UMaine Scientists Present Report on Climate Future to Gov. Baldacci
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
AUGUSTA — On Wednesday, University of Maine faculty members presented the report, “Maine’s Climate Future: An Initial Assessment,” to Gov. John Baldacci. UMaine professors described their findings to the governor and his cabinet at that group’s weekly meeting. A State House session with news reporters followed the cabinet meeting.
The report (PDF format) is online at http://www.climatechange.umaine.edu/mainesclimatefuture/. Printed copies are available upon request, via reply email.
The report is the university’s response to the governor’s 2007 request for a preliminary analysis of the effects of climate change in Maine during the 21st century. The report considers past climate change, recent evidence of accelerated rates of change, and the implications of continued climate change in Maine as a result of greenhouse gas emissions and their associated pollutants.
Teams of participating scientists volunteered their time and expertise to initiate a process that can both inform and facilitate systematic planning and thoughtful decisions related to Maine’s climate change challenges.
“We knew at the outset that the University of Maine has a collection of world-class scholars in the climate sciences. They represented a critical knowledge base for Maine’s efforts to prepare for future climate change,” says Professor Emeritus George Jacobson, one of the report’s primary authors. “During the past year, these scientists and colleagues from around the state have worked together to outline how climate might affect our natural ecosystems, and how those changes would influence the state’s resource-based economy.”
“This initial assessment is intended to be a catalyst for informed decision-making on climate change and energy issues,” adds Prof. Ivan Fernandez, who worked closely with Jacobson and others to develop the report. “Our goal was to promote adaptation strategies, define environmental monitoring and assessment needs, and identify important new economic opportunities.”
Several recent assessment efforts have addressed climate change in the Northeast, but the report authors noted that the state’s unique characteristics warranted an assessments specifically focused on Maine.
“Our social and economic well-being depends on the health and productivity of Maine’s forests, fields, lakes, rivers, and the marine waters of the Gulf of Maine. Although many states have a wide variety of environments, few have anything approaching Maine’s variety of climates in close proximity. Our unique diversity of climates means that change will not be uniform across the state; indeed we are already witnessing different responses in northern Maine compared to southern and coastal regions,” they wrote in the report.
The study documents an increasing rate of warming in Maine over the last century, as well as increased regional sea surface temperatures, increased precipitation, rising sea levels, and hydrologic changes in snow melt, lake ice-out, and spring runoff.
Modeling of Maine’s future climate performed for the assessment shows a strong trend toward warmer conditions with more precipitation in all four seasons. Subsequent sections of the report detail how these climate changes will affect Maine people, ecosystems, and various economic sectors such as agriculture, forest products, and tourism.
The authors acknowledge Maine’s leadership in addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but stress that Maine also needs a plan for adaptation during what they describe as “a period of transition.” The report highlights opportunities for Maine to benefit from a changing climate, and identifies gaps in knowledge and the information needed for a positive transition in the 21st century.
“This assessment is an essential step in the process of understanding Maine’s future,” says Prof. Paul Mayewski, director of UMaine’s Climate Change Institute. “It provides a critical building block from which we can begin to make finer scale predictions, down to areas as small as a few miles square, that we hope will benefit Maine and her people.
The report was prepared under the leadership of UMaine’s Climate Change Institute and Maine Sea Grant with support from the Vice President for Research; Office of the Dean, College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture; Center for Research on Sustainable Forests; Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research; Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative; and the Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences.
Click here for a downloadable pdf version of this report