Heeding the call to prepare for a changing climate

The issue of climate change continues to heat up. And the increased attention can be seen at the federal, local and state levels.

President Barack Obama recently presented a new plan focused on curbing carbon emissions from the nation’s power plants, a move designed to continue movement toward the goal of realizing a 17 percent reduction the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

On the state level, Gov. Lincoln Chafee this year has announced the creation of an executive committee on the issue and issued a 57-page plan focused on reducing emissions and dealing with the impacts of a changing climate.

In neighboring Cranston, researches and local officials recently gathered to review the results of a climate change impact study conducted through the New England Climate Adaptation Project. Cranston was one of four communities in the region – Wells, Maine, Dover, N.H. and Barnstable, Mass., were the others – for which the project collected data and presented a report outlining existing risks, likely climate changes over the next century, public opinion and available resources.

The information presented was sobering. The number of days on which temperatures top 90 degrees is expected to spike in Cranston, with as many as 29 by the century’s end. Droughts, increased flooding, rising sea levels, more extreme weather events – all are on the horizon, researchers say, with the extent of the shift dependent largely on whether carbon emissions levels are high or low.

The impacts could be devastating. Researchers point to the ecological, economic and social consequences of a major change in the climate, and the full extent of the consequences cannot be fully predicted.

Johnston, nestled next to Cranston, will likely experience many of the same changes and challenges, although there will obviously be differences. Sea levels, for example, are a more pressing concern for Cranston with its waterfront areas.

The climate change issue has seen an interesting evolution on the national stage. It was, in 2008, at the forefront of presidential politics, seemingly having transcended partisan politics and considered universally to be a pressing matter. It then faded as the economic meltdown consumed public attention, and as the efforts of those who question the science of climate change made a significant impact on public opinion.

The vast majority of the scientific community has not wavered, pointing to melting glaciers, rising sea levels, severe weather and other troubling signs that the globe is warming – and with major consequences. Many still doubt the science. Some wonder whether anything, at this point, can be done to stop the warming trend and the subsequent climate shift.

Based on what the Cranston researchers showed, there are definite steps that can be taken to mitigate, if not reverse, the changes. Action, they say, is critical at all levels, from local neighborhoods to the halls of power in Washington, D.C.

Climate change is, once again, at the forefront of political discourse. For the sake of our communities, we must heed the call to take notice and do what we can to prepare.