Not just global warming OR drought

Not just global warming OR drought

By Patrick Douglas

Many people are aware of either global warming, or, if living in the southwest United States, the ongoing worst drought ever. However, most people are surprisingly unaware of the conflation of the two and the severity of the implications of both drought and warming while occurring together. In two articles, “A new view on sea level rise” by Stefan Rahmstorf published in Nature, and, “Dry Times Ahead” by Jonathan Overpeck and Bradley Udall published in Science Magazine by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In this study, the IPCC is trying to determine the future sea level rise by measuring the melting of glaciers all over the northern and arctic areas of the world.  “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected a global sea level rise of 18 to 59 centimetres from 1990 to the 2090s.” (Rahmstorf, 44) However, in this IPCC study AR4, their “range assumes a near-zero net contribution of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to future sea level rise.” (Rahmstorf, 44) In reality, many recent studies have shown not only a much larger increase in sea level rise, but also a decrease in continental ice sheet mass and amount of glaciers. The IPCC AR4 study indicates a max sea level rise in centimeters in the twenty first century at about sixty centimeters, whereas the range of max rises for a number of other recent studies show anywhere from one hundred to over two hundred centimeters. (Figure 1, Rahmstorf, 45) The difference between the IPCC’s study and other recent studies show the IPCC’s increases are static, where most other studies show an exponential increase in sea level rise due to many negative factors increasing all at the same time. The IPCC is severely underestimating the future sea level rise because it is only taking one variable, glaciers, into consideration, whereas there are many other variables, some not related to climate change and the abundance of water, but to the absence of it.

The relation of too much or not enough water associated with warming temperatures is more profoundly linked than one may assume. In this study of the Colorado River flow and its reservoirs, it can be shown that global warming and drought certainly are linked. “In the past decade, many locations, notably in the headwaters region of the Colorado River, have been more than 1°C warmer than the 20^th century average. This warming has been the primary driver in reducing late-season snowpack and the annual flow of the Colorado River. These reductions, coupled with the most severe drought observed since 1900, have caused the biggest regional water reservoirs—Lake Powell and Lake Mead—to decline from nearly full in 1999 to about 50% full in 2004.” (Overpeck, Udall, 1642) I have personally seen the area of white rock between the sun-bleached mountains and lake water level grow larger and larger over the past 12 years as well as the reduction in late season snow pack as I was recently able to summit Mt. San Gorgonio where in years past, would be impossible due to the amount of snow still present in early spring. The reductions in these reservoirs have immense effects on all the major cities of the west, which rely on these reservoirs for water. As we can see, no longer is global warming simply an issue concerning sea level rise, but also concerning extreme drought and increasing scarcity of water we need to live.

Bibliography

Bibliography
In order of appearance:

http://www.climber.org/data/SierraPeaks/map.html

http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1280&bih=697&tbm=isch&tbnid=1i3yJp86oR8bLM:&imgrefurl=http://www.valleyoutdoors.com

danblackburn.photoshelter.com

sierranevadaalliance.org

paultbrindley.com

http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~joel/g148_f09/readings/sierra_nevada/sierra_nevada.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Yosemite_area

http://www.sierraforestlegacy.org/FC_FireForestEcology/FFE_LoggingImpacts.php#Top

http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/forest-brochure.html

http://www.sierraclub.org/environmentallaw/lawsuits/0127.aspx

http://www.forestsfuture.fs.fed.us/brochures/background.htm

http://www.highsierrahikers.org/issue_fish_main.html 

Graphs and Images of Human Impact

 Here are several images that show the impacts of humans in the Sierra Nevada:

In this image we see the extreme danger of wildfire within the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and its coniferous forest. The reason the danger for wildfire is so extreme is because of the clearcutting and natural wildfire suppression. Because of the unnatural suppression, there is a large amount of litter build up that is perfect tinder for when a wildfire does occur. This excessive and unnatural amount of litter is what causes this extremely dangerous and huge wildfires. What makes these wildfires ultimately so dangerous is the encroachment of communities into natural wildfire habitat. (http://www.forestsfuture.fs.fed.us/brochures/background.htm)

Here is a graph that shows the distribution of stocked lakes and unstocked lakes in the Sierra. The lakes the government are choosing to stock are the much larger lakes which already have established, natural aquatic life. The introduction of stock fish is upsetting the natural balance of aquatic species within the Sierra.

 These two following images show the natural, historic fish distribution of the Upper Piute and French creek watersheds: the blue marks where there were no fish historically.

