From the Chesapeake Bay to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia's lands and waters bolster our economy and enhance our quality of life. But today, a changing climate threatens those lands and waters -- and the services they provide to all of us.

There is a clear consensus among the scientific community that unless we take immediate and significant action, continued warming will bring a range of dangerous impacts, including coastal flooding, stronger hurricanes, increased drought and threats to our water supplies, devastating impacts to wildlife and fisheries, and threats to human health, our economy, and our national security.

Virginia is more threatened than many states. As noted in a recent

Times-Dispatch column from Wetlands Watch on the need for action at the state level, the coastal zone of Virginia is the second most vulnerable region -- surpassed only by New Orleans -- to projected impacts from climate change. We cannot afford to wait until these looming challenges overwhelm us.

Last week, thanks in large part to leadership from Virginia's Sen. John Warner (R), the U.S. Senate made another important step in the ongoing discussion of how this country can best address the challenges of climate change at the federal level and encourage additional international action. Co-sponsored by Sens. Warner, Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), America's Climate Security Act of 2008 provided a robust and thoughtful response to the most critical environmental issue of our time.

WHILE THE bill did not gain the support it needed to move forward, a growing number of legislators acknowledges the country's need to address the impacts of climate change. When a thorough debate about climate change legislation finally proceeds in Congress, we are confident solutions will be found that help sustain important areas of the economy while also making the transition to cleaner energy and greater efficiency. We at The Nature Conservancy applaud Warner for developing climate legislation that builds on past proposals and believe the Climate Security Act includes important elements that should be considered fundamental for future climate legislation proposals.

The cornerstone of the act was a mandatory cap on greenhouse gas emissions, which would have reduced dramatically global warming pollution produced by the largest sources in the United States, such as power plants, industrial facilities, and petroleum refineries. A broad sector of businesses, conservation groups, and political leaders from both parties acknowledge that cap-and-trade should be an essential component of climate legislation.

A cap-and-trade system uses the power of the free market to find the most efficient and cost-effective ways to reduce emissions and provides broad flexibility for regulated emitters, allowing them to undertake a variety of measures to comply, including onand off-site emission reductions.

Through the auction of emission allowances under a cap-and-trade system we will simultaneously address pressing climate change threats to human and natural communities, help key industries adjust, provide support to consumers, and invest in new energy and transportation technologies.

Here in Virginia, those funds would help us develop and implement strategies to adapt to rising sea levels in low-lying coastal areas that are important for wildlife and people, and gradually transition to more sustainable energy supplies and uses.

FINANCIAL incentives to protect and restore forests here in the U.S. and in other countries represent another essential component for a comprehensive climate solution. Globally, deforestation accounts for fully 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and the loss of forestland also threatens irreplaceable habitats for biodiversity and critical sources of clean freshwater. Additionally, protecting and restoring forests, both here and internationally, provides a relatively low-cost way to reduce emissions, thereby lowering the costs to industry of meeting important reduction targets.

Climate change represents both a crisis and an opportunity. We can turn a crisis into opportunity by building on our national history of innovation and excellence by leading in the development of new lowor no-carbon energy sources. Our legislators must work to create strong incentives for innovation and development of new technologies that address climate change and revitalize the economy.

In a just-released report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program states that we are already feeling significant impacts of climate change on our natural systems. Climate change is no longer a future problem; it is happening now. If we continue to allow temperatures to increase unchecked, our natural and human communities will suffer from inadequate planning and our children will inherit a world far less rich than what we are blessed with today. Strong climate legislation is our best chance for positive change.

Michael Lipford is Virginia executive director of The Nature Conservancy and a member of the Governor's Commission on Climate Change. Contact him at (804)644-5800 or mlipford@tnc.org.