Here's a look at the IPCC report and it's predictions for water supplies from the Casper Star Tribune. From the article, "As the world warms, water -- either too little or too much of it -- is going to be the major problem for the United States, scientists and military experts said Monday. It will be a domestic problem, with states clashing over controls of rivers, and a national security problem as water shortages and floods worsen conflicts and terrorism elsewhere in the world, they said. At home, especially in the Southwest, regions will need to find new sources of drinking water, the Great Lakes will shrink, fish and other species will be left high and dry, and coastal areas will on occasion be inundated because of sea-level rises and souped-up storms, U.S. scientists said. The scientists released a 67-page chapter on North American climate effects, which is part of an international report on climate change impact...
"'Water at large is the central (global warming) problem for the U.S.,' Princeton University geosciences professor Michael Oppenheimer said after a press conference featuring eight American scientists who were lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's climate-effects report. Roger Pulwarty, one of the federal government's top drought scientists, said states such as Arizona and Colorado, which already fight over the Colorado River basin water, will step up legal skirmishes. They may look to the Great Lakes, but water availability there will shrink, he said...
"As water fights erupt between nations and regions and especially between cities and agricultural areas, Stanford scientist Terry Root said there will be one sure loser low on the priority list for water: other species. 'The fish will lose out and the birds and everything,' she said. Pollution will also worsen with global warming, the scientists said. As places like the Great Lakes draw down on water, the pollution inside will get more concentrated and trapped toxins will come more to the surface, said Stanford scientist Stephen Schneider."
Here's a short article on snowmaking at ski resorts, from the Denver Post. They write, "Colorado's snowmaking power - developed to attract holiday skiers and blanket terrain parks - may also protect the state's slopes from climate change for a few extra decades, according to a United Nations report. 'We're not looking at the obliteration of the ski industry this century, which is what some others have said in the past,' said Daniel Scott, a geographer at the University of Waterloo in Canada and a co-author of the report. Past studies didn't consider snowmaking, which lets ski resorts cover bald spots, open early and close late, Scott said. New fan-type snowblowers also can produce snow at relatively high temperatures, close to freezing, he said. In a warmer world, snowmakers could keep trails covered longer - and at lower elevations more vulnerable to melting."
Category: Colorado Water
6:04:24 AM 
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