What is Maryland Doing?
Maryland has experienced changes in its climate over the last century and on the whole, the State is experiencing warmer winters and summers, wetter autumns and springs, and drier summers. In the future, it is expected that climate change will affect Maryland in a variety of ways. More obvious impacts could include an increased risk for extreme events such as drought, storms, flooding, and forest fires; more heat-related stress; the spread of existing or new vector-born disease; and increased erosion and inundation of low-lying areas along the State’s shoreline and coast. Adaptation, together with mitigation, is necessary to address climate change.
Climate change adaptation is an extremely complex process and there is no single means of response. That said, the State is already taking steps to enhance the resilience of a broad spectrum of natural and human-based systems to the consequences of climate change.
