[Pollinator] Climate Change Hurting National Parks

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CALIFORNIA 
Climate change seen hurting national parks
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Wednesday, July 26, 2006

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America's beauty spots of Yosemite National Park, Point Reyes National 
Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area won't escape the consequences of 
global warming over the next decades, according to a report released Tuesday by 
a national environmental group and a Colorado climate coalition. 
Rising waters of the Pacific Ocean, due to melting glaciers and other events 
caused by the warming atmosphere and oceans, could inundate and erode coastal 
parks. That includes 59 miles of Golden Gate National Recreation Area beaches 
such as Ocean, Baker, Muir and Stinson. 
Records already show that the Western United States is warming twice as fast 
as the rest of the country. And based on widely accepted computer models, 
national parks in the West and Southwest face climate disruptions leading to 
prolonged drought, severe wildfires and melting snow, the report said. 
"If we continue to increase our emissions of heat-trapping gases, a disrupted 
climate will cause the greatest damage to our national parks ever,'' said 
Stephen Saunders, a principal author. 
Saunders is president of Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, a collaboration 
of local governments; businesses; a farmers' union; and Denver Water, the 
urban area's largest water provider. The group prepared the report with experts 
from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. 
"The popular beaches of the San Francisco area may well get flooded by rising 
sea levels and take away an important recreational area for people in the Bay 
Area,'' said Saunders, who served as a deputy assistant Interior Department 
secretary over the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
in the Clinton administration. 
All beaches on the west side of Point Reyes National Seashore are vulnerable, 
he said. And Yosemite may be the national park most in danger of overcrowding 
from a large, rapidly growing population trying to escape summer heat by 
going into the cool mountains. 
"We may lose the glaciers in Glacier National Park,'' where scientists have 
projected a total melt in 25 years, Saunders said. Already scientists note 
signs that may indicate that the tree line is moving upward in elevation, he said. 
Snow-covered mountain peaks would disappear in Yosemite, Glacier, Grand 
Teton, Mount Rainier and Rocky Mountain national parks, robbing lakes and streams 
of water and affecting everything from drinking water to kayaking and rafting, 
the report said. 
Joshua trees could be eradicated from Joshua Tree National Park, and Rocky 
Mountain National Park could lose the continental United States' largest expanse 
of tundra to encroaching trees, the scientists reported. 
In Yellowstone, grizzly bears could lose the important fall seed diet from 
the whitebark pine trees, according to the report. Beetles that can now survive 
warmer winters have been moving to higher elevations and attacking the pines. 
An increased number of wildfires would lead to more summertime park closings. 
The dire predictions of wildlife and ecosystem damage, based on previous 
models and analyses completed by international scientists as well as the U.S. 
Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, come as the country wallows in a 
dramatic summer heat wave. 
The first six months of 2006 were the hottest on record since 1895, according 
to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Ashville, N.C. Over the past 
century, the Western United States has warmed 3 degrees, while the rest of the 
country warmed 1.5 degrees, according to studies. 
Two weeks ago, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography study based on 34 years 
of data found that warmer winters and earlier snowmelt have contributed to a 
rise in the number and severity of wildfires in the West. It could get worse if 
the longer seasons without moisture continue. 
In Oakland, Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in 
Development, Environment and Security, praised the report as "a good summary of 
the likely impacts on national parks.'' 
He called the report "well-documented" with peer-reviewed studies that 
"focused on matters where there was a relatively high degree of confidence such as 
temperatures, sea level rise and snowfall and snowmelt patterns. 
"To the authors' credit, they didn't discuss changing rainfall, which is an 
uncertainty, particularly at a regional level,'' said Gleick, a MacArthur 
Fellow who in April was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. 
Gleick agreed that the projected 3-foot sea level rise by 2100 "would 
basically eliminate Baker Beach and Muir Beach'' and other beaches in the Golden Gate 
National Recreation Area. 
At a news conference Tuesday, Theo Spencer, project coordinator for the 
Natural Resources Defense Council, said that the groups wanted the report to help 
win support for state and federal legislation to reduce emissions of carbon 
dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars, power plants and factories. 
The measures face strong opposition in Congress, in the California 
Legislature, and by industry groups. 
Spencer cited the estimates of James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard 
Institute for Space Studies, who has said the nation has 10 years to greatly reduce 
its emissions before it will be impossible to stave off future high 
temperatures. 
"We have the technology and know-how to reduce global warming pollution,'' 
Spencer said. "The window is closing to protect these places for our kids.'' 
The report may be found at www.nrdc.org. 
E-mail Jane Kay at jkay at sfchronicle.com. 

Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
http://www.coevolution.org/
http://www.pollinator.org/
http://www.nappc.org/


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