A report predicts that global warming could doom the North Olympic Peninsula’s rain forests.
The report was released by the World Wildlife Fund and the University of Toronto last week as city government officials from around the country took part in an environmental workshop in Seattle.
It focused on 113 biologically rich parts of the world, including three in the Pacific Northwest: the North Olympic Peninsula, the Washington Cascades and the Klamath-Siskiyou region of southern Oregon and northern California.
The study is based on computer modeling that projects the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in the Earth’s atmosphere will double over the next century.
According to the report, as the amount of carbon dioxide increases, the world will continue to warm.
This will force plants and animals to adapt to new conditions (which could include higher temperatures and less water, for example), migrate north — or die.
But the Peninsula’s rain forests have nowhere to migrate to.
The rest of this Sunday Showcase special report appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.