NGO report points to climate change perils for Chincoteague NWR, Jamestown NHS, and Shenandoah NP
On September 1, 2010, RMCO and Natural Resources Defense Council released Virginia Special Places in Peril: Jamestown, Chincoteague, and Shenandoah Threatened by Climate Disruption.
The profile details how human-caused climate change threatens Jamestown, the first permanent European settlement in what became the American colonies and the United States; Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge; and Shenandoah National Park.
Together, these three special places draw six million visitors a year and provide over 4,000 jobs and $200 million to Virginia's economy.
But Jamestown Island, the site of the original 1607 settlement, is low enough to be completely inundated by rising seas and tidal waters -- even if the waters do not rise as much by the century's end as now seems most likely to scientists. Jamestown is also likely to become intolerably hot for many visitors for long stretches of the summer. This was a record-setting hot summer in Jamestown -- but in the 2080s in a higher-emissions future, the average summer could be twice as much above historic temperature levels as was this last, hottest-ever summer.