If last year's March warmth, June deluge, July heat and autumn drought didn't convince doubters that global climate change has come to Minnesota, last week brought fresh evidence for them to consider.
The John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, canceled last year and in 2007 because of insufficient snow, faces the same problem this year and has been postponed. Organizers hope the race can be run in March.
And three state House committees spent nearly two hours listening to five University of Minnesota scientists explain that the Beargrease and many other Minnesota weather-related traditions are in jeopardy.
Their troubling presentation generated rapt attention among members of the House capital investment, legacy, and environment/natural resources/agriculture committees. A few climate change skeptics among committee members made their presence known. But most of the several dozen legislators in attendance seemed sobered and persuaded by what they heard.
That response is heartening. Meeting the challenges climate change is bringing Minnesota will require enlisting a broad range of resources, including state policy and the public purse.
The professors explained that dramatic changes in the state's natural environment have begun and are expected to continue unless carbon dioxide levels in the planet's atmosphere are reduced.
That matches the conclusion of the U.S. Global Change Research Project, whose new report earlier this month said the American Midwest could see another 4.9-degree increase in average temperatures by midcentury.
That much heat, added to the 3-degree increase already seen in parts of Minnesota in the last 30 years, would mean more and longer droughts; more precipitation arriving in the form of damaging thunderstorms accompanied by tornadoes; the retreat of coniferous forests; more invasive plants and aquatic life, and longer growing seasons.
