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By Simmons Buntin, January 26, 2012 11:59 am

Well, okay, not a personal letter really, but I just received this email and thought I’d post it here to help get the word out:

Dear Simmons,

Last September, millions of you joined us for 24 Hours of Reality, when we connected the dots between the reality of the climate crisis and the extreme weather events happening with greater frequency all over the world. Together, we saw that most of us don’t need to travel far to see the impacts of climate change. We are already feeling those impacts close to home — with bigger downpours of rain (and snow), bigger floods, and simultaneously longer and deeper droughts. Stronger wind storms have also taken a toll.

Yet the climate crisis is also causing momentous changes in remote regions far from major population centers, in places like Antarctica, Greenland, and the North Polar Ice Cap. Consider that Antarctica, the massive continent at the southern tip of our planet that is about the size of the United States and Mexico combined, holds 90% of all the ice in the world. In fact, it is covered in ice that, at some points, is two miles thick. As global warming increases the melting of that ice — and the movement of vast ice sheets from the continent into the ocean — what happens to the rest of the world?

To better understand the changes taking place near the South Pole and the impacts those changes will have around the world, I will be returning to Antarctica this month with The Climate Reality Project. A large number of civic and business leaders, activists and concerned citizens from many countries will join me during this voyage with many of the world’s leading climate scientists and Antarctica experts to see firsthand and in real time how the climate crisis is unfolding in Antarctica.

Learn more about Antarctica and our other expeditions to discover the reality of the climate crisis. Take a look at our Expedition Headquarters now:

http://climaterealityproject.org/thin-ice/

I first traveled to Antarctica in 1988. At the time, it was already clear that our southernmost continent stood at the frontier of the global climate crisis. Scientists expected that as climate change accelerated, Antarctica would be one of the fastest warming areas of the planet. This prediction has proven true: Today, the West Antarctic Peninsula is warming about four times faster than the global average. In many ways, it is the biggest “canary in the coal mine,” signaling one of the largest impacts of climate change for the entire world.

Even though Antarctica is thousands of miles distant from the rest of the world, the melting ice on this continent should be of paramount concern to all of us. As our planet’s ice melts, sea levels are rising steadily. This increases the risk of storm surges, coastal floods, diminished supplies of drinking water for billions of people, salination of agricultural land near low-lying coastal areas, and hundreds of millions of climate refugees — many of whom will cross borders and may carry with them an increased risk of political instability in the nations to which they move.

To better understand these impacts, we are encouraging our partners and supporters to organize their own “expeditions” close to home. Over the next few weeks, members of The Climate Reality Project will document how the melting of the world’s ice is having an impact on people from Brooklyn to Bangladesh and from the Arctic to Ecuador.

I hope you will join me and The Climate Reality Project as we explore how changes on the most remote continent of the world have become a part of our shared climate reality. And I hope you’ll take the time to explore the impacts climate change is having on your own community.

Learn more about how we are all “living on thin ice.” Take a look at our Expedition Headquarters, and check back again in a few days as we begin to report back about what are learning:

http://climaterealityproject.org/thin-ice/

Thanks for all you do,

Al Gore
Founder and Chairman
The Climate Reality Project

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By Simmons Buntin, January 19, 2012 3:31 pm

In partnership with state, tribal, and federal agency partners, the Obama Administration today released the first draft national strategy to help decision makers and resource managers prepare for and help reduce the impacts of climate change on species, ecosystems, and the people and economies that depend on them

The draft National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, available for public review and comment through March 5, 2012, can be found on the web at www.wildlifeadaptationstrategy.gov.

The strategy represents a draft framework for unified action to safeguard fish, wildlife, and plants, as well as the important benefits and services the natural world provides the nation every day, including jobs, food, clean water, clean air, building materials, storm protection, and recreation.

“The impacts of climate change are already here and those who manage our landscapes are already dealing with them,” said Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes. “The reality is that rising sea levels, warmer temperatures, loss of sea ice and changing precipitation patterns – trends scientists have definitively connected to climate change – are already affecting the species we care about, the services we value, and the places we call home. A national strategy will help us prepare and adapt.”

Congress called for a national, government-wide strategy in 2010, directing the President’s Council on Environmental Quality and the Department of the Interior to develop it. CEQ and Interior responded by assembling an unprecedented partnership of federal, state and tribal fish and wildlife conservation agencies to draft the strategy. More than 100 diverse researchers and managers from across the country participated in the drafting for the partnership.

The partnership is co-led by Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, representing state fish and wildlife agencies.

