Sen. Kerry Highlights New, Troubling Scientific Findings - Global Warming

[_dynamicdems]

Senator Kerry Highlights New, Troubling Scientific Findings:

10 National Wildlife Refuges Threatened By Global Warming

Report Paints Urgency for New Climate Change Legislation Introduced by Senators Kerry and Snowe

Washington, D.C. – A new report released today sites global warming as the single greatest challenge threatening the National Wildlife Refuge System.

“Scientists know we are moving closer to several ‘tipping points’ that within a decade could make it impossible to avoid irreversible damage to the planet. Now we have evidence that global warming is already affecting wildlife and wildlife refuges. Our wildlife population is tragically the canaries in the coalmine warning of the danger ahead.” stated Senator John Kerry. “This past year we have seen polar bears drowning because the sea ice they depend on has melted away. Caribou are struggling to migrate to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in time for spring green-up, which is occurring a month earlier than it used to. Even Massachusetts isn’t immune from the impacts of global warming, which threatens the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge. It is time to act. That is why Senator Snowe and I have introduced comprehensive legislation, the Global Warming Reduction Act, to tackle the threat of global warming. Washington keeps postponing the reckoning until the day after tomorrow. The world is changing and now the reckoning is real.”

The report, “Refuges at Risk, The Threat of Global Warming,” is part of an annual assessment Defenders of Wildlife releases to gauge the state of the refuge system.

“Global warming is occurring rapidly and these climate changes pose serious threats to wildlife and habitat,” stated Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. “These changes can be seen throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System, which provides stark real-world examples of the effects of global warming today.”

In New England, Defenders of Wildlife named Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge one of 10 refuges at dire risk of global warming because it found a projected rise in global temperatures of 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit may change the very nature of the refuge, as well as the New England countryside.

The National Wildlife Refuge System was established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and now includes 545 refuges encompassing nearly 100 million acres. It is the largest network of lands in the world dedicated first and foremost to the protection of wildlife and habitat. Refuges support a rich spectrum of ecosystems and provide crucial habitat for more than 280 threatened and endangered plants and animals.

The report was released right before National Wildlife Refuge Week (Oct. 8-14).

“Reducing the impacts of global warming on national wildlife refuges and other critical wildlife habitat requires a two-pronged approach: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and planning for a changing future. We have the ingenuity to minimize the potential impacts of global warming. We also have to adapt to whatever obstacles global warming creates, however, while carrying out the nation’s mission to protect our wildlife refuges,” added Schlickeisen.

The top 10 refuges at risk of global warming are: Alligator River (NC), Aransas NWR (TX), Arctic NWR (AK), Chincoteague (VA), Devils Lake Wetland Management District (ND), Hawaiian Islands NWR (HI), Kenai NWR (AK), Merritt Islands NWR (FL), Oregon Islands NWR (OR) and Silvio O. Conte NWR (MA).

The entire report can be viewed on line at www.defenders.org/refugesatrisk

We need to keep the pressure up on them and keep up the fight. Our voices do have an impact: Biogems reports a huge victory in their October 4th newsletter.

Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,

I am thrilled to report that we just won a major courtroom victory for the
Western Arctic Reserve -- an NRDC BioGem and one of America's greatest natural
treasures.

A federal judge has blocked the Bush administration from proceeding with oil
and gas development in the famed Teshekpuk Lake region and its world-class
wildlife nurseries.

The Western Arctic Reserve may be less well-known than the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge but its wildlife populations are every bit as unique,
spectacular and endangered.

It is home to the 45,000-member Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd. Tens of thousands
of migratory birds come here from as far away as Antarctica to nest without
disturbance.

Even Ronald Reagan's Interior Secretary James Watt -- no friend of the
environment -- recognized Teshekpuk's great importance and granted it federal
protection in the 1980s.

But the Bush administration was preparing to strip this wildlife treasure of
its protections, sell it to the highest bidder, and create a sprawling
industrial zone of pipelines, rigs and waste sites.

NRDC and our partner groups went to court to stop this unconscionable giveaway
to Big Oil. And now that court has ruled that the Interior Department failed to
consider the cumulative environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling on this
sensitive ecosystem.

This is huge victory in a multi-year campaign that NRDC has waged both in and
out of court.

And you made it possible! I want to thank our army of supporters who championed
this cause by sending 150,000 messages of protest to the Interior Department
and by donating the financial support that enabled us to prevail.

All that hard work has paid off in a victory for nature that is well worth
celebrating.

Thank you so much for your tireless activism on behalf of the Western Arctic
Reserve and all our other endangered BioGems.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

http://www.savebiogems.org