Global Warming Impacts to Maryland

List of predicted and current global warming impacts to Maryland from IPCC predictions and 1/30/08 editorial in Baltimore Sun by state legislators Kumar Barve and Paul G. Pinsky. In Maryland, conservative impacts based on IPCC predictions over the next century include increased drought and water shortages; more intense storms and hurricanes; increased flooding; harm to the Chesapeake Bay including more dead zones and damage to the crab, oyster, and sportfishing industries; loss of native brook trout populations; wetlands loss; harm to fisheries and waterfowl; accelerated beach erosion; dangerous heat waves; loss of duck hunting; forest loss, especially to hemlocks; increased gypsy moths; loss of the maple syrup industry in Western Maryland; loss of the Baltimore Oriole and black-eyed Susan, Maryland’s state bird and flower; extinction of species in subarctic habitats in Western Maryland; loss of skiing industry income; loss of the honey industry in Maryland; changes to USDA hardiness zones for agriculture and gardening; worse acid rain and more ground-level ozone; more code red air quality days; and a loss of significant land mass especially coasts and wetlands, including Blackwater Refuge, Ocean City, Baltimore’s Harborplace, and Smith, Hoopers and Bloodsworth Islands.