New England May Lose Sugar Maples to Global Warming
11/5/98
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Title: New England May Lose Sugar Maples to Global Warming
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 11/5/98
BUENOS AIRES - A gradual rise in global temperatures could strip New
England of its native sugar maple population by the end of the next
century, according to a scientific report released on Tuesday.
The report by the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy said
climate change caused by excessive fossil fuel emissions are likely to
shift the ideal range for some North American forest species as much as
300 miles north, exceeding the species' ability to migrate naturally, the
report said.
New England's sugar maple, source of the region's maple syrup industry and
a key regional tourist attraction during the autumn foliage period, would
suffer a dramatic loss in numbers and eventually recede from all U.S.
regions but the northern tip of Maine by 2100 if emissions level go
unchecked.
The U.S report, based on University of Minnesota research, was released
during this week's United Nations conference on climate change.
For the Buenos Aires conference, 180 nations have gathered to further an
accord reached in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, to reduce developed
country greenhouse gas emissions by more than 5 percent from 1990 levels
over the next 14 years.
The study was based on a "business as usual" emissions scenario in which
carbon dioxide levels in the earth's atmosphere double by 2100, inhibiting
the earth's ability to release heat and thus causing a rise in sea levels,
famine, drought, and a spread of disease.
(C) Reuters Limited 1998.