Oklahoma is already seeing longer dry spells, shorter winters and a lot more ragweed pollen because of global climate change, according to report released Tuesday by the Obama administration.
The 821-page National Climate Assessment, compiled by more than 300 experts in the field, says 2001-2012 was the warmest period globally on record, with each year warmer than the 1990s.
And each year of the 1990s, in turn, was warmer than each year of the 1980s, which was the warmest decade on record up to that time.
Closer to home, the report says the ragweed season in northeastern Oklahoma grew an average of 14 days a year, and the length of time between the last freeze of spring and first freeze of autumn increased 10 days.
"Variations in the timing and magnitude of precipitation," the report says, have degraded the nutritional value of grazing in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve northeast of Tulsa, leading to reduced weight gains for the bison living there.
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The report is not without critics, even among those who generally subscribe to the notion that man-made climate change is a growing problem. The Washington Post's weather blog cited several climate scientists who said the report glosses over some mitigating information and at times overplays marginally reliable data.
Not surprisingly, one of the fiercest reviews came from U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who insists climate change is a hoax.
On Tuesday, Inhofe did not so much challenge the assessment's findings as dismiss the report as political propaganda.
"This climate assessment seems conveniently timed for the week the Senate could be debating the need to approve the Keystone XL (pipeline) as well as expediting the export of liquefied natural gas," Inhofe said.
The senator suggested the report and President Barack Obama's "climate change agenda" are mostly about "fundraising, electioneering and social engineering," and is an attempt "to once again distract Americans for his unchecked regulatory agenda ..."
As it happens, Inhofe introduced his own sustainable energy legislation on Tuesday, in an amendment to a pending energy bill, that is intended to spur geothermal energy development.
Inhofe said Tuesday's report amounts to pandering to wealthy sustainable energy investors such as Tom Steyer of California, who the New York Times reports is ready to spend $100 million on Democrats in the 2014 elections.
"Now that another climate change billionaire ... has entered the scene ... the President and my colleagues are jumping at opportunities to sideline critical domestic energy opportunities for the United States and instead discuss global warming alarmism," Inhofe said.
"Fear tactics and money are powerful tools in politics."
Among its other findings, the report says climate change is linked to observed differences in the life cycles of plants, in pest outbreaks and in shifts and declines in populations of native species.
The report says Oklahoma has not been as affected as other parts of the country by rising temperatures, but predicts that will change in the coming decades. By the end of the current century, it says, the hottest days of summer could be 15 degrees or more warmer than currently.
Randy Krehbiel 918-581-8365
National Climate Assessment findings
- Every year of the past decade was warmer than the average for the previous decade.
- Each of the past three decades were successively warmer, and each was the warmest on record to that time.
- The length of time between the last freeze of spring and first freeze of autumn in Oklahoma's region has increased 10 to 14 days over the past 20 years.
Predictions for the Midwest
Farms and forests: The growing season, already two weeks longer than in 1950, will continue lengthening. But the gains will be offset by smaller yields for some crops, including corn. Soybean yields will improve for a while, but the gains will eventually be offset by heat stress. Wetter springs could delay planting. Wetlands, prairies and other ecosystems will change profoundly. Familiar tree species such as paper birch, quaking aspen, balsam fir and black spruce will probably migrate even farther north, giving way to oak and pine varieties now common farther south.
When it rains, it pours: The report acknowledges it's harder to project long-range changes in precipitation than temperature. But the Midwest generally has gotten wetter in the past century, mostly because of increasingly intense storms, and that's likely to continue in the next century. But weather patterns may become increasingly erratic wet in some parts of the region, dry in others. Snowfall may decline in much of the Midwest but increase in areas that get lake-effect snow. More flooding is likely, which intensifies sewer overflows, soil erosion and water pollution from runoff.
Summer in the city: Heat and humidity will raise the misery index in cities, with one study predicting up to 2,217 additional heat-related deaths per year in Chicago toward the end of the 21st century, although cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions could reduce the number significantly. Higher temperatures should lengthen the pollen season and worsen the effects of degraded air quality.
Opportunity knocks: The Midwest is well-positioned to soften the blow of climate change. Its energy-intensive economy cranks out greenhouse gases at a rate 20 percent above the national average, primarily because of heavy reliance on coal. Greater reliance on natural gas is a step in the right direction, the report says. In some parts of the region, solar power's potential matches that of Florida. In cloudier states, there is great opportunity to expand use of wind, biodiesel and ethanol.
Sen. Jim Inhofe: He dismisses a climate report as political propaganda. “Fear tactics and money are powerful tools in politics.”
