Climate-change panel cites threat to Virginia from global warming

CHARLOTTESVILLE—The effects of global warming on Virginia are not certain, but some threats seem pretty clear, members of the state’s climate-change panel say.

Increased heat could kill older people, and dangerous storms could threaten parts of low-lying Hampton Roads and its military bases, said panel member Harrison B. Rue.

“It’s not just impacts on [wild] species. There are going to be impacts on us,“ said Rue, executive director of the Charlottesville-based Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

The Commission on Climate Change held its second meeting yesterday at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, a nonpartisan research center.

Among the speakers was Environmental Protection Agency senior climate analyst Benjamin J. DeAngelo, who gave the panel a rundown on the latest research.

Experts have more confidence in predictions of warming’s effect on the planet than on smaller areas such as states, DeAngelo said.

Research on regional effects is improving, DeAngelo said, but, “the climate community will still say that remains the frontier.“

Former Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr., a commission member, agreed that the threat facing Virginia can’t be stated precisely. “But it is the conservative approach to assume it will be real and we should prepare for it,“ he said.

Another panel member, Roger Mann, research director at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, has said warming could stress the state’s trees, promote forest fires and hurt the already struggling Virginia oyster industry.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine appointed the 43-member panel in December. Its recommendations are expected late this year. The group is scheduled to meet again April 22 at the College of William and Mary.

Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or .