The strategy will guide the nation’s efforts during the next five years to respond to current and future climate change impacts such as changing species distributions and migration patterns, the spread of wildlife diseases and invasive species, the inundation of coastal habitats with rising sea levels, and changes in freshwater availability with shifting precipitation and habitat types. The strategy does not prescribe mandatory activities that agencies must take nor suggest regulatory actions; rather, it provides a roadmap for decision makers and resource managers to use in considering climate change implications to their ongoing wildlife and habitat management activities.

Elements of the draft strategy include:

• Descriptions of current and projected impacts of climate change on the eight major ecosystems of the United States, the fish, wildlife and plant species those ecosystems support and the vital ecosystem services they provide;

• Goals, strategies, and actions to reduce the vulnerability and increase the resilience of fish, wildlife, plants and the communities that depend on them in the face of climate change;

• Collaborative strategies and actions that agriculture, energy, transportation and other sectors can take to promote adaptation of fish, wildlife and plants, and utilize the adaptive benefits of natural resources in their climate adaptation efforts; and

• A framework for coordinated implementation of the strategy among government and non-governmental entities from national to local scales.

“For more than a century, state fish and wildlife agencies have been entrusted by the public to be good stewards of their natural resources. To do that, we constantly are called upon to address threats to our natural resources,” said Patricia Riexinger, Director of the Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. “Today’s pressures on fish and wildlife and their habitats are exacerbated by climate change and together they emphasize the need for increased conservation and science-based management. The strategy is our nation’s insurance for managing healthy and robust ecosystems in uncertain future conditions.”

“This strategy provides a framework for safeguarding America’s fish, wildlife and plant resources and the valuable services they provide over the long-term,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “NOAA is committed to working with federal, state, tribal and local government agencies, non-government organizations and the public in this process because we all have important roles to play in preparing all regions of our nation in a changing climate.”

Leading the development of the strategy is a Steering Committee that includes government representatives from 16 federal agencies, five state fish and wildlife agencies and two inter-tribal commissions. The Steering Committee includes representatives from the California, Washington, Wisconsin, New York and North Carolina fish and wildlife agencies to ensure that all 50 states’ fish and wildlife concerns are considered. The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies is providing staff support for developing the strategy.

Public comments can be submitted online through the strategy website via a special link. Written comments may be submitted via the U.S. mail to the Office of the Science Advisor, Attn: National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive Suite 222, Arlington, VA 22203. In addition, there will be five public information sessions in various locations around the country and two webinars to provide details and encourage dialogue on the strategy and its development. To register for these meetings and for more information on the public comment process, visit http://www.wildlifeadaptationstrategy.gov/public-comments.php.

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By Rafael Otto, November 23, 2010 7:03 am

The around-the-world race featuring electric-only vehicles reaches Tucson today. Vehicles will be on display at Bookmans (1930 E. Grant Road) from 3:30 to 5:00. After beginning in Geneva, Switzerland on August 16, participants have traversed Russia, Kazakhstan, China, and were transported by boat to Vancouver, British Columbia. After traveling the west coast of the United States and crossing Nevada and Arizona, the race will continue to Austin, Texas and then south into Mexico.

And it’s a race unconcerned with speed. The Zero Emissions Race is exploring vehicle reliability and energy efficiency, as well as design features and current technology. Organizers also wanted to send a message to the World Climate Change Conference being held in Cancun, Mexico next month: Renewable energy is viable and ready to use.

Find out about the teams, vehicles, challenges and adventures by reading the race blog. Follow the 80-day World Route by clicking here.

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By Rafael Otto, November 15, 2010 11:33 am

Recent measurements of ocean temperature near Tasiilaq, Greenland reached 40 degrees. It’s the highest temperature recorded in the area, raising concerns that water temperature could be melting the Greenland ice sheet from below. Scientists working in the area are gathering data about melting ice and its impact on rising sea levels. Justin Gillis, writing for the New York Times, reports that the developing scientific consensus points to sea levels rising three feet or more in the next 90 years.

More from the New York Times article, “Strictly speaking, scientists have not proved that human-induced global warming is the cause of the changes. They are mindful that the climate in the Arctic undergoes big natural variations. In the 1920s and ’30s, for instance, a warm spell caused many glaciers to retreat.”

However, data continues to point to the human impact on the earth’s environment. Melting ice, rising land and sea temperatures, an increase in extreme weather events, dying coral reefs, and changes in plant cycles indicate a warming trend on a global scale. As the Greenland ice sheet releases more icebergs into the ocean, rising sea levels are expected to threaten coastal communities around the world.

Gillis writes, “In the United States, parts of the East Coast and Gulf Coast would be hit hard. In New York, coastal flooding could become routine, with large parts of Queens and Brooklyn especially vulnerable. About 15 percent of the urbanized land in the Miami region could be inundated. The ocean could encroach more than a mile inland in parts of North Carolina. Abroad, some of the world’s great cities — London, Cairo, Bangkok, Venice and Shanghai among them — would be critically endangered by a three-foot rise in the sea.”

