I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
According to an article in today’s edition of the Albuquerque Journal, a report says that “the effects of human-caused climate change” are already being felt in New Mexico. The effects come in the form of “rising temperatures and dwindling snowpacks.”
There looks to be plenty of reason to be concerned. Albuquerque Journal science writer John Fleck tells of some of the effects that man-made climate change will have on New Mexico:
Temperatures in the region have risen 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit on average over the past three decades. Flows on the Colorado River have declined and are likely to shrink further as temperatures rise, according to the report.
In New Mexico, according to the report, average springtime precipitation — critical for water supplies — could drop anywhere from 10 percent to 40 percent by the end of the century, depending on how successful we are at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The website for the “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States” report says, “Recent warming in the Southwest has been among the most rapid in the nation.”
The effects will be felt not only in areas like the agriculture of our region, but also in the “unique tourism and recreation opportunities.”
“Rising temperatures will adversely affect winter activities such as downhill and cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling,” the Southwest area of the website on the report states.
