March 28, 2008--Global warming heats up West faster than rest of U.S. (Denver Post)
The American West is heating up faster than any other region of the United States, and more than the Earth as a whole, according to a new analysis of 50 scientific studies. For the last five years, from 2003-07, the global climate averaged 1 degree Fahrenheit warmer than its 20th century average. During the same period, 11 Western states averaged 1.7 degrees warmer, the analysis reported. The 54-page study, "Hotter and Drier: The West's Changed Climate," was released Thursday by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization — a coalition of local governments, businesses and nonprofit groups. The report reveals "the growing consensus among scientists who study the West that climate change is no longer an abstraction," according to Bradley H. Udall of the University of Colorado. "The signs are everywhere." Carbon dioxide pollution from vehicles, power plants and other industrial emitters is a major contributor to global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency is under court order to address cutting greenhouse gases, and Congress is considering legislation to curb them. The consequences of Western temperature increases, the report said, are evident in a rash of heat waves. The Colorado River basin, which stretches from Wyoming to Mexico, is in the throes of a record drought. About 30 million people in fast-growing cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Las Vegas depend on water from the Colorado and its tributaries, which also drive the region's agricultural economy and hydro-electric industry. The river's two main reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, are now only 45 percent and 50 percent full, respectively.