Workshop: Climate Change and
the Mississippi River Region

TITLE: Climate Change and the Mississippi River Region
DATE: June 10, 1998
SITE: Regal Riverfront Hotel, St. Louis, Missouri
CO-SPONSORS: US Environmental Protection Agency

The third event in the regional response series addressed Climate Change and the Mississippi River Region. The Climate Institute meeting was held at the Regal Riverfront Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri as part of NOAA's week-long Mississippi River Climate Conference. The NOAA conference, which ran from June 8-12, drew about 200 scientists and researchers from around the region to present and discuss the status of their research on climate and regional water balances.

In addition to the scientific discussions, the NOAA conference also included several opportunities for local citizens to learn about the critical issues facing the region. The Climate Institute's workshop on climate change impacts was organized as one of several informational sessions open to the general public. Approximately 50 people attended the workshop, including several representatives from the state and local government and local energy companies, concerned citizens, and many scientists who were attending the NOAA conference.

Participants of the Climate Institute session joined the morning plenary session for the NOAA conference where Mike MacCracken of the US Global Change Research Program provided an Overview of Climate Change Science. In addition, the plenary included presentations on the regional impacts of El Niño, climate prediction, and global water balances. These presentations provided substantive background for the Climate Institute workshop which, in addition to addressing mitigation measures, focused heavily on two areas of particular regional economic and social importance - agriculture and water resources.

The Climate Institute session included panel discussions on extreme events, agriculture, water, and energy. Panelists made short presentations with most of the time devoted to dialogue generated by questions from the audience. In general, participants concluded that while regional impacts of climate change were still difficult to quantify, the potential scenarios should be incorporated into long-term planning. While some benefits to agriculture were posed as possible effects from an overall warming, the impact of increased climatic variability on crops was considered a concern. The agriculture discussion also emphasized the need to control soil erosion and improve land use planning as a means of sequestering carbon. The water panel's discussion of the region's 1993 devastating flood experience stressed the need to plan for the possibility of increasingly severe weather events in a greenhouse enhanced world. The energy panel shifted the focus from adaptation measures to proactive mitigation strategies by offering several successful case studies of alternative energy use in vehicles and university facilities and discussing some innovative energy programs at the state and local levels.

Stephen Mahfood, Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, made the closing remarks at a reception following the workshop. He commended the participants for their commitment to these often overwhelming issues and for the insights generated by the day's discussions. He urged continued research both at the federal and state levels to improve regional prediction of climate change impacts and invited the Climate Institute to return to St. Louis for a follow-up conference.