GREAT FALLS - Gov. Brian Schweitzer's call for people to serve on a new state committee examining climate change has drawn a stunning response, members soon will be named and their inaugural meeting likely will be in late May or early June, a state administrator says. “The overwhelming reaction I seem to be getting now is ‘It's about time,' ” said Richard Opper, head of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
Climate studies in western Montana show spring weather arrives two to three weeks earlier than it did 50 years ago. Missoula's annual average temperature is up 2 degrees over the same period, and the number of frost-free days in the growing season increased by about 16.
“As every winter ticks by and we keep not getting the winters we used to, I'm having more people who are saying, ‘Uh-oh, there seems to be more to this than year-to-year variability,' ” said Steve Running, an ecology professor at the University of Montana School of Forestry. Schweitzer directed Opper to form a Climate Change Advisory Group that will study how warmer conditions affect Montana. The governor wants to have a Climate Change Action Plan in hand by next year.
Opper said states must take the lead in dealing with the climate issue. The frequency of drought in the West is a clear indicator of major change, he told the Great Falls Tribune. “Just how big of a two-by-four do we need to be hit over the head with?” he said. “To have two severe droughts back to back, it's hard to avoid connecting the dots. Most of us recognize there is something serious going on here.”
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http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/02/28/news/mtregional/znews06.txt
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