Expect some big problems on the horizon, according to the final report issued Monday by the Alaska Climate Impact Assessment Commission – the state Legislature-led group that’s spent two years examining possible effects of global warming in Alaska.

The panel’s 124-page report foresees several costly outcomes, from the need to relocate coastal villages hammered by storms and erosion, to an increase in forest fires and smoky skies, to the collapse of roads and public buildings, to several serious threats to fish and wildlife.

While the bottom line is worrisome, says Rep. Ralph Samuels – the Anchorage Republican who chaired the commission – the report tries to be solution-oriented, focusing on how the state might adapt to global warming rather than argue over what might be causing it.

“What we said is, ‘OK, the assumption is it’s happening … look at the ice packs,” Samuels said. “So how are we going to design the roads differently? How are we going to manage fish and game differently?'”

Partially a product of testimony the commission received at six public hearings statewide, the climate change impact report also drew upon expertise from nearly all of the state’s cabinet-level agencies.

“It was a bit overwhelming – I’ll tell you the truth – to see how much material is out there,” Samuels said.

Not all of it paints a grim picture. Portions identify a few silver linings to global warming, noting, for example, the potential for a brand-new shipping industry in a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean – and more than $300 million a year the state receives in federally-funded climate change research.

Longer and warmer summers might also help to increase the number of tourists visiting Alaska, the study says.

“The unusually warm summer weather that occurred in Southeast Alaska in 2004 had a definite and positive economic impact from the point of view of the cruise industry,” the report says.

But that same year also saw forest fires ravage Alaska, burning a record 6.5 million acres, and 2007 resulted in the biggest tundra fire ever recorded on the North Slope. Smoky skies from fires like those not only detract from the tourist experience but pose a threat to public health, the report says.

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