A new report analyzes the economic effects of a changing climate on Idaho. It’s the first to look at state-specific circumstances.
Katherine Himes is director of the University of Idaho’s James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research, which compiled the research. Himes said the goal was to create a nonpartisan, evidence-based resource for industries and policymakers.
“The big key here is those changes – temperature, precipitation and snowpack,” said Himes, “because that then influences what happens to agriculture, energy, forests, human health, infrastructure, rangelands, recreation and tourism.”
On the current climate-warming trajectory, increasing temperature, changing patterns of precipitation across the state and lower snowpack are expected in the coming decades for Idaho.
An advisory board for the report included businesses, nonprofits and government officials, including Native…