The metropolitan Washington region is already experiencing the effects of climate change with rising temperatures, drier summers and a warmer Chesapeake Bay with uncertain and possibly severe consequences to the future of the region. As a result, both the state of Maryland and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments have issued reports on the status of climate change in Maryland, calling for local governments to lead by example; and these reports rely in part on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which concluded that industrialized nations need to take substantial early action to stem the growth of...