The level and breadth of interest in the subject of climate change and its effects in Washington state was evidenced Thursday as a capacity crowd of more than 600 attended "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be: Planning for Climate Disruption," sponsored by King County and various state agencies.

At the request of the county, the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington prepared materials, including new regional climate change scenarios, a white paper on climate change impacts and primers on climate change science. They are available at: http://www.cses.washington.edu/cig/outreach/workshops/kc2005  

"It was not just the sheer size of the conference -- which dwarfs any conference like it anywhere in the world, as far as I know -- it was the presence of so many people in a position to affect policy and management," says Phil Mote, research scientist with the Climate Impacts Group and the state climatologist.

King County developed, planned and funded the meeting as an outgrowth of research conducted by the Climate Impacts Group and the governmental and agency relationships that have evolved through that work.

A broad cross-section of government agencies, businesses, tribes, non-profits and the community at large were represented .

"It was great to hear Jay Manning, director of the Washington Department of Ecology, announce that the department and the Office of Economic and Community Trade Development are taking this seriously enough to host a series of future conferences on this same topic," says Amy Snover, research scientist with the Climate Impacts Group.

"Some real work needs to be done to prepare our region for climate change and these were good first steps."