Every day, changing ocean and climate conditions are significantly affecting the health of our ecosystems as well as the economy, health, and wellbeing of communities across the region.

Because climate change is impacting ecosystems, wildlife, and people across Puget Sound, it is one of the largest obstacles we face as we work to create a more resilient Puget Sound. In the coming decades, increasingly severe climate impacts to the region will become an even greater obstacle to achieving our statutorily mandated biophysical and sociological recovery goals. In fact, each of the Partnership’s six statutory recovery goals is threatened by climate change and almost 90 percent of Puget Sound Vital Signs are at moderate to high risk of being impacted by climate change by 2050. See the goal reports in the “How is Puget Sound doing?” chapter for more details on how climate change impacts the ecosystem.

Projected climate impacts are alarming

Climate research predicts that a suite of alarming climate effects will appear across the region in the coming decades.

• Air temperature has already warmed, and climate projections show that, as warming accelerates, air temperature could reach 4.7°C above historical levels by the end of the century.
• Summer rainfall could decrease by as much as 27 percent by the end of the century and heavy rain events will become more intense in the last half of the century, increasing the risk and severity of flooding, erosion, and landslides.
• Peak snowpack is projected to decrease by 42 percent to 55 percent or more by the end of the century.
• River and stream temperatures—affected by warming air temperature, changes in precipitation, and decreased snowpack—could exceed 4°C-4.5°C above historical levels by the end of the century.
• Projections show that streamflow will increase by 18 percent to 42 percent during periods of peak flow and decrease by 16 percent to 55 percent during periods of low flow as a consequence of warming air, melting snow, drier summers, and more intense heavy rain events.
• Sea level rise, ocean warming, and ocean acidification have already begun and will accelerate throughout the century, resulting in an ocean that is 1.6 feet to 2 feet higher, as much as 2.8°C warmer, and 38 percent to 109 percent more acidic than historical levels by the end of the century.

Consequences to our Puget Sound community

Climate change will continue to profoundly affect the physical, mental, spiritual, cultural, and economic wellbeing of Puget Sound communities. Our overburdened communities will be impacted first, most often, and to the greatest extent. As climate change becomes more severe, humans will be increasingly affected by:

• Heat-related illnesses and deaths;
• Contamination of food by environmental contaminants;
• Contaminated freshwater and marine waters;
• Flooding and damage to low-lying infrastructure, homes, and businesses;
• Severe and frequent wildfires;
• Limited access to recreation and traditional cultural activities;
• Limited availability of traditional medicines; and
• Decreasing availability of local food.

These many climate impacts will continue to have profound and, in some cases, devastating consequences to the overall health and vitality of Puget Sound ecosystems and people. Predicted climate impacts can devastate communities across the region, particularly tribes, people of color, and other communities with the increased risks of flooding, property damage, health hazards, and pollution. Unabated climate impacts could quickly strip the region of its iconic natural resources, including salmon and orca, as well as the region’s many iconic landscapes and ecosystems as habitat is reduced and degraded. Local and customary foods may become scarce or too toxic to consume.