This image shows the total distribution of fish, by species, in the same watershed of the Piute and French creeks. In the same areas where there was naturally and historically no fish, there are now multiple non-native species that have invaded and been introduced to this area. Non-native species anywhere are bad for the natural, or native environment because they are just that: non-native. http://www.highsierrahikers.org/issue_fish_main.html

Improving Positive Human Impacts on the Sierra

The Sierra Club is at the forefront of improving and/or maintaining the human impacts on the Sierra. For the past decade, the Bush Administration has practiced increasingly unsustainable and destructive logging. The Sierra club has been challenging these unsustainable logging and destructive forest management practices in the Sierra Nevada's eleven national forests. In order for there to be improvement on the human impacts in the Sierra, the Sierra Club needs to maintain what they are doing, but also there needs to be an increase in groups who's aim is to protect this ecosystem. This will help the large scale halt of negative human impacts on the Sierra. But just as important as the large scale, is the small, or local scale. There needs to be an increase in awareness of what is going on negatively in this ecosystem and what the government is allowing to negatively impact the Sierra. This will help local communities realize what is happening in the Sierra and be able to make informed decisions and vote for measures that protect our natural ecosystems. I believe more than any other way of preventing destructive practices in the Sierra, voting for laws and restrictions is the best way to stop negative human impacts the quickest.(http://www.sierraclub.org/environmentallaw/lawsuits/0127.aspx)

Likely Future Prospects for Sierra

I would like to think the new likely prospects for the Sierra, after many studies and realizations of the environmentally negative human impacts on the ecosystem, would be efforts to stop these negative impacts completely. After seeing how detrimental these impacts are on the Sierra, it would seem an obvious result to completely stop these impacts from occurring (i.e., logging, air pollution, fire suppression tactics). Unfortunately, in reality stopping these impacts is not an instantaneous result. As seemingly easy and plausible it would be to completely stop logging and fire suppression, by simply placing laws in place that completely halt logging and the current fire suppression tactics, it is not that simple. When it comes to air pollution, it is obviously a different scenario, where years and years of air pollution can not be stopped over night. There are two possibly directions the new prospects can go: no real effective efforts made, and/or backwards efforts, to help this ecosystem, or, immediate efforts to stop these detrimental impacts.

'No efforts' made to help this coniferous forest are easy to display: simply keep neglecting to do anything serious about these impacts. But there are even branches of the government who want more logging rights in the most endangered parts of coniferous forests: old growth forests. The National Forest Service, which seems to be a misleading name to those who do not know it is managed by the Department of Agriculture, released a brochure and set up a website which  "exaggerated the impact of forest fires on spotted owl habitat in an attempt to expand old-growth logging in the Sierra Nevada." (Union of Concerned Scientists) They misrepresented images and data of the Sierra making it seem as though increased logging and wildfire containment would help the Spotted Owl population. The entire, very interesting article, can be found here: http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/forest-brochure.html. It is efforts like these that prove not only unhelpful to this ecosystem, but actually destroy more of the coniferous forest ecosystem of the Sierra Nevada.

On the helpful side, there are in fact beneficial things being done to help protect and restore this ecosystem. There are many groups who's sole purpose is to protect the natural ecosystem of the Sierra. Two of the most important are the Sierra Club and the Sierra Nevada Alliance. Both these groups main focus are to protect and restore Sierra Nevada natural resources for future generations while promoting sustainable communities. The Sierra Club is the forerunner in battling legally with the federal government and National Forest Service in protecting this coniferous forest and lobbying for sustainable logging, or stopping logging, ideally. The Sierra Club is full of environmental lawyers whos goal to protect the forest they love, and have done great jobs stopping former Presidential Administrations (Bush Administration) from gaining total control of the Sierra with aims of clear cutting the hell out of it. Because of groups like these, we still have at least one line of defense between destruction of the beautiful places we love.

Human Impact on the Coniferous Forest Ecosystem of the Sierra Nevada

Human Impact on the Coniferous Forest Ecosystem of the Sierra Nevada

Although the major uses of the coniferous forest of the Sierra is for recreation and sight-seeing within the forest, humans pose many environmental threats within the Sierra.  For example, Sierran forests show the effects of decades of fire suppression (and current fire suppression), which is changing the character of the forests. (www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/millar/psw_1996_millar021.pdf) "Wildfires are a yearly occurrence in the Sierra Nevada. Low fuel moisture, high temperatures and human impacts in the wildland-urban interface combine into the ideal conditions for fast-moving fires. At the same time, ozone pollution levels regularly approach unhealthy levels. The area itself does not generate the pollution, but prevailing winds push pollution out of the Bay area and Sacramento corridor against the foothills and peaks of the region. U.S. EPA and the American Lung Association have consistently ranked Nevada County among the dozen most ozone-polluted counties in the nation." (Pascale Fusshoeller, 2011.  (http://www.reportingonhealth.org/blogs/air-pollution-and-wildfire-impacts-sierra-nevada)

