Resilience Against Climate Change: Heat is On?

The Executive Council recently approved a $50,000 contract with the University of New Hampshire to provide data and tools to map specific climate change impact across the state.

The data will support the Climate Change and Public Health Program of the Bureau of Public Health Protection, which is part of the state Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health Services. It's federal money targeted at "Building Resilience Against Climate Effects."

But before it was authorized, Councilor Chris Sununu questioned whether the results would actually be on target.

"I will be voting vehemently against item 91," said Sununu. This group "keeps screwing it up."

Sununu was referring to a 2012 climate change study from UNH researchers that said the ski industry was facing major challenges.

The problem was – the UNH analysts were looking at global data and extrapolating and interpreting it on a New Hampshire level, according to Sununu, who, as chief executive officer of Waterville Valley Resort, has an intimate understanding of the ski season. The 2012-13 season proved to be a snowy, colder winter, he said. 

The report Sununu criticized was issued in December 2012. Called "Climate Impacts on the Winter Tourism Economy in the United States," it was produced by Elizabeth Burakowski and Matthew Magnusson in contract for the National Resources Defense Council and Protect Our Winters.

The 2011-2012 season was the fourth warmest winter on record since 1896, and the National Ski Areas Association called the 2011-12 season the most challenging in 20 years, according to the report. The 2012-13 season, however, saw New Hampshire resorts reporting strong business.

New Hampshire saw more than 2.5 million skier and rider visits this past season, a 20.9 percent increase from the prior winter, Ski NH reported this month. Eight of the top 10 winters occurred since 2000, Ski NH President Alice Pearce said.

Climate and environmental changes continue to be studied, and battered about in political circles. The state Legislature recently passed a bill to prepare for rising sea levels, for example. At the Executive Council meeting, Sununu aimed to drill down to the facts: It's not just the data, but the analysis that matters, he said.

In the past, UNH researchers have produced more than a couple of papers tracing potential ski industry volatility if winters get warmer – among many other climate effects, from coastal impacts to maple sugar seasons not being as sweet, figuratively speaking.

State and federal government agencies have also, for years now, looked how climate change and climate action plans to prepare for various potential impacts, such as poor air quality exacerbating a person's asthma.

In this UNH contract, which is through Dec. 31, 2013, the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space will "characterize and rank anticipated risks related to temperature, precipitation and anticipated climate changes within a 50-year span," according to the contract.

The idea is that the state can use the data to focus resources and public response to minimize health impacts.

The institute is "to geographically map specific climate-related impacts in the past (1900-2010) and potential climate-related impacts in the future (2013-2100) for New Hampshire."

After a brief exchange at its recent meeting, the Executive Council voted 4-1 to approve the contract, with Sununu the lone dissent.