Bottom Line

For decades Connecticut residents have sought clear air, sewage-free waters and a protected green landscape. Those goals are in sight. With significantly more effort, Connecticut will succeed. With current effort, it will fail.

A Note About Global Warming:
It’s Working Against Us

The land, air and water of New England have been getting warmer. Regrettably, this warmth is making Connecticut’s task considerably more difficult:

• Summer heat leads to more polluted air for two reasons: First, heat and sunlight cause various air pollutants to react and generate ground-level ozone. The air frequently becomes unhealthful when the temperature goes over 90 degrees. Then, on the hottest, most polluted summer days, Connecticut residents use more air conditioning, prompting old power plants to start up and pollute the air further.

• Connecticut residents are using more air conditioning as the climate changes, but most still buy systems that operate at minimum levels of efficiency. Unless residents begin to purchase a far higher percentage of efficient air conditioning units, Connecticut will be hard pressed to reduce electricity use, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in a warming climate.

• Warm surface water leads to less oxygen in the deep waters of Long Island Sound. The lobster die-off of 1999 coincided with warmer waters, and the diseases that kill lobsters and oysters thrive in warmer waters. Several warm-water marine species are moving in as native cold-water denizens disappear, and few residents will view a surge in jellyfish as compensation for the loss of winter flounder.

• The climate is changing in other deleterious ways. Connecticut is seeing many more storms that bring at least two inches of rain. These are the storms that push raw sewage, soil and other pollutants into waterways and cause beaches to be closed to swimming.