22 February 2005Duluth News TribuneScott Thistle
ST. PAUL -- Two experts with firsthand knowledge of the planet's warming warned state legislators Monday to heed signs of global climate change.
Arctic explorer Will Steger and Twin Cities meteorologist Paul Douglas urged state lawmakers Monday to heed the signs of ongoing climate changes and to prepare Minnesota for a warmer future.
From advancing research for farm crops that can grow in warmer and drier climates to embracing renewable sources of energy that reduce the emission of warming greenhouse gases, there's much state government can do, said Douglas, a weatherman with WCCO-TV, a Twin Cities CBS affiliate.
"Even a slight warming or drying may have a profound effect on what grows on our farmland," Douglas said. "Water, not oil, may prove to be one of the most valuable natural resources in coming decades."
Steger, a famed arctic explorer from Ely, said the technologies, including more fuel-efficient automobile engines and electricity-producing wind turbines, which help reduce greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, are already available but not being used enough in the United States.
In 100 years, Minnesota's summer will be more like those occurring in Kansas, with average temperatures rising between 3 and 10 degrees, said J. Drake Hamilton, the science policy director for Minnesotans for an Energy-Efficient Economy, which lobbies for greater use of renewable energy. And while that kind of temperature increase doesn't seem huge, it could change completely the makeup of plant and animal species that thrive here, Hamilton said. A warming trend will have particularly strong effect on the state's northern pine forests, especially those in areas like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which grow in relatively shallow soil, she said.
Instead of a forest dominated by evergreens, more and more hardwood species are likely to dominate the landscape, she said. Also, some recent studies are showing that increased average temperatures may be responsible for a declining moose population in Minnesota, she said.
Steger and Douglas said lawmakers and citizens have an ethical responsibility to not only recognize global climate change but also to do all they can to slow the process and prepare future generations by advancing more environment-ally sound policy.
"To me it's an issue of morality," Steger told a Senate committee on jobs, energy and community development Monday.
Committee Chairwoman Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, said she asked Douglas and Steger to brief lawmakers because of the complexity of global climate change and its implications for Minnesota. She also said states need to take the lead on the issue, since the federal government has failed to do so. Anderson also anticipates several bills addressing initiatives for renewable energy projects -- including wind, solar and biomass -- coming to her committee this year. "As we discuss bills about our energy policy in Minnesota, we need to be aware of the context of this issue," she said. Minnesota does well in the field of renewable energy but could do more to become a national leader, which would be good for the state's economy, Anderson said. "We are not anywhere near what our potential is," she said.
In his career as an arctic explorer, Steger witnessed firsthand the disappearance of massive ice shelves he'd previously crossed in Greenland and Antarctica, he said. The shelves, some nearly as big as Minnesota, have melted and slipped into the ocean, he told the committee.
"I'm probably going down in history as doing more lasts than firsts," Steger said.
While global warming is most accelerated in the Arctic Ocean, Steger said there was little doubt Minnesota also would see more volatile weather events, longer summers and shorter and warmer winters. "This is an issue where you can run but you can't hide," Steger said.
