| WASHINGTON
- June 27 - Today environmentalists released an alarming report, Scorched Earth:
Global Climate Change Impacts on Public Lands and Waters, demonstrating that global
warming is one of the greatest threats ever faced by America’s national
parks, wildlife refuges, marine sanctuaries, and forests.
The report, by Bluewater Network, cites rising temperatures as fueling more
catastrophic wildfires and droughts, generating more haze and smog, displacing
native wildlife and plants, and increasing the public’s risk of contracting
diseases like malaria and Lyme disease. In conjunction with the report, Bluewater
Network filed petitions with the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce
calling for prompt action to temper this impending disaster, citing federal mandates
that require stewards of the nation's public lands to protect resources for future
generations.
“Ironically, the world’s
leading scientists have informed the public of the types of damages we should
expect over the next 100 years—damages that threaten every ecosystem and
species, including our own. Yet our land managers continue to plan only one to
two decades into the future,” said Russell Long, Executive Director of Bluewater
Network. “This is irresponsible and unlawful. Therefore, we are today submitting
petitions to our land agencies to meet their legal and moral obligations by analyzing,
planning for, and to the extent feasible, mitigating the very severe impacts of
global warming.”
Members of Congress joined
Bluewater Network at a teleconference at 11:00 AM EST to discuss Scorched Earth.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called the report “shock therapy” for
those refusing to do anything to address global warming. Congressman George Miller
(D-CA) released a statement saying, “Americans should be alarmed and deeply
troubled that United States is doing little to prevent these dramatic changes
from occurring. Global Warming is not a theoretical issue. It is not a ‘maybe.’
It is a reality.” On the teleconference Miller highlighted the impact to
water resources in the West, where decreased snowpack could undermine the economy
and potential for future growth.
The report also received
high praise at the teleconference from scientists James McCarthy, Ph.D., Professor
of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University and co-chair of a workgroup of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change whose task it was to assess impacts
of and vulnerabilities to global climate change, and Paul Epstein, Ph.D., M.D.,
Associate Director, Harvard Medical School and author of the Health Section of
the IPCC’s second climate change Assessment Report and the WHO/WMO/UNEP
report Climate Change and Human Health.
“Like a bear at a
campsite, the oil industry is making a shambles of US energy policy while the
White House turns a blind eye,” said Long. “Mr. Bush has a tough choice
ahead—fighting to preserve the oil industry’s bottom line, or protecting
the public land legacy created by Presidents Grant, Roosevelt and Wilson. Let’s
hope he has the wisdom to choose correctly.”
Some specific impacts cited
in the report include:
· Increasing wildfires—the five-year average from 1996-2000 is
the highest in forty years of record keeping. As of June, the National Interagency
Fire Center declared the nation to be at Level 5 fire risk—the earliest
that level has ever been reached.
· A sea level rise of up to 30-inches over the next century that will
submerge much of the Everglades and Florida Keys, where large areas are less than
three feet above sea level.
· Loss of all of Glacier National Park’s glaciers within 28 years.
· Snowpack loss at Tahoe National Forest, where two-thirds of the spring
snowpack will threaten California’s water supplies and the winter recreation
industry.
· Loss of native forests across the nation, such as Great Meadows National
Wildlife Refuge, Yosemite, and Alaska’s spruce forests, which may lose the
majority of their native trees due to pestilence and higher temperatures.
· Die-off of the majority of corals in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary
by 2030.
· Disappearance of ANWR’s entire North Slope tundra by 2100, with
serious impacts to wildlife. Early onset of spring is already disrupting the caribou
herd’s precisely-timed migration schedule, endangering its survival
· Transformation of a relatively benign mosquito-borne malaria parasite
at Cape Cod National Seashore into a fully potent one, and a likely increase in
Lyme disease.
· Warming rivers and streams at Yosemite that will likely devastate
whitefish, brook trout, and Chinook salmon.
· A warming in Yellowstone
that will decimate the park’s whitebark pine habitat, endangering the park’s
grizzly bears which rely on the forests for a major portion of their diet.
The report and petitions
are available at www.bluewaternetwork.org
Bluewater Network is a national organization aggressively confronting the
root causes of climate change and fighting environmental damage from the shipping,
oil, and motorized recreation industries. Your support is critical to the success
of our activities. For more information, visit our website, www.bluewaternetwork.org.
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