Report: Climate Change Has Already Brought Catastrophe to US Wildlife

The walrus is one of the animals whose habitat has been profoundly 

altered by climate change. (Photo: USFWS/Joel Garlich-Miller)

 

 'Only by rejecting dirty energy and embracing clean energy solutions — will we begin to alter the path we are on to catastrophic climate change.'

by Andrea Germanos

 

Climate change has already pushed the nation's wildlife into crisis, according to a report released Wednesday from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), and further catastrophe, including widespread extinction, can only be curbed with swift action to curb the carbon pollution that has the planet sweltering.

  

Entitled Wildlife in a Warming World: Confronting the Climate Crisis, the report looks at 8 regions across the U.S. where "the underlying climatic conditions to which species have been accustomed for thousands of years," the report explains, have been upturned by human-caused climate change.

 

“Some of America’s most iconic species—from moose to sandhill cranes to sea turtles – are seeing their homes transformed by rapid climate change,” stated Dr. Amanda Staudt, climate scientist at the National Wildlife Federation.

 "We can’t leave this problem for our children and grandchildren to fix – they’ll judge us based on what we do now,” stated Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.

Staudt adds, “Climate disruption is the most serious threat facing America’s wildlife and requires action at the local, state and federal levels.”

Writing on the NWF blog Wildlife Promise, Corey Shott, who works with the group's Climate and Energy Program, responds to the report with a call for greater and immediate climate action:

If 2012 was a wake-up call for the American people — with devastating drought, intense wildfires, and destructive storms — then 2013 must be a wake-up call for policymakers to finally take swift, bold action to reduce the carbon pollution heating the planet and properly deal with the unavoidable impacts of an already changing climate. [...]

Only by taking the threat seriously — by rejecting dirty energy and embracing responsible, clean energy solutions — will we begin to alter the path we are on to catastrophic climate change.

For the full article, please go here:  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/30-4.