Given the rising average worldwide temperatures brought on by human-caused climate change, Oregonians born today are likely to face a future with more drought, more rain, and less snow.
More than 65 scientists, specialists, and engineers, including those from Oregon State University, the Oregon Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wrote the 314-page Seventh Oregon Climate Assessment, which was released on Wednesday. Additionally, two engineers from Principle Power, a floating offshore wind firm, and Portland General Electric made contributions.
According to a recent study, the decline in snowpack in the Northern Hemisphere is due to climate change.
According to Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, the report is utilized in statewide disaster and natural hazard planning and was prompted by a 2007 legislative mandate.
According to the most recent report, climatic data and climate models have become more accurate in predicting how, when, and where temperature increases would cause droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, Fleishman told the Oregon Capital Chronicle.
Uncertainty is reduced. “We are becoming more and more certain that this is the direction things are going,” she remarked.
According to the analysis, the state would see more intense winter rains rather than snowfall and longer and more severe annual summer droughts. At current rates of global warming, snowfall in Oregon is expected to decrease by 50% by 2100, and precipitation has been below average in 18 of the previous 24 years.
Since just over a century ago, when the industrial revolution began and people started releasing massive amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuels, the average annual temperature in Oregon has risen by 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit. If people around the world do not immediately start cutting back on and ceasing to use fossil fuels, scientists predict that the average annual temperature in Oregon will climb by at least 5 degrees over the next 50 years and 7.6 degrees by the end of the century.
The data indicating a decrease in snowfall was deemed gloomy by Fleishman.
She remarked, “I said some things when I looked at projections that every part of the state will lose 50% of its snowpack by the end of the century.” However, she stated that there is the ability to prepare. This is a pattern, so it won’t occur next year. Given this, how may Oregon’s industries react to it over the course of the next few decades?
Longer, more intense wildfire seasons also presented economic risks, as they reduce forestland values and sales and cause agricultural losses due to significant smoke occurrences that make working outdoors dangerous and affect the quality of products like wine grapes.
Protecting forests that could be maintained to maximize their carbon absorption and storage and reforesting are two areas that the authors identified as places where Oregon may make more progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. According to modeling, planting trees on less than 1% of Oregon’s land may help remove about 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by 2050. That’s the same amount of carbon dioxide that would be removed from the environment if 3.7 million gas-powered cars were removed off the road for a year.
The authors concluded that additional progress could be made in the development of floating offshore wind turbines to produce clean energy along the Oregon coast; however, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has put that project on hold for the time being due to growing opposition from certain coastal communities and tribes.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which displays the geographic areas where plants can thrive, has recently changed as a result of climate change. Many U.S. regions and sections of Oregon have warmed up and been reclassified as more hospitable to crops that would have otherwise been destroyed by frosts, according to the new map.
Like the Idaho Capital Sun, the Oregon Capital Chronicle is a 501c(3) public charity and a member of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network backed by grants and a coalition of supporters. The editorial freedom of the Oregon Capital Chronicle is maintained. For inquiries, send an email to [email protected] to reach Editor Lynne Terry.
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