"If you like scary, suspense-filled stories and will get the chance to read only one book this fall … may we suggest the spine-tingling Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest United States?"
"Would that it were fiction. Climate change effects are so entrenched that the best strategy is a two-pronged approach: Adapt while trying to mitigate.
This was the crux of the soon-to-be-published 800-page report, whose Cliff Notes–style synopsis, 'Summary for Decision Makers,' was released this week in Tucson, Arizona, during the Southwest Climate Summit at the Southwest Climate Science Center of the University of Arizona.
'We need to be worried about climate change because it’s clearly already affecting our region in ways that impact many areas—we’re seeing landscapes burning, dying because of heat and dryness,' lead author Jonathan Overpeck, of the Southwest Climate Science Center, told Indian Country Today Media Network. 'We’re seeing reservoirs that were full just ten years ago now only half full on the Colorado. These are visible harbingers of what might come. What we need to do as a society is talk about it and figure out how to deal with these challenges.'"
Lee Allen reports for Indian Country Today Media Network June 14, 2012.
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