Warming up to climate change: lawmakers are looking at way to adapt to rising temperatures and other changes.

• Author: Andersen, Glen

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Change is hard. Especially when it involves rising sea levels, flooding in some regions, drought in others and hotter temperatures everywhere.

Humans have adapted to climate changes for millennia, but now many of the world's 7.8 billion people face food, water and natural resource challenges. While nearly all climatologists and all major scientific bodies in the United States concur that human activity is a major driver behind climate change, debate continues.

Regardless of the cause, state policymakers are preparing for changes they see coming that could disrupt the economy and cause other problems.

"Climate change poses substantial risks to North Carolina's air quality, coastal ecosystems, agriculture and economy," says North Carolina Senator Josh Stein. "With significant tourism and agriculture industries and miles of tidal and estuarine shoreline, adaptation efforts are important."

As the massive winter storms and floods this year have shown, weather is not climate. Although variations in week-to-week and season-to-season temperatures and precipitation fluctuate dramatically, data collected at weather stations across the country show a warming trend and increased precipitation.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program, a consortium of 13 federal agencies, stated in a 2009 report that climate-related changes are being seen throughout the world. "We are seeing trends in both direct measurements of the climate such as temperature, rainfall, freeze dates, etc.," says Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, which helped with the report. "Changes in spring blooming dates, forest die backs from insect infestation, wildfire and drought provide us with indirect measures of a changing climate."

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The recorded changes vary significantly, although the United States has seen some of the more dramatic effects. Average temperatures across the nation have risen 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950, double the global average of 1 degree. The Midwest and northern Great Plains now experience average winter temperatures 7 degrees warmer than just 30 years ago, according to the report.

Parts of the country have also experienced more heavy downpours, earlier snow melts, rising sea levels, longer growing seasons and greater precipitation. Partly as a result of warming oceans and melting ice sheets, sea levels along the mid-Atlantic and Gulf coasts have risen up to 12 inches in the last century, with the rate of rise accelerating since 1993. This rate is higher than the global average of 7 inches.

In some states, such as North Carolina, higher sea levels have caused accelerated land loss because of erosion. Researchers expect these changes to continue in coming decades, with regions of the United States seeing a variety of effects that include:

* Sea level increases of 3 to 4 feet.

* More frequent droughts.

* Increases in extreme heat.

* Decreases in agriculture production--livestock grow more slowly since they eat less in warmer temperatures...