In the next forty years, the world’s population will likely reach nine billion. The demand for natural resources will increase in step with the rise in population. Everything from food production, manufacturing, heating and cooling needs, and transportation contributes to carbon dioxide emissions. NASA’s measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide go back 650,000 years and indicate a record increase beginning in the 1950s at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Scientists continue to work to project climate change for the next century, pushing scientifically advanced countries to develop strategies for studying land ice, rising sea levels, and global climate. As the research continues, it seems that a global focus on environment will require international cooperation to address the needs of human communities across the planet.

Related link:

The science behind increasing Antarctic sea ice

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By Rafael Otto, November 4, 2010 1:19 pm

Global warming, melting glaciers, rising oceans—the planet is experiencing a warming trend linked to the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago. NASA reports that the current warming trend “is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years.”

NASA and its partner institutions have been able to study and record the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide going back 650,000 years. This chart, provided by the NOAA, indicates the rise of carbon dioxide levels since 1950, and represents the dramatic increase in carbon dioxide emissions since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

For more details about this chart and environmental data, click here.

For more updates, data, and information about climate changes on our planet, click on NASA’s Eye on the Earth.

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By Simmons Buntin, March 13, 2010 11:31 pm

New Report Reveals Bird Conservation Efforts Are Critical in the Face of Climate Change

Dr. David Pashley, Vice President of American Bird Conservancy – one of the nation’s leading bird conservation organizations – cautioned last week that as climate change impacts are increasingly felt throughout the United States and beyond, conservation efforts affecting birds will take on a doubly important role in protecting not only birds that are already threatened, but also more common birds as well.

Dr. Pashley made his comments in connection with the release of State of the Birds 2010, the first comprehensive vulnerability assessment of bird species to climate change across the United States. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the report’s release at a press conference in Texas, along with several environmental organizations including American Bird Conservancy that had collaborated on the publication.  Dr. Pashley was one of the authors of the report.

“Our findings tell us that birds of conservation concern today will be in even greater peril in the future as a result of climate change, and many bird species that are now doing well may soon become conservation priorities as global warming progresses,” Dr. Pashley said.

Conservation efforts that will take on special importance include: reduction of carbon emissions; conservation of bird habitat; protection of bird prey bases and food supplies; and removal of threats, including invasive plant and animal species.

“The birds that will be the hardest hit by climate change will be ocean and island birds, whose habitat and food base are most tied to both a climate-dependent ocean biology and sea level. Hawaiian birds in particular, are already in deep trouble and may be looking at even more difficult circumstances,” Dr. Pashley said.

All 67 oceanic bird species are considered vulnerable due to low reproductive rates, use of islands for nesting, and reliance on rapidly changing oceans.  Ninety-three percent of Hawaiian birds and 62% of all U.S. Pacific Island birds have a medium to high vulnerability to climate change. Hawaiian forest birds are also threatened by the spread of avian malaria; warming will increase the rate of transmission and reduce the size of the birds’ current malaria-free safe area.

“For land-based birds, the key will be in establishing, implementing, or enforcing land management policies that recognize the increasing threat that birds are facing,” he said.

How lands are managed can help both mitigate global warming, and help birds adapt to changing climate and habitat conditions.  For example, conserving carbon-rich forests and wetlands, and creating incentives to avoid deforestation can keep already stored carbon from dissipating into the atmosphere, while also providing invaluable wildlife habitat. Market-based mechanisms that provide resources to conserve biodiversity and to store carbon should also be encouraged.

The report identified common bird species such as the American oystercatcher, common nighthawk, and northern pintail that are likely to become species of conservation concern as a result of climate change.

Dr. Pashley also said that in order to address the challenges identified in State of the Birds 2010, the Joint Venture partnerships will need to be further strengthened to identify new or changing bird conservation needs and to carry out projects to help species adapt.  Joint Ventures (JVs) are regional, collaborative partnerships involving federal, state, and local government agencies, corporations, tribes, individuals, and a wide range of non-governmental organizations working to advance conservation efforts and help identify local land use priorities. JVs provide coordination for conservation planning and implementation that benefit birds and other species. JVs also develop science-based goals and strategies, and a non-regulatory approach for achieving conservation.

The State of the Birds 2010 report is a collaborative effort, as part of the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative, involving federal and state wildlife agencies, and scientific and conservation organizations. Partners include American Bird Conservancy, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Klamath Bird Observatory, National Audubon Society, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey.

The report is available at www.stateofthebirds.org.