IDENTIFYING THE LOCAL ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE-CHANGE

The need to evaluate and plan for the region-specific economic develop ment impacts of potential global climate change is receiving increasin g attention. This article presents a method for estimating such conseq uences and the results of exploratory research that applies this metho d to determining the employment impacts in a recreationally based regi on. The research results demonstrate that climate variation over the p ast 20 years has had significant development impacts. For the Pere Mar quette Watershed region of central-western Michigan, the analysis show s that employment in the construction; farming;finance, insurance, and real estate; manufacturing; residuals; services; trade; and transport ation/utilities sectors of the region is sensitive to climate variatio n.