It's getting warmer

I'm already starting to sweat.

People in Philadelphia would swelter through as many as 30 days with temperatures higher than 100 degrees each summer. The Northeastern ski industry, except for western Maine, would probably go out of business. And spruce and hemlock forests -- as well as songbirds such as the Baltimore oriole -- would all but disappear from New Jersey to the Canadian border.

These are among the conclusions of a two-year study by the public interest group Union of Concerned Scientists on the effects of global warming in the Northeast if current greenhouse gas emission patterns worldwide continue unabated. Winters would be on average 8 to 12 degrees higher by the end of the century, and summers 6 to 14 degrees higher. [It appears they mean "warmer," not "higher." But WashPo copy editors need sleep, too. — Dr. S]

If global warming maintains its current pace, the Northeast will be transformed, a new report says. The ski industry, such as that in Vermont, could disappear.

Given those conditions, the group said in a report released yesterday, the environment of the Northeast would be transformed, and cities such as Boston, Atlantic City and New York would be regularly subject to disastrous flooding.

It's way past time for our policymakers to start listening to real scientists and stop taking the opinions of people like professor Bush and Dr. Inhofe seriously on this matter.