Global warming will greatly impact the state of Oregon’s geography, temperatures, ecological diversity, landscape and socioeconomics, according to the first legislatively mandated report from the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute.
The OCCRI, administered by Oregon State University and its partners in the Oregon University System, released their Oregon Climate Assessment Report Nov. 30. This report concludes that climate change is already impacting Oregon’s environment and will continue to impact Oregon in the future and could cause great and lasting impacts if actions are not taken.
Some of the changes projected to occur include an increase in temperature, warmer and drier summers, increase in extreme precipitation, rising sea level and an increase in wildfires.
Recent decades have been warmer than any other time in 120,000 years, according to the report, and most of this warming is due to the burning of fossil fuels and other human practices, according to the report.
University geography professor Daniel Gavin and public planning, policy and management professor Bob Doppelt contributed to the report. Doppelt, director of the Climate Leadership Initiative, focused on the social science aspects of the problems of climate change.
“Local climate disruption challenges the world view of many Americans about how our economy and society has in the past and should in the future function,” Doppelt said. “It’s natural, therefore, for people to want to deny, discount or ignore the problem. But there is no doubt now among climate scientists that global climate disruption is happening. The only questions are how fast it will play out and where and what types of impacts will occur.”
Oregon’s temperature is expected to increase 0.2 to one degree in a decade and by a total of three degrees through 2100. Cold-water fish such as salmon and steelhead will be greatly impacted by higher stream temperatures.
The report, based on peer-reviewed science, received contributions from 70 government and university researchers throughout the Pacific Northwest, including the University.
The purpose of the report is to notify the state about the scientific facts of climate change and inform policy-makers about issues that will affect Oregon.
“We don’t claim to have all the answers, and we call for a better analysis of the economic impact of climate change on the state,” OCCRI researcher Kathie Dello said.
The OCCRI was created in 2007 by the Oregon state legislature to foster climate change research across the Oregon University System. The OCCRI is required to release reports once every two years.
“We would hope that the legislators use this as the scientific basis for decisions. We don’t try to make any policy recommendations — rather tell the legislature what we know, about the state of climate change science, as it pertains to Oregon,” Dello said.
A second report, the Oregon Climate Change Adaptation Framework, was released Tuesday by the state agency and identifies how the state will adapt to climate change. The report proposes short-term solutions because of Oregon’s economic situation.
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