overwhelming, the Natural Resources Council of Maine said Monday, kicking off a public education campaign.

In a 24-page publication and in three radio advertisements that will be broadcast in the Bangor, Augusta and Portland markets beginning this week, Mainers who depend on the state’s farms, forests and weather to make a living express their observations on and concerns about global warming.

Data indicates that ice has been leaving the surface of Moosehead Lake earlier, echoing similar studies of lakes and rivers across the northern United States.

Over the last 100 years, the average temperature in Lewiston has increased by more than 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Species that weren’t believed to be able to survive this far north, including a nasty forest pest called the balsam woolly adelgid, have made inroads.

And farmers are turning to irrigation more and more to make up for recent droughts and a long-term 20 percent reduction in precipitation that has occurred in some parts of Maine over the past century.

Potato farmers, maple syrup producers and lobstermen, as well as the inns and restaurants that depend on the fall foliage for business, all worry about the impacts of changing weather, according to NRCM.

Connie King, operator of Lost Valley ski area in Auburn, says in the council’s publication, “Global warming definitely means we don’t have money in our pocket. When you run a business like this, you are totally affected by it.”

Global warming occurs when gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that can be produced when fossil fuels are burned rise into the atmosphere and trap solar radiation, increasing the planet’s temperature.

Though the details differ, climate models all predict that global warming will result in warmer weather in the short-term and make Maine’s weather unpredictable in the long term.

The models predict an increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation as well as a rise in sea level that could exceed a foot in some parts of Maine by 2100.

Steve Seabury, who has watched the sea level rise and the shore disappear at Higgins Beach in southern Maine, is convinced the changes he has observed are related to global warming.

“There is virtually no longer a beach at Higgins at high tide,” Seabury says in the NRCM publication.

While most of the scientific community agrees that human activity is contributing to global climate change, a handful of researchers say any changes occurring are naturally caused.

The major climate debate, however, is what the impacts of global warming might be, regardless of the causes.

Maine is already seeing the health impacts of global warming, Brownie Carson, executive director of NRCM, said Monday. Warmer air exacerbates existing air quality problems, such as the high ozone levels that can aggravate, or some say even cause, asthma.

And the recent boom in Lyme disease, which is spread by deer ticks, may be related to milder winters, some scientists say.

“From the local effects [on] asthmatic kids and Lyme disease to global effects [on] extreme weather patterns – there is no question [global warming is happening],” Carson said.

The radio spots and publication – called “Global Warming in Maine: Warning Signs, Winning Solutions” – are designed to educate the public as well as influence state policymakers who are currently in the midst of writing a state plan to reduce Maine’s contribution to global warming.

Last year, state legislators called for such a plan, with a goal of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, and eventually of reducing them by 80 percent overall. Other New England states, including Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts, already have climate plans in place.

Throughout the Northeast, states are taking action on global warming and related air-quality issues, promoting stricter local laws, greenhouse gas reductions and several pending lawsuits against the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which Maine is a party to.

Environmentalists argue that the federal government is not acting quickly enough.

“It’s frustrating that we have a government that can’t get out of its own way on this issue,” Carson said.

For information or to request a copy of the report, contact the Natural Resources Council of Maine at (800) 287-2345 or visit the Web site at www.maineenvironment.org.