Due to human-caused climate change, Oregonians born today are expected to face a future with more drought, more rain, and less snow as average world temperatures rise.
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 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 research, data on climate change and the climate modeling that can be done with it has become more accurate in predicting how, when, and where temperature increases would cause droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, Fleishman told the 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 the industrial revolution, which started just over a century ago, when people started releasing massive volumes of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere through 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, there is the ability to get ready. This is a pattern, so it won’t occur next year. Given this, how may Oregon’s industries react to it over the coming 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.
— Oregon Capital Chronicle’s Alex Baumhardt
Established in 2021, The Oregon Capital Chronicle is a nonprofit news outlet that specializes in Oregon politics, government, and policy.
