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Global warming poses 'single greatest threat' to national parks — report
DAN BERMAN, E&E NEWS PM, 07/25/06
Rising temperatures in the West are threatening iconic national parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite and Joshua Tree, two advocacy groups say in a report released today.
"Global warming is the single greatest threat to ever face Western national parks," Theo Spencer, senior project manager of the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate center, said in a telephone news conference.
NRDC prepared the report with the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. The report warns of increased temperatures, droughts and wildfires that may lead to mass extinctions, flooding of coastal areas and melting glaciers that will reduce recreational opportunities in Glacier and Grand Canyon national parks.
"There was not previously a body of evidence in one place that showed how clearly global warming is impacting the Western national parks," Spencer said.
Stephen Saunders of the Rocky Mountain group noted the National Park Service has the authority to monitor Class 1 areas and called on Interior to take a stand.
"The National Park Service has clear statutory mandates to protect parks and these parks are in danger," Saunders said. "They should be identifying themselves the risk that parks face and doing something about them. There never has been a risk comparable to this one, they should be speaking out more than ever before."
Earlier this month, the U.N. World Heritage Committee yesterday officially recognized global warming as a threat to natural and cultural heritage sites but rejected attempts to endorse emissions cuts or add parks such as Mount Everest and Montana's Glacier National Park to its "danger list".
In March, the Interior Department argued that because climate change is not necessarily caused solely by man-made actions and cannot be reversed in the near future, the committee should not act to address the issue.
"It cannot be demonstrated that global climate change is caused only by man-made greenhouse gas emissions," an Interior memo to the committee stated. "It also cannot be demonstrated that if all human caused greenhouse gas emissions were eliminated immediately, climate change would be reversed in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it cannot be demonstrated that any threats to sites from climate change are amenable to correction by human action".
Saunders said he believes the Park Service will eventually change course.
"I think everybody's position will change," he said. "The question is, 'When?' The skeptics are getting fewer and fewer, and the question will be, 'What can we do about this?'"
Park Service director Fran Mainella acknowledged that climate change is affecting certain areas and said the agency is working with Interior and the U.S. Geological Survey on the issue.
"It's important for us to have on our radar screen," Mainella said.
Click here to view the report.
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