$1.5 million grant to study climate change

KENNEWICK -- The University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been granted $1.5 million for scientists to study the environmental and economic impact of climate change on areas within the state.

"If you're going to cope with climate change, you really have to go to the local level," said L. Ruby Leung, a climate physics scientist at the national laboratory. "Different areas will definitely experience different changes, even on the east side or the west side" of the state.

The state is funding the study, with the work to begin in July and to be completed in a year and a half to two years.

Leung said the national lab would work on projecting how more than a dozen regions within the state will be affected by rising temperatures, more rain and less snow; the university will concentrate on the effects of a rising sea level and the impact on crops, agriculture and water resources.

"It's true there's not much we can do to affect the next 20 to 50 years, but don't give up hope," she said. "If we don't do anything now, imagine what the second half of the century will be like."