Cascadia heating up

Global warming will bring disastrous consequences to the rainy, danky Pacific Northwest. As temperatures creep upwards, all sorts of funky things will happen to the balance of the various interconnected hydrological cycles the land depends on here. We can expect receding glaciers, shrinking snowpacks, thirsty rivers and rising sea levels in the Puget Sound.

Obviously, once these major forces get thrown out of whack, everything else will likewise be thrown into chaotic transition. For us H. sapiens, food growing seasons, drinking water, hydropower generation and irrigation will all take a hit.

For the rest of Cascadia’s inhabitants, it will likewise be dire. The imperiled salmon cycles will be severely impacted, which will throw off almost everything else, from orca whales to bald eagles, forest health to the oceanic food chain, not to mention the impacts on the soul of Ish River if the salmon were ever to take leave of us and our mess.

Oregon State University recently released a study that looks at some of the particular changes we can expect in Washington and Oregon. It does not bode well. For example, as Eric de Place explains in his Cascadia Scorecard blog, “By 2040, if warming trends continue as predicted:

*About 3,600 square miles of low-elevation terrain usually covered by snow during the winter would be dominated by rainfall.
*Nearly 22 percent of the snow-covered areas of the Oregon Cascades and 12.5 percent of the snow areas of the Washington Cascades would shift to a rain-dominated winter climate.
*More than 60 percent of the Olympic Range's snow-covered area would have rain-dominated winters.

That last factoid is a killer; for various reasons, the coastal ranges will get hit the hardest. What this will do to the Olympic Rainforest— mossy place that is so near to my heart—is uncertain.

You can read more about the OSU study in the Seattle Times, who, for some weird reason, chose to focus on the impact global warming will have on Northwest ski resorts, which seems to be the very least of the problems we’re facing. Another perspective is over at the Casacadia Scorecard blog.



global warming