KCTS9 EarthFix will be running a segment about the effects of climate change on Northwest tribes starting next week. The story is available online now.
“Without everything that’s alive, the treaties are not worth anything,” (NWIFC Chairman Billy) Frank said.
Today, Pacific salmon are facing yet another threat, which Frank fears could drive them to the brink of extinction. Salmon need the snowmelt and glacier-fed streams of the Northwest to survive. But since 1920 the average annual temperature in the region has risen by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. That slight increase in temperature has caused the South Cascade Glacier at the Skagit River headwaters to shrink to half what it was a century ago, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Read the full story and watch the video.