And there is little doubt climate change is making it tougher for many elsewhere as well. Many Michiganders now know what it’s like to deal with record extreme water-level changes on the Great Lakes. Strengthening storms, more severe dry spells and more extreme rainfall in the summer months all add challenges for the agricultural communities of our state.
Earlier snowmelt and spring rains mean waterlogged soils, which combine with more variable early-season temperature swings to make planting crops and producing fruit more tricky. It is clear our 20th-century infrastructure and practices are now being overwhelmed by our 21st-century climate.įarmers and growers in Michigan have a big challenge on their hands due to climate change. We’re also seeing dam failures, and increased snow and rain runoff from farms into the Great Lakes, where the resulting increase in nutrient runoff combines with the warmer waters to generate worsening harmful algal blooms. We predicted an increase in rainfall intensity, and recent change has eclipsed what we predicted: We’re now getting regular flooding in Detroit and elsewhere around the state. The big surprise is how much faster climate change impacts are accumulating than we thought they would.Ĭlimate warming is crystal clear, both in terms of hotter heat waves in the summer and warming waters in the Great Lakes. Our research was mostly academic: How will climate respond to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and how will a changing climate impact things humans care about? Fast forward to the year 2022, and most of the impacts we’re seeing are ones we expected. How is climate change impacting Michigan?Įarly in my career as a climate scientist, almost all climate change impacts were a thing of the future. However, Michigan can only be a climate refuge if we keep climate change from getting out of control. The climate crisis is becoming a drought and water crisis in some parts of the U.S., whereas the Great Lakes hold over 80% of North America’s surface freshwater. Interestingly, Michigan is being seen as a potential climate refuge, a place less at risk to harmful climate change impacts than many other states around the country, particularly in the southern tier of the country and along the coasts. Although a great deal is known about the problem, its cause, and its solutions, the crisis just keeps growing due to the lack of rapid action to combat it.
For example, there is a growing wildfire crisis out West, coral reefs are bleaching throughout the tropics, the Amazon rainforest is at grave risk, and climate change has a very real chance of driving the sixth major mass extinction in Earth’s history. Natural systems are also getting hit hard. Future generations will be the most affected. Everyone on the planet will be affected, even if they haven’t already been impacted. Climate change is the defining global problem of the 21st century.
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