Earth Equity News

Maryland Temperatures Projected to Rise: 'Like Phoenix, But with Humidity'. By David A. Fahrenthold and Sandhya Somashekhar, WashPost, August 28, 2008. "Climate change could profoundly alter... Maryland over the next century, making heat waves deadlier and leaving one corner of the Eastern Shore under water, a state-appointed commission said yesterday [in its 'Climate Action Plan']. To head this off, the state must eliminate most of the greenhouse gases coming from tailpipes and smokestacks, the Maryland Commission on Climate Change said in [the] report. That will be a tall order because Maryland's emissions are on the rise. In Richmond yesterday, environmentalists were pressing a Virginia climate-change panel to recommend emissions cutbacks. The states are in similar positions: Both are starting to gauge the threat from rising temperatures and making response plans... Annual average temperatures in [Maryland] could rise by three degrees by mid-century, the report said. After that, the warming could be more drastic, producing dangerous summertime heat waves and more than 24 days a year with temperatures topping 100 degrees. 'Like Phoenix, but with humidity,' said Donald F. Boesch... of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science... The commission said waters might rise three feet by 2100, which would flood 200 square miles of land. On the Eastern Shore, part of low-lying Dorchester County might be lost, including waterside towns and some of the East Coast's best migrating bird habitats."