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Loading...Climate Reports Serve Wakeup Call for Birders and Society
By JP Leous
While the world waits for the Senate to take up comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation, the Obama Administration has been quite busy advancing a key aspect of climate policy: natural resources adaptation, which includes jobs monitoring species, removing invasive species, restoring wetlands and removing unwanted old logging roads. In fact, the Administration recently released two reports on this important topic.
Last week the Interior Department, along with several other federal agencies and national conservation groups, released The State of the Birds 2010 report.
Focusing on climate change impacts on birds, the report is a wakeup call for bird enthusiasts and non-birders alike. It says that 93% of Hawaiian birds, all of the ocean bird species (from albatrosses to puffins) in U.S. waters, and many more bird species in our forests, wetlands and arid ecosystems exhibit medium or high vulnerability to climate impacts.
What does this mean to non-ornithologists? Basically, the places, food and water sources and weather patterns that these birds rely on are significantly threatened by climate change. In some cases, even their “back-up” plans are at risk, meaning these species will have a very tough time adapting as climate change continues to alter their habitats.
The report also highlights key strategies we can start yesterday that give wildlands, birds and our communities the best possible chance at weathering the climate storm. From removing invasive species to restoring watersheds and repairing natural coastlines, bird populations will benefit from these job-creating projects.
The habitat loss, temperature changes, precipitation shifts and food shortages that will challenge the survival of these species will continue to impact “nearly every aspect of our society and environment” and is already “affecting the ability of Federal agencies to fulfill their missions.” So says the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force’s Interim Progress Report, released yesterday.
Already, government agencies have a tough new challenge. These agencies have traditionally planned for the future assuming the future would largely look like the past. Now that that isn’t the case, agencies are having a tough time prioritizing work and budgets. For example, the Department of Transportation and the Army Corps of Engineers now must think about planning for more frequent catastrophic storms (the kind that used to happen only every 100 years).
Not only is this interagency Task Force a mouthful, but it’s an impressive collection of more than 20 Federal Agencies focused on developing coordinated, effective climate adaptation strategies across the government. While good work on the adaptation front has started in some agencies, states and cities, the report’s upshot remains: there’s lots more work to do!
A unified strategic approach, organized and coordinate efforts across agencies, connecting resources (financial and intellectual) to prioritized needs, and understand of obstacles within government are some of the “gaps” the Task Force identified within the government’s current approach. But closing these gaps will help create a more efficient and effective climate response that can jumpstart a green American economy.
So, to distill what the Administration’s top officials and scientists have reported during the past few days: Climate change is real, it’s already impacting our country, and failing to act now puts wildlife, our communities, national security and economy at risk.
What should we take away from this rather dire prognosis? The very real and significant challenges posed by the climate crisis are so profound that they could literally fuel an upsurge of jobs for an entire generation. To anyone who will listen, it is clear there is already a ferocious need to put more minds and muscle into jobs that help the wild and human world adapt to changes ahead.
If we can recognize that, we’ll achieve a win-win for those who fly and those stuck on the ground.
Read more: adaptation, birds, climate change, global warming, natural resource adaptation, state of birds report
Photo by Jeff Mondragon.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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It seems to me that people who deny global warming have their own agenda. Are they denying what is so evident to people around the globe because they don't want to make sarcrifices?
It is it too uncomfortable. The animals that are being displaced, the species that are dying through pollution is this a scam, the melting of the polar ice. What does it take to convince some people. In the past earth was able to regulate itself when there was an inbalance. Now Mother earth is being suffocated by her most greedy children Humans. We pollute Nature at our own peril. Nature which is bigger then humans will fight back with a
vengence, but it will not be surprising if humans along with many innocent species are wiped off the face of the Earth .
Why wait until natures has to throw us off like a terrible virus,
if we work to keep Earth healthy then our beautiful planet which is the jewel in our Solar System can breath easy.
the most invasive species are humans
thank you for the info.
Founder of weather channel John Coleman about greatest scam in history
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/reprint/alt_explanation.html
http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/84165942.html
Veritas vos liberabit
Heinz Ketchup, Naturheilt
INTERESTING ARTICLE.
Scary and sad...
Gracias!
Gracias!
This kind of denial rhetoric from Heinz-
"Have some scientists the saying: 'The worser the message the more money'?
Go, please find out yourself."
Actually, its the other way around- when the messages continues to be, THERE REALLY IS NO PROBLEM, (from scientists that work for giant oil cooperations).. they coniue to drill for oil and THAT is where the money and profit are.
You are fooling yourself if you think these giant oil monger cooperations woun't INTENTIONALLY melt the polar ice caps to get to the oil beneath them, threatening all of life as we know it.
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