It's getting harder to brush off warnings about how climate change can affect the global landscape, especially when recent reports demonstrate it's already happening.

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change, for instance, said this month that climate change has affected migration patterns of birds and insects, which, in turn, could impact forestry and agriculture. The center's report compiles data from 40 scientific studies.

The journal Nature published a report by a British Antarctic Survey scientist who said populations of the shrimp-like krill have declined by about 80 percent, jeopardizing the whales, penguins and seals that depend on krill for food.

A four-year study conducted by 300 scientists for the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment said that the Arctic has lost an area of sea ice that's greater than Texas and Arizona put together. This could mean that coastal communities will deal with more storms, and thawing ground in northern regions will have an impact on buildings and transportation.

Detractors will argue that climate change is a natural phenomenon that occurs on a cyclical basis. Most scientists however, agree that it's happening more rapidly than ever and that it's related to the increased production of greenhouse gases.

Though the Bush administration has dedicated funding to climate change research, it has been reluctant to join international treaties on reducing greenhouse gas emissions or to enact tough climate change legislation at home.

Lawmakers, including Maine's Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, can make a difference, however, by pushing for laws that reduce the nation's output of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The two Republican senators have already been working to counteract climate change and they should continue.

Collins traveled with Sen. John McCain to a Norwegian island in the Arctic this summer to talk with scientists working on the Arctic Climate report. That study says that the strength and pattern of changes indicate that human influences such as carbon dioxide and other emissions have "now become the dominant factor" in climate change.

Though Maine and other states are moving forward with their own laws to cut emissions, this is an effort that should be undertaken on a national and global scale. The implications for the future health of both the environment and industry are too great.

Targeting emission and fuel-efficiency standards in automobiles is a great place to start, as well as making sure

that clean air standards for power plants match with available emission control technology.

Collins and Snowe can take the lead and get the administration moving on what's gone from a future concern to a very current worry.