 In 1992, while assessing the threats to biodiversity throughout British
Columbia, Lee Harding discovered that climate changes were allowing northward range
expansions of forest insect pests and increases in forest fires and that
these global changes combined with local land use to exert a cumulative
impact far beyond those anticipated by resource managers. His 1994 reports on forest ecosystems and climate change presaged a growing
awareness within federal environment and resource management departments
of the dangers of climate change. This led to his writing a
comprehensive assessment of ecosystem response to climate change in a
national assessment of the issue as preparation for the Kyoto conference
in 1997. |
