Anyone who’s ever lived in a home with a leaky basement knows that during a rainstorm, preventing a flood is the first order of business. Too often, though, it’s easy to put off until later the investments necessary to protect your home from future storms that are sure to come.
The same is true with climate change. Right now, the planet is awash in a rising flood of carbon dioxide that threatens to forever change our marine, forest, grassland, desert, and mountain ecosystems. We see early signs of these changes in national parks throughout the country — the canaries in the coal mine of climate change.
Glaciers are beating a rapid retreat in Glacier National Park, and will be completely gone within 20 years. Heat-sensitive wildlife species like the pika in Yosemite National Park are moving to higher elevations to escape rising temperatures, and may become extinct locally once they can’t go any higher. Trout are disappearing as the cool mountain streams of Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks gradually warm.
Cutting the flood of emissions is the first order of business. If we don’t act now to drastically reduce gree... Read more
