Western Air Will Stagnate Over 50 Years as Climate Warms

Environment News Service, October, 2005

RICHLAND, Washington (ENS) — --> By mid-century, air quality throughout the western United States will deteriorate, according to a new computer simulation by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the model is among the first to project effects of future climate change on U.S. regional air quality, and they will be most dramatic in the West, this time of year.

In the fall of 2050, the model shows, a temperature increase of up to four degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees F.) will contribute to a doubling of stagnant, bad-air days from one week to two in the area from the Rockies west to the coastal mountains, said Ruby Leung, a fellow at the Department of Energy laboratory who led the study.

Bad air...

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