Iconic Yellowstone Park faces alarming climate threats
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This story originally Appear in Yale Environment 360 And is Climate Service Desk Cooperation.
In 1872, when Yellowstone National Park was designated as the first national park in the United States, Congress ordered the “reservation and withdrawal of settlements, accommodation and sale, and… the people.” However, today, across the state of Montana Yellowstone Park in Wyoming and Idaho covers an area of 3,472 square miles and faces a threat that no national park can resist: rising temperatures.
Since 1950, this iconic park has undergone a series of changes caused by human-driven global warming, including reduced snow cover, shorter winters and longer summers, and increased risk of wildfires.These changes and the expected changes as the earth continues to warm up this century, are in the just released Climate assessment That was years of brewing. The report not only looked at the impact of climate change on the park, but also looked at the Big Yellowstone ecosystem, which is 10 times the size of the park itself.
Climate assessments indicate that the temperature in the park is now as high or higher than at any time in the past 20,000 years, and is likely to be the hottest in the past 800,000 years. Since 1950, the average temperature in Yellowstone Park has risen by 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit, with the most noticeable warming occurring above 5,000 feet above sea level.
According to the report, today, the spring thaw in Yellowstone Park started a few weeks earlier, and the annual runoff peak was eight days earlier than in 1950. The agricultural growing season in this area is nearly two weeks longer than 70 years ago. Since 1950, the snowfall in the Greater Yellowstone area in January and March has dropped by 53% and 43%, respectively, while the snowfall in September has almost disappeared, a decrease of 96%. Since 1950, the annual snowfall has decreased by nearly 2 feet.
Due to continued warming, precipitation that once fell in the form of snow is now increasingly appearing in the form of rain. It is estimated that by the end of this century, annual precipitation may increase by 9% to 15%. But as snow cover decreases and temperature and evaporation increase, future conditions are expected to be drier, putting pressure on vegetation and increasing the risk of wildfires.Extreme weather has become more common, like a fire The 1988 fire in Yellowstone Park-The burning of 800,000 acres of land-is a growing seasonal concern.
This assessment has even more bleak predictions for the future. If the endothermic emissions are not reduced, towns and cities in the Greater Yellowstone region—including Bozeman, Montana, and Jackson, Pinedale, and Cody, Wyoming—may experience temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit each year. It takes 40 to 60 more days. According to current greenhouse gas emission scenarios, the temperature in the Greater Yellowstone area may increase by 5 to 10 degrees by 2100, leading to drastic changes in the ecosystem, including changes in forest composition.
The core issue facing the Greater Yellowstone region is water. The report warns that communities around the park-including ranchers, farmers, businesses, and homeowners-must develop plans to deal with the growing prospect of drought, reduced snow cover, and water supply. Seasonal changes.
“Climate will challenge our economy and the health of all the people who live here,” said Cathy Whitlock, A paleoclimatologist at Montana State University and co-author of the report.She hopes to “let residents and political leaders understand the local consequences, and develop a list of the most dangerous habitats and specific indicators of human health that need to be studied”, such as contact Between the increase in wildfires and respiratory diseases. Sounding alarm bells is not new, but the authors of the Yellowstone Report hope that their methods and the evidence provided will persuade those who are skeptical of climate change to accept that it is real and is accelerating.
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