Government Accountability
Office Releases Report on Impacts of Global Warming to Public
Lands
The U.S. Government Accountability Office released
a report Thursday indicating federally managed lands and waters
are vulnerable to both current and expected impacts of global
warming. The report concludes that the ability of federal employees
on the ground to address climate change is stymied by a lack of
direction, inadequate scientific knowledge and insufficient resources.
"Unfortunately, this report indicates that once again, the
Bush administration and its political appointees have impeded
efforts to protect our most treasured places by effectively ignoring
the impacts of global warming agency planning and management decisions,"
said Friends of the Earth’s Kate Horner.
Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and John Kerry (D-MA)
requested the report in response to a request from the Bluewater
Network, which is now part of Friends of the Earth.
Read
the full report here.
Read
our press release here.
The impending climate
crisis is the greatest threat ever faced by our nation’s
public lands and waters. Rising temperatures are fueling catastrophic
wildfire, displacing wildlife and ecosystems, cultivating invasive
pests and infectious disease, and endangering the vitality of
numerous local economies dependent on the beauty of their surrounding
areas.
In 2002, Friends
of the Earth - Bluewater team sent petitions to public land agencies
requesting that they undertake long term planning for global warming-related
impacts over the next 100 years, including determining the full
scope of potential impacts and vulnerabilities, ways to reduce
and prevent global warming, and development of adaptation measures
to protect resources at highest risk. The responses Bluewater
received highlighted public agencies’ inability to confront
the challenges posed by global warming - agencies cited state-of-science
deficiencies and administrative barriers such as lack of staff
and resources as justification for inaction. Read
our petitions and some agency responses below.
As federal land
management agencies continuously failed to protect our public
lands and waters from current and future impacts of the climate
crisis, Friends of the Earth-Bluewater team successfully lobbied
Senators John McCain and Ernest Hollings to request a report from
The General Accountability Office (GAO) detailing the impacts
of climate change on all public lands and the potential adaptation
and mitigation measures that could be undertaken. We hope this
report will finally spur government and agency action to to protect
our unique natural and cultural heritage.
Scorched Earth
Petitions: petitions urging federal lands and water management
agencies to take action to comply with legal mandates to protect
valuable public resources from global warming
Protecting Wildlife and Habitat in the Era of Global Warming
In 1872, President Grant set aside
two million acres surrounding the Yellowstone River to be forever
preserved "as a public park … for the benefit and enjoyment
of the people." Over the next 130 years the United States
undertook to preserve millions of acres of North America's unique
habitat and magnificent scenery located.
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Today, global warming
threatens to destroy the very national parks, forests, wildlife
refuges, and marine sanctuaries that are supposed to be federally
protected. Bluewater Network calls upon the US Fish and Wildlife
Service, National Park Service, Forest Service, National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration to fulfill the purpose for which
they were created and protect and preserve North America's natural
treasures.
How Serious are the Impacts of Global Warming on our Natural
Treasures?
Predictable impacts
of global warming on protected lands are far more cataclysmic
than President Grant could have imagined. By 2030 the glaciers
in Glacier National Parks glaciers will all melt. By the end of
this century, the entire North Slope tundra of the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge will also have melted. The water from melting
glaciers will raise sea levels, submerging protected lowlands
- including the Florida Keys and Everglades National Park and
Preserve.
Many species will
not survive temperature change. Yosemite's whitefish, brook trout,
and Chinook salmon can't tolerate warmer water. Other species
like the Lyme-disease carrying ticks at Cape Cod National Seashore
will thrive at warmer temperatures. The spruce bark beetle has
already killed four million acres of trees in Alaska. In Hawaii,
non-Native species, more tolerant of variations in temperature
and rainfall than their native competitors, are already strangling
native Hawaiian rainforest species.
The escalating impacts
of global warming include disruption of the caribou herd's precisely
timed migration schedule in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge, increased wildfires due to rising temperatures and decreased
precipitation, and the death of the Florida Coastal Reef Tract
and coral reefs around the world due to storm-induced coastal
erosion and atmospheric carbon dioxide.
And then there is
Yellowstone - America's muse for its prized system of protected
lands. In Yellowstone National Park, the mighty grizzly could
starve as its primary food, the whitebark pine, succumbs to even
a small temperature change.
Will I still
be able to Enjoy the National Parks?
Global warming will
severely limit our ability to enjoy what remains of our National
Parks and other treasured wildlife and wildlands. Besides the
widespread loss of habitat and species, traditional recreation
opportunities will be limited or lost. A decreased snowpack will
shorten ski seasons. Views will be obscured by smog, and opportunities
for fishing, rafting, and kayaking will dwindle as stream flows
diminish.
What is the Government
doing to Protect Public Lands from Global Warming?
To date the US Government
has done nothing to prevent this devastation. Bluewater Network
has launched its Scorched Earth Campaign to change that.
The time for public
land management agencies to act affirmatively to protect the nation's
natural treasures from global warming is here. Land managers must
plan for the impacts of global warming. Protecting public lands
for present and future generations is the reason these agencies
exist! Bluewater Network's Scorched Earth Campaign is putting
the pressure on public agencies to take action. Specifically,
Bluewater is:
Asking public
officials and public land managers to conduct a full assessment
of the impacts of global warming on protected lands and to develop
and implement measures to protect lands from global warming;
Urging public
land managers to "lead by example" by reducing the
emission of greenhouse gases on public lands through increased
energy efficiency, the use of renewable power, and reduced travel
in cars powered by fossil fuels.
Helping public
land managers to educate the public about global warming impacts
and solutions; and
Pressuring Congress
to implement solutions to global warming.
2002
Released a report
on the impacts of Global Warming on national parks, forests, marine
sanctuaries, and wildlife refuges, Scorched Earth, Global Climate
Change Impacts on Public Lands and Waters. The teleconferenced
release including statements by Senator Barbara Boxer, Congressman
George Miller, and renowned climate change scientists.
Filed legal petitions
to force the National Park Service and other agencies to initiate
planning and mitigation measures to address global warming impacts
on America's national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and marine
sanctuaries.
Scorched
Earth Report Executive Summary: Executive Summary of Bluewater
Network's Scorched Earth report
Scorched
Earth: comprehensive report detailing the effects of global
warming on our nation's National Parks, forests, wildlife refuges,
and marine sanctuaries
Global
Warming Impacts to Wildlife: one page summary of some of the
impacts global warming will have on protected wildlife at America's
public lands
Global
Warming Impacts to Visitor Enjoyment: one page summary of
some of the impacts global warming will have on visitor enjoyment
of public lands, including snow sports, snorkeling and diving,
and wildlife viewing
Statement
by Congressman George Miller: statement at Bluewater Network
June 2002 press teleconference to release Scorched Earth report
Scorched Earth
Petitions: petitions urging federal lands and water management
agencies to take action to comply with legal mandates to protect
valuable public resources from global warming
