FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) – Members of Congress will hold a summit on global warming atop the peak where the Old Man of the Mountain once gazed across the rugged landscape of the White Mountains.
Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said the panel will hold a hearing June 4 on Cannon Mountain.
“I think it is important for the members of this new committee to get out of Washington, D.C., where concern about this issue has lagged, and engage directly with businesses, government and concerned citizens at the local level,” he told The Boston Globe. “On the summit … we will have a spectacular view of a state that is concerned about its tourist industry, a shorter ski season, changing foliage, and intense weather events which presage serious economic consequences if we don’t act,” Markey said.
The hearing will focus on the effects of global warming on tourism, recreation and agriculture in New England. Markey said he picked New Hampshire because about 160 towns adopted a resolution earlier this year calling for action to address climate change.
Roger Stephenson, spokesman for Clean Air-Cool Planet said he was pleased the committee wants to hear how climate change is affecting state residents’ lives.
“When people talk about snowfall versus rainfall, warmer temperatures, a diminished fall foliage, those are all natural impacts,” he said. “People are now connecting the dots between those natural impacts and what makes New Hampshire the state it is.”
Cannon Mountain, which is 4,100 feet in elevation, is in Franconia Notch State Park, where a highway pulloff to view the granite profile of Old Man was a major tourism draw. The formation collapsed four years ago, but the Old Man remains the state’s official symbol, featured on the state quarter, highway signs and license plates.
Cannon Mountain also has a state-owned ski area; part of the hearing will take place in the lodge.
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