Summer officially arrives at 6:24 p.m. Monday, but the season’s heat already is here.
Georgia’s summers always have been long and hot. But they are predicted to become even hotter and drier within the next 50 years in the face of global warming, according to University of Georgia researchers and others.
Although natural variability plays a role in climate change, the scientists say, the warming climate now is being driven mostly by rising levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping (“greenhouse”) gases from human activities such as fossil-fuel burning and deforestation.
For Georgia, the consequences may be dire. According to the researchers, average temperatures in the state are predicted to rise by 5 degrees Fahrenheit by mid-century and up to 9 degrees by 2080. The number of days with 90-degree-plus temperatures could increase from about 60 days to as many as 135 days per year.
Droughts will become more severe and longer-lasting. Summer river flow may decline; some rivers may dry up altogether.
Much of our native fauna and flora will find it difficult to adapt to rapid climate change. The biological diversity of Georgia’s forests and other ecosystems, in fact, could change substantially, the researchers predict.
A 2015 National Audubon Society study — based on data from Christmas bird counts, computer models and other sources — warns that global warming threatens the survival of nearly half the bird species in the continental United States and Canada, including many of Georgia’s birds.
“We could see many of our backyard and parkland bird species, like brown-headed nuthatches, pine warblers, and even mallards severely diminish or disappear altogether,” said Nikki Belmonte, Atlanta Audubon Society executive director.
Climate change, in fact, is the biggest threat facing birds worldwide.
To learn how to help, visit: nrdc.org/stories/how-you-can-stop-global-warming.
In the sky: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be full Monday — the "Green Corn Moon," as the Cherokee peoples called June's full moon. Mercury is low in the east just before sunrise. Mars is in the south, Jupiter is low in the southwest and Saturn is high in the east around dusk.
