Just one week after his historic inauguration last week, President Obama is already making headway in the proposal of much needed new policies to assist with the global financial crisis we are experiencing in the world today. Running as a “green” candidate during the lead up to last year’s election, Obama promised that if elected, he would tackle head-on the other, and perhaps even more important global crisis, that is, Global Warming.

Yesterday, his administration took the first step in fulfilling this promise by proposing legislation to allow the states to set auto emissions rules rather than the traditional approach where such rules were enforced by the federal government. While it is true that such a policy would allow for “SUV” states such as Texas to adopt lower emissions standards much to the detriment of the environment, it is also true that it would allow more eco-friendly states such as California to further heighten the level of restrictions they currently enforce.

The auto industry, like all businesses, seeks to benefit from positive profits and will therefore have to adopt the standard of the most rigorous state in the nation if it expects to extend the reach of its products to all 50 states. Currently, California holds the tile for having the most rigorous emission requirements and with this new law soon to be in effect, nothing will be able to stop the greenest state from adopting even greener emission standards. According to a new study at the University of Colorado and Oregon State University, doing just that might not be such a bad idea for the State of California. A paper summarizing this study’s findings was published last month in the journal Science and the findings were truly astonishing.

As reported by the research team, conclusive evidence has been found global warming has caused the rate of tree death in the Western United States to more than double in the past few decades. The area studied included the states of Colorado, Arizona, Northern California, Oregon, and even Washington. As trees are our primary source of breathable oxygen on earth and the devourers of the CO2 that has been warming our atmosphere, the increased death of these vital plants will further accelerate the trend of global warming.

The cause of these recent tree deaths is best explained by the researchers in the following quote taken from their paper in Science, “This regional warming [Global Warming] has contributed to widespread hydrologic changes, such as a declining fraction of precipitation falling as snow, declining water snowpack content, earlier spring snowmelt and runoff, and a consequent lengthening of the summer drought.”

In essence, it is this prolonged summer drought that is leading to the increased mortality of these trees. Interestingly, the researchers ruled out a number of leading causes of tree death we have seen in the past (i.e: normal forest dynamics, air pollution, etc.) and narrowed down the true cause as the steady increase in global temperatures. According to one of the researchers at the United States Geological Survey named Phil van Mantgem, “Average temperature in the West rose by more than 1° F over the last few decades. While this may not sound like much, it has been enough…”

Although slight governmental policy changes like those made by President Obama yesterday afternoon may not seem like they are very effective in the short term, let us hope that they too are enough to help put an end to the immense disservice we as humans have caused to our planet’s well being.

News Article Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090122141222.htm
Scientific Article Link: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/323/5913/521

Discussion Question: Given the tremendous crisis the U.S Automobile Industry is already facing through these tough economic times, do you think it was a smart idea for the Obama administration to further heighten emissions standards? Should they have waited, and if so, at what cost? Is the long term effect of global warming more important of an issue, or is helping to restore the economy?