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Environmentalists call for action at annual summit
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL
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Scientists and environmentalists gathered at the 4th Annual State of the River Summit last Friday demanded swift action in addition to the money and talk that has been thrown at the decades-long debate over climate change.
The health of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries has been a growing concern for many years and, for the past few months, the focus of a presidential mandate calling for the federal government to take a lead role in the bay cleanup.
"You could call it a hot topic, but that would be a bad pun," said Jack Greer of the University of Maryland Sea Grant program, who moderated the summit, held annually at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons.
Sea level rise and climate change were the focus of this year's summit, and Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman delivered the annual "State of the River."
"It is no secret" that the bay and river are "sick resources," Tutman said. "The Patuxent is drowning in nutrients."
Tutman added that the Patuxent has a "nutrient obesity" problem, but that progress is possible and research shows the river would respond rapidly to dramatic nutrient reductions.
While the goal of the Patuxent River Commission, created by state legislation in 1980, to restore the bay to its 1950s state is not a terribly "aggressive" goal, Tutman said, there is much work to do — the river received a D- on its 2008 report card, published by the Patuxent Riverkeeper, a nonprofit agency dedicated to protecting the river.
Tutman also said minimal progress has been made thus far because money is still viewed as the solution. He gave an impassioned plea to increase regulation of an economic system that "rewards" pollution.
"We're restoring justice to the planet," he said.
Following Tutman, Don Boesch delivered an urgent message using statistical models and analyses to foreshadow a dismal and flooded future if global warming and sea level rise are left unchecked.
"Global warming is unequivocal," said Boesch, a marine science professor and president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "There is no doubt."
Boesch used increasing temperatures since the 1950s, retreating glaciers and increased precipitation as evidence that the atmosphere is warming and said that current climate change could compound in the future if greenhouse emissions are not quickly reduced.
Under a future "high-emissions" scenario, where global emissions continue to rise at their current rate, local residents could expect a temperate winter climate resembling that of Charleston, S.C., Boesch said. But in the summer, temperatures would be closer to those in Phoenix, only instead of dry heat they would be complete with mid-Atlantic humidity.
"Predictions are difficult, especially about the future," said Boesch, channeling Yogi Berra.
Future rises in sea level could worsen the flooding effects of storms like Hurricane Isabel in 2003, Boesch said, adding that global warming could result in fewer, but more destructive hurricanes.
Geologist Dr. Curtis Larsen and ZoÎ Johnson, program manger for climate change policy with the Office for a Sustainable Future at the state Department of Natural Resources, also gave presentations, followed by a panel discussion on local responses. The summit concluded with a call to action by former state senator and noted Patuxent River advocate Bernie Fowler, who also kicked off the event with a brief prayer for the Earth's resources.
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