A world without pikas, puffins, polar bears, and penguins
On a summer hike up to Perry Creek Falls I passed a huge talus area. It seemed that every rock on that slope had a small brown fur ball attached to it. They were pikas, relatives of rabbits. Their warning “peek” call sounded from all around me. What a fascinating critter that can live year-round at high elevations. When the snows come they cozy up in their pockets under the rocks and feed on the grass they dried in “hay piles” on the rocks during summer.
Unfortunately, pika populations are one of the first showing signs of trouble related to global warming. According to an October 2005 article in High Country News, pikas in Yosemite National Park are moving to higher elevations in an attempt to adapt to dramatically changing temperatures. In the Great Basin, biologists found six of 25 pika populations had died out between 1946 and the early 90s. Two more populations died off between 2003 and 2005. High-elevation species have nowhere to go but up and they are quickly running out of habitat. Species that depend on mountainous climates and the cold Arctic and Antarctic climates are disappearing and crying out for our attention.
Other examples of drastic changes- Polar bears are drowning and cannibalizing their own. Due to changing ocean temperatures and currents, tufted puffins and penguin breeding colonies are failing because their prey has disappeared. Emperor penguins in western Antarctica dropped from 300 to 9 breeding pairs. Migratory animals are missing their food supplies- insects hatch and plants bloom too early because spring is coming earlier across the northern hemisphere. Avian-malaria carrying mosquitoes are moving to higher elevations and killing bird species not adapted to malaria. The krill population has declined by as much as 80 percent since the 1970s over large areas of the Southern Ocean. Many marine mammals and birds feed solely on krill. All of these changes are happening at an accelerated rate. Species cannot adapt at the rate we are changing the climate.
I have previously talked about natural climate change and global warming. What I don’t see are people taking it seriously. This is not something that’s going to happen someday. The extinction of species, changing ocean temperatures and currents, melting permafrost and other dramatic changes are happening as you read this. Those most vulnerable are species that are migratory and seabirds and those that live in the Arctic, Antarctic, on islands, in wetlands, and mountains. Climate change also elevates the risks to species adapted to arid areas, species with poor dispersal ability, low population numbers or already threatened and endangered, restricted or patchy habitat, and limited climatic range.
There are many things we can do in our lives to help slow the process down. Recycle, reduce consumption, carpool, use CFC bulbs, buy energy efficient appliances, avoid excess packaging, plant lots of trees, turn electronic devices off when not in use, etc. Five bigger solutions according to the Union of Concerned Scientists are: 1) better cars and SUVs; ; 2) modernize America's electricity system; 3) increase energy efficiency; 4) protect threatened forests; 5) support American ingenuity. I would add reduce or eliminate eating cows and dairy products (see U.N. article Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars) and don’t take krill supplements.
We have a chance to change things even though time has run out for many species presently. We have a new political climate beginning in January 2007. Most of global warming is caused by industry and transportation. Corporations are responsible for what’s happening however, we as consumers and voters have the power to let them know that changes need to be made now- not 10 years from now. Our grandchildren, fellow humans, and critters deserve nothing less. I want future generations to enjoy the beauty of a pika in the talus along a mountain trail, polar bears frolicking in the Arctic, tufted puffins fishing in Puget Sound, and the antics of glorious penguins.
For more information watch the DVDs Who killed the electric car? and The Inconvenient Truth, also see the following websites, www.pluginamerica.org, www.climatecrisis.net, http://cns.utexas.edu/communications/file/annrev_ccimpacts.pdf, www.panda.org/climate/birds, and http://www.hcn.org/, http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/common-sense-on-climate-change-solution-1-make-better-cars-and-suvs.html http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment.
On a summer hike up to Perry Creek Falls I passed a huge talus area. It seemed that every rock on that slope had a small brown fur ball attached to it. They were pikas, relatives of rabbits. Their warning “peek” call sounded from all around me. What a fascinating critter that can live year-round at high elevations. When the snows come they cozy up in their pockets under the rocks and feed on the grass they dried in “hay piles” on the rocks during summer.
Unfortunately, pika populations are one of the first showing signs of trouble related to global warming. According to an October 2005 article in High Country News, pikas in Yosemite National Park are moving to higher elevations in an attempt to adapt to dramatically changing temperatures. In the Great Basin, biologists found six of 25 pika populations had died out between 1946 and the early 90s. Two more populations died off between 2003 and 2005. High-elevation species have nowhere to go but up and they are quickly running out of habitat. Species that depend on mountainous climates and the cold Arctic and Antarctic climates are disappearing and crying out for our attention.
Other examples of drastic changes- Polar bears are drowning and cannibalizing their own. Due to changing ocean temperatures and currents, tufted puffins and penguin breeding colonies are failing because their prey has disappeared. Emperor penguins in western Antarctica dropped from 300 to 9 breeding pairs. Migratory animals are missing their food supplies- insects hatch and plants bloom too early because spring is coming earlier across the northern hemisphere. Avian-malaria carrying mosquitoes are moving to higher elevations and killing bird species not adapted to malaria. The krill population has declined by as much as 80 percent since the 1970s over large areas of the Southern Ocean. Many marine mammals and birds feed solely on krill. All of these changes are happening at an accelerated rate. Species cannot adapt at the rate we are changing the climate.
I have previously talked about natural climate change and global warming. What I don’t see are people taking it seriously. This is not something that’s going to happen someday. The extinction of species, changing ocean temperatures and currents, melting permafrost and other dramatic changes are happening as you read this. Those most vulnerable are species that are migratory and seabirds and those that live in the Arctic, Antarctic, on islands, in wetlands, and mountains. Climate change also elevates the risks to species adapted to arid areas, species with poor dispersal ability, low population numbers or already threatened and endangered, restricted or patchy habitat, and limited climatic range.
There are many things we can do in our lives to help slow the process down. Recycle, reduce consumption, carpool, use CFC bulbs, buy energy efficient appliances, avoid excess packaging, plant lots of trees, turn electronic devices off when not in use, etc. Five bigger solutions according to the Union of Concerned Scientists are: 1) better cars and SUVs; ; 2) modernize America's electricity system; 3) increase energy efficiency; 4) protect threatened forests; 5) support American ingenuity. I would add reduce or eliminate eating cows and dairy products (see U.N. article Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars) and don’t take krill supplements.
We have a chance to change things even though time has run out for many species presently. We have a new political climate beginning in January 2007. Most of global warming is caused by industry and transportation. Corporations are responsible for what’s happening however, we as consumers and voters have the power to let them know that changes need to be made now- not 10 years from now. Our grandchildren, fellow humans, and critters deserve nothing less. I want future generations to enjoy the beauty of a pika in the talus along a mountain trail, polar bears frolicking in the Arctic, tufted puffins fishing in Puget Sound, and the antics of glorious penguins.
For more information watch the DVDs Who killed the electric car? and The Inconvenient Truth, also see the following websites, www.pluginamerica.org, www.climatecrisis.net, http://cns.utexas.edu/communications/file/annrev_ccimpacts.pdf, www.panda.org/climate/birds, and http://www.hcn.org/, http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/common-sense-on-climate-change-solution-1-make-better-cars-and-suvs.html http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment.
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