Indiana

Global climate change poses risks to human health and to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Important economic resources such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and water resources also may be affected. Warmer temperatures, more severe droughts and floods, and sea level rise could have a wide range of impacts. All these stresses can add to existing stresses on resources caused by other influences such as population growth, land-use changes, and pollution.

Climate Change in Indiana

Below are some of the potential impacts:

• By 2100 temperatures in Indiana could increase by 2°F in summer (with a range of 1-4°F), 3°F in winter and spring (with a range of 1-6°F), and 4°F (with a range of 2-7°F) in fall. Higher temperatures and increased frequency of heat waves may increase the number of heat-related deaths and the incidence of heat-related illnesses. Indiana, with its irregular, intense heat waves, could be susceptible.
• In Indiana, production agriculture is a $5 billion annual industry, 60% of which comes from crops. The major crops in the state are corn and soybeans. Corn yields could fall 4-42% as temperatures rise beyond the tolerance levels of the crop. Depending on how climate changes, soybean yields could fall by 46% or rise by 15%. Increases in climate variability could make adaptation by farmers more difficult.
• The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, ranks third of all U.S. national parks in plant diversity, even though its acreage is less than 3% of that of the top two (Great Smoky Mountains and Grand Canyon). These dunes support some of the most extensive oak savannas remaining in the United States and are home to such rare animals as the plains pocket gopher, the blue spotted salamander, and several species of endangered butterflies, including one of the world’s only populations of the Karner blue butterfly. Changes in water levels brought about by a changing climate could dramatically alter the extent of this ecosystem and endanger resident flora and fauna.

The above are based on from the Environmental Protection Agency's report on climate change, which uses data from the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2001).

For more info on climate change impacts on water resources, agriculture, forests and ecosystems, download pdf of full EPA Report

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CO2: How Does Your State Rank?

Indiana is the highest emitter of C02 of all 50 states and the most populous.

See all rankings

Maps

See CO2 output by sector, coastal population maps, and maps of regional initiatives.

Regional Initiatives

In the absence of federal action, many U.S. states are banding together to explore and employ greenhouse gas-reducing policies.

Indiana participates in the following:

Midwest GHG Registry

Learn about climate initiatives in all U.S. states and regions

Your Impact

Estimate your CO2 footprint by using a carbon calculator such as the one on the Inconvenient Truth web site.

How green is your energy? The EPA has a power profiler that can tell you.