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Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
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Blogmail response on Hafner
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Stallworth's contract terminated
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QB in Browns future: another mock draft
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KSU Notes – February 9
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NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
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Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
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Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Citizens United v. F.E.C. (Part 4): Kennedy's and O'Connor's Basic Approaches to Constitutional Decisionmaking – Top Down and Bottom Up
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
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Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
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Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
Track HR Research
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
Climate change to affect environment, economy and health, group says
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, Dec 18, 2008
Global warming poses a big threat to Ohio's health, environment and economy.
That assessment came in a report released Wednesday by the statewide eco-group Environment Ohio at news conferences in Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Cincinnati.
''It's not just about polar bears and Arctic ice caps anymore,'' said Amy Gomberg, program director of Environment Ohio. ''Climate change poses threats to Ohio's environment that could have a negative impact on our economy as well.''
Ohio's economic stake in dealing with carbon dioxide, a key global-warming gas, is huge: nearly $127 billion and 1.9 million jobs that will be affected, the 34-page report says.
The report, What's at Stake: How Global Warming Threatens the Buckeye State, says changing climate profoundly will affect Lake Erie and Ohio's farming and timber industries.
Lake Erie water levels could drop 3 to 61/2 feet in the next 70 years because of increased evaporation and reduced ice cover, and that adversely would affect Great Lakes shipping, the report says. Ohio probably will face increased drought and flooding from more severe storms in the future, the report says.
Heat stress and asthma from worsening air pollution are expected to become bigger health problems for Ohioans, the report says. It suggests that troublesome insects and diseases probably will expand into Ohio if temperatures continue to climb.
Environment Ohio called on President-elect Barack Obama and Congress to cut emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 percent by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050, perhaps via a cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax.
Cap-and-trade is a flexible environmental system that sets an overall limit on emissions but allows companies that can reduce emissions easily to sell credits to other companies for which reductions would be difficult. The cap ensures that emissions will not exceed a desired amount.
Federal and state efforts to stimulate the economy should include boosting clean-energy programs, Environment Ohio said.
The eco-group also called on Ohio to get more involved in fighting global warming. It should do more to promote energy conservation and join other states to develop a regional plan to reduce global warming pollution in the Midwest, the report says.
''Our carbon pollution problems are not all gloom and doom,'' Gomberg said. ''The tools to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions are at our fingertips.''
The report is available at http://www.environmentohio.org.
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Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
Global warming poses a big threat to Ohio's health, environment and economy.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 10:25 AM, 12/18/2008
Great balance to the story. As I wait for the fifth or sixth Winter Storm to hit Akron this season and Winter has even arrived and 2008 should end up being the coolest year for the planet in the past 11 years, I have to conclude this is another fine job of reporting dogma by the ABJ.
