Reporters Lisa Stiffler and Robert McClure explore potential impacts of warming on the Northwest's various ecosystems and conclude that despite uncertainties, "things are changing already, many in ways that bode ill, from the mountains to the Sound." They address and dismiss climate skeptics with a single sentence: "Only a handful of scientists who have seriously studied the matter doubt that significant and potentially destructive warming is coming" ... but they acknowledge at the same time that "This is not to say all the changes will be bad." Their piece takes the reader through the Northwest's mountains, rivers, forests, shoreline, and ocean and sound, and in each case they report on potential impacts and risks. Their piece concludes with a quote from Elliott Norse, president of the Redmond, Wa.-based Marine Conservation Biology Institute, whom they identify as supporting reductions on greenhouse gas emissions: "What we need," he said, "is some combination of law and incentives so that people do the right thing." A full-page "Our Warming World" chart, included as a pdf file with the online version, provides a graphic overview of potential impacts in the Northwest. (See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/148043_warming13.html.)