Oracle Online

Panned sci-fi films aside, climate change is evolving into quite the hot topic (no pun intended).

Of late, climate change has become less of a political debate and more of a recognized global environmental emergency.

Locally speaking, global warming could have a drastic impact, according to Clarence Lehman, an adjunct ecology professor at the University of Minnesota.

Minnesota is an especially unique case when considering climate change, he said, because three very different ecosystems come together at a meeting point in the central part of the state.

This meeting point is called the triple ecotone.

Lehman said that Minnesota’s triple ecotone consists of the northern softwood forests, the eastern broadleaf forests and the central prarie grassland ecosystems.

The location of Minnesota’s triple ecotone is determined largely by climate. Or climate changes.

When temperatures consistently rise over time, for example, the triple ecotone moves north, which causes parts of northern Minnesota to get warmer.

Lehman’s research on this subject has led him to believe the triple ecotone will move two to three miles north per year, and eventually will leave the U.S. for Canada.

If the triple ecotone is pushed that far north, Minnesota’s climate will become like Iowa’s, and the people of Ontario will enjoy the moderate summer climate Minnesota once had.

The constantly-moving ecotone could also have noticable effects on Minnesota’s landscape. Pine trees could disappear, for example, because native pine seedlings do not thrive south of the triple ecotone.

This could all happen in as few as 75 years, Lehman said.

Despite his findings, Lehman has a somewhat optimistic outlook when it comes to the issue of climate change.

The public, in his opinion, is more eco-savvy than would appear at first glance.

“The [public] attitude toward global warming is changing very rapidly,” he said. “We’ve solved major environmental problems in the past. Now it will take global effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions.”

Easier said than done, but St. Paul-based non-profit Fresh Energy isn’t hestitating to tackle the heady issue. The organization works on energy policy and global warming solutions in the upper midwest.

Fresh Energy’s Maria Manka, like Lehman, believes that the public is aware and willing to try to combat climate change.

According to Manka, who is a Hamline alum, climate change solutions will not only be beneficial to the environment, but will also facilitate the economy by creating new jobs.

Employment and investment opportunities are quickly establishing because of recent developments in renewable technology, she said.

Fresh Energy is currently opposing the proposed construction of a coal-fired power plant two miles from the Minnesota border in South Dakota.

Fresh Energy claims the proposed coal-fired plant would create 64 long-term jobs, but that an alternative wind farm would enable the employment of 483 workers, and also would be emission-free on top of that.

Employment opportunities in renewable technology are not only being recognized by non profits like Fresh Energy, but are also being acknowledged by large national labor unions like the United Steelworkers, which recently teamed up with the Sierra Club in a Minnesota headquartered coalition.

In blue-collar industry, it has apparently become hip to be green.

For Manka, it seems natural for Minnesotans to be concerned about global warming.

“The moose populations are shrinking, our winters are getting warmer, and we have species of trees growing in the Boundary Waters that usually only grow in warmer climates,” she said. “Minnesota heritage will be changed by global warming.”

Fresh Energy is working on a legislative bill (that has been already once denied by the House) that will require all Minnesota utility companies to produce 20 percent of their energy through renewables by the year 2020.

Minnesota could produce ten times the electricity it needs through wind energy, according to research released by Fresh Energy.

Manka said the bill’s fate will be decided this coming winter.

For more information on climate change and global warming, visit fresh-energy.org or carboneutral.com