ECONOMIC IMPACT OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSED

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 1997

Fairbanks, Alaska - Up until very recently, scientists studying global climate change relied solely on their colleagues within the academic community to assess the possible impacts of a world growing warmer.

But researchers now realize that global climate change will affect not only the environment, but alter social and economic structures as well. How the private sector, policy makers, community and government leaders respond and prepare for socioeconomic impacts of global change will be discussed at an international meeting at the University of Alaska Fairbanks June 3 - 6.

According to Patricia Anderson, associate director of UAF's Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research, the conference will bring stakeholder groups together for face-to-face meetings.

"The region is critical in terms of climatic change, " Anderson said. "Native groups, mining, fishing and oil industries, government officials, we all have a stake in understanding how the western arctic and Bering Sea region will be affected by global change, both positively and negatively."

One of the largest remaining fisheries in the world is located off Alaska's shores. The area is also rich in marine mammal resources and petroleum reserves. Scientists largely agree that major environmental changes are likely to occur in the Arctic in the coming decades. The extent and thickness of seasonal snow cover, sea ice, permafrost, glaciers and inland ice are all expected to decrease as the climate warms.

For the oil industry, this could be good news. Less sea ice would open trans-arctic shipping routes and create easier offshore development.

For subsistence users and the fishing industry, the changes would pose a different set of concerns. Altering animal and fish habitats could affect population, range and availability of harvests.

Gunter Weller, UAF geophysics professor emeritus and chair of the conference organizing group, says an effort will be made at the UAF meeting to create the first-ever, comprehensive regional impact assessment of environmental and socioeconomic consequences of global climate change in the Arctic. The U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Science Foundation, the International Arctic Science Committee and the U.S. Global Change Research Program are also conference sponsors.

Conference workshops will define gaps in current information needed to conduct an impact assessment and begin discussion on possible policy options to mitigate impacts. All workshops will take place at UAF's Natural Sciences Building.

Major issues include commercial, recreational and subsistence fisheries; marine ecosystems, including marine mammals and sea-bird populations; resource-dependent communities and impacts of multi-species failures, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems; fossil fuels and mineral development; and, maintenance of buildings, roads, airports and seaports. The public is invited to participate.

Note to Editors: Media participants may attend portions of the conference for free by registering in advance with UAF's Conferences and Special Events, (907) 474-7800.

CONTACT: UAF Public Information Officer Debra Damron, (907) 474-7122.

DPD/5-22-97/97/97-083