Another impact on the Sierra via human interuption is the non-native trout introduction into Sierran lakes. "'Trout are highly-effective predators and their impacts on prey species are well-documented (e.g., Northcote 1988). This impact may be particularly severe in oligotrophic lakes such as those found in the Sierra Nevada, since the relatively simple food webs of such lakes are believed to make them especially sensitive to impacts from introduced species (Li and Moyle 1981; McQueen, et al. 1986). In fact, based on an extensive survey of lakes in the Sierra Nevada, Bradford et al. (1994a) concluded that "the most profound human impacts on aquatic communities in the High Sierra appear to be related to historical and on-going stocking of exotic fish species into High Sierra waters'" (Knapp and Marine Science Institute of California, UCSB, 1996) (http://www.highsierrahikers.org/issue_fish_main.html)

Another detrimental impact on the forest is logging and all the effects of logging, such as road building, habitat fragmentation and wildfire risk. This detrimental impact by humans on forests are evidenced by irresponsible and misguided logging prescriptions being issued. They are not only bad public policy but are also likely to degrade the ecosystem functions of our national forests, increasing the likelihood of future severe fires, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and impacting other resource values. There are countless negative effects logging causes, here are a few:

-"Road building during logging operations directly leads to many negative consequences for wildlife, aquatic health, and the ecological integrity of the forest. The roads cause forest fragmentation which creates more area of forest open to cleared and non-native land, which ultimately pushes the natural habitat for animals further and further into the forest, destroying their natural habitat." (Sierra Forest Legacy, 2012)
-Watersheds and aquatic environments are effected as well. The trees deep root systems normally help act as an anchor for the sediments in the ground, keeping it from all draining away during rain. When there is no deep root system, the sediments are washed away and drain into streams and rivers which eventually destroy the natural river systems. The trees also create cover from the sun for most rivers, and when the rivers are exposed to sun, they warm up and their pH levels change, which highly effects the aquatic wildlife.

-Soils are also greatly affected when trees are cut down. The trees deep root systems normally help act as an anchor for the sediments in the ground, keeping it from all draining away during rain. When there is no deep root system, the sediments are washed away and drain into streams and rivers which eventually destroy the natural river systems.

-Possibly the most serious affect of human logging is causal global warming. "Logging old forests contributes to global warming through removing significant sources of sequestered carbon. After logging, the local microclimate is altered, resulting in hotter and drier conditions which contribute to increased fire hazard. These impacts will affect the natural environment, and eventually will affect human life." (Sierra Forest Legacy, 2012)(http://www.sierraforestlegacy.org/FC_FireForestEcology/FFE_LoggingImpacts.php#Top)

Historical State of the Sierra Nevada 2

History and Conservation of the Coniferous Forest: 

Throughout the history of human utilization of resources in the coniferous forest of the Sierra Nevada, there have been efforts to protect the forest from logging and other detrimental uses of the forest. When environmentalists saw the tourist and commercial potential for the Sierra and namely, the Yosemite Valley and its surrounding beauty, many efforts were made to protect this area from logging and other acts that would destroy this area.  

"Yosemite Valley was first protected by the federal government in 1864. The Valley and Mariposa Grove were ceded to California in 1866 and turned into a state park. John Muir successfully lobbied for the protection of the rest of Yosemite National Park and Congress created an Act to protect the park in 1890. The Valley and Mariposa Grove were added to the Park in 1906. In the same year, Sequoia National Park was formed to protect the Giant Sequoia and all logging of the Sequoia ceased at that time (per Federal Law protecting National Parks)."(Wikipedia) 

"By 1964, the Wilderness Act protected portions of the Sierra as primitive areas where humans are simply temporary visitors. Gradually, 20 wilderness areas were established to protect scenic backcountry of the Sierra. These wilderness areas include the John Muir Wilderness (protecting the eastern slope of the Sierra and the area between Yosemite and Kings Canyon Parks), and wilderness within each of the National Parks. There are still environmental issues harming the forest all throughout the Sierra, but luckily, there were many people very early on who realized the beauty of this ecosystem, and put in hard work to protect it forever." (Wikipedia)  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Yosemite_area)