Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Jamie Rappaport Clark, President and CEO

This country has been bogged down for too long with the intractable debate about whether or not humans’ consumption of fossil fuels is causing global warming. As a result, we’ve dangerously delayed the debate we really should be having: what should we do about the change in climate that is clearly taking place?

Defenders’ president and CEO, Jamie Rappaport Clark

Unfortunately, the national leadership that we need to answer that question will not be forthcoming anytime soon from our gridlocked and paralyzed Congress. By default, this means that President Obama will need to accelerate his efforts to take control of the climate change conversation by promoting the proper conservation and management of our natural resources, maximizing energy efficiency in this country and ensuring the safety and protection of our vulnerable communities. Federal agencies are already taking steps to address climate change impacts on federal lands and have established overarching frameworks for responding to climate change, such as the development of the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy and the release of individual federal agency climate adaptation plans. The administration has also made important investments in applied science to better understand climate impacts, such as the new National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center. But much more needs to be done to reduce our vulnerability to climate change.

We need to move beyond debating whether this is happening to our planet. What we should be discussing is how to most effectively respond and take action. How best to move forward and change our policies to plan for extreme weather? How to promote energy efficiency in a way that keeps our economy strong and makes a significant difference? And while it’s important to talk about how climate change can affect weather patterns and make storms, droughts and flooding more severe, simply linking climate change to the latest weather disaster doesn’t help the conversation. Supportive media must take the next step and bring attention to the conservation and adaptation work that helps reduce the severity of these effects, like wetland restoration and managing forests to reduce the intensity of wildfires.

The time for “ifs” about climate change is over. Now, our leaders have to ask themselves what to do next, and how.

Originally published in the National Journal

Noah Matson, Vice President of Landscape Conservation and Climate Adaptation

Storm damage in New Jersey

When Superstorm Sandy swept ashore in late October, it left an almost unimaginable level of damage: thousands of residents still displaced, entire communities destroyed and an economic toll that promises to make Sandy one of the costliest natural disasters in history. But it also swept away our illusions that we can carry on with business as usual in a changing climate.

Sandy exposed incredible vulnerabilities to coastal storms and floods in the region. While the storm was unprecedented, the effects of climate change, namely higher sea levels and larger storms, mean that we can no longer operate as if a recurrence is only a remote possibility.  It’s clear that we cannot simply rebuild; we must also rethink the way we approach recovery efforts, and begin to prepare for future extreme weather events and sea level rise by rebuilding in a way that makes us less vulnerable to future damage.

Defenders of Wildlife has argued that in many cases, this will require restoring and enhancing natural ecosystems that provide flood control and storm surge attenuation while also providing other benefits including clean water, wildlife habitat, and economic and recreational opportunities.  Our publication “Harnessing Nature,” published earlier this year, describes several of these projects and the benefits they can provide.

After a disaster of Sandy’s magnitude, the need for federal assistance to help the region recover could not be more apparent or more urgent. The U.S. Senate has responded by putting forth a $60 billion emergency funding bill, and we are pleased to see that it shows tremendous foresight in its recognition of the role that coastal ecosystems can play in protecting communities from weather-related disasters. The funding bill helps accomplish this by providing:

Storm surge damage at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (Credit: USFWS Northeast)

•    $78 million to restore and repair national wildlife refuges.  Thirty-five refuges were closed following the storm and some still remain closed. The overall damage to refuges was equivalent to 16% of the System’s overall annual budget – but would’ve been much worse if not for the natural protection provided by refuge wetlands and dunes. These funds will help shore up these natural defenses and repair facilities so that visitors can return.

•    Nearly $350 million to restore and protect coastal and estuarine habitats, like dunes and salt marshes. Habitat restoration in coastal areas will help buffer communities from storms and recover fisheries- and coastal habitat-based economies. Some of this money will allow acquisition or easements of important natural areas, so they are protected from development and can continue to provide flood and storm protection benefits to communities in addition to their ecological, recreational and economic value.

•    $125 million to help restore and protect storm-abating wetlands on farmland land and other private lands.  This program provides funding to remove debris from stream channels, stabilize stream banks and restore damaged uplands stripped of protective vegetative cover, thus reducing flood risk. The program also funds easements to reduce development along river floodplains, reducing risk to people and property while also conserving habitat and improving water quality.

•    Funds to plan and construct flood-reducing projects that support the long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems: This money will help different agencies work together to identify people and places that are vulnerable to flooding. It also provides $2.9 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers to “reduce future flood risk in ways that will support the long-term sustainability of the coastal ecosystem and communities.”  The bill also requires the Army Corps to reevaluate previously authorized projects in light of recent extreme weather events, as well as scientific projections of future climate-related risks.

The general provisions of the funding bill also require federal agencies to plan for future risks of increased extreme weather events and sea level rise in all recovery efforts. This is really a paradigm shift that could get the country on the road to re-thinking instead of just rebuilding.

Before and after images of flood damage from Hurricane Sandy at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge (Credit: USFWS)

Unfortunately, as is common with these kinds of “must-pass bills,” a few bad provisions have been slipped in. We strongly oppose two measures that would limit environmental review and public participation, which may lead to poor planning, communities more vulnerable to disaster risks and many other concerns:

•    The bill authorizes any Army Corps flood protection project that is under study (i.e. any project throughout the nation that was begun before Hurricane Sandy) provided that the Corps demonstrates the project is cost-effective. This would allow projects to move forward even if they have serious environmental problems, like impacts to endangered wildlife.

•    It also unnecessarily implements “streamlining” that would allow circumventing environmental laws when providing disaster assistance. The individual laws in question (The Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act) already include emergency provisions that allow for expedited reviews and procedural changes to protect human health and safety in response to disasters and emergencies. There is no need to open the door to blanket waivers of environmental laws.

We believe this essential funding will provide much-needed relief to the victims of this devastating hurricane.  If Congress retains the forward-thinking provisions and strikes the ones that waive public interest requirements, we’ll get a bill that will not only help the region recover, but will also reduce its vulnerabilities to future extreme climate-related events and the enormous loss of lives and livelihoods these events bring.

The extremes just keep coming in the weather world. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) just released precipitation figures for March to May 2011 at the county and state level. What does the information mean? Well, each number on that state map shows where the state’s precipitation this spring fell in relation to the past 117 years of data: 1 means record driest, 117 means record wettest. With 117 years of data, you wouldn’t expect very many states to set a record in a single year, would you? Well this year, ten states did: Texas had its driest year on record, and nine states had their wettest. Three other states had their second-wettest spring ever, and New Mexico had its third-driest spring. Jeff Masters at Weather Underground summed it up nicely, “There’s never been a spring this extreme for combined wet and dry extremes in the U.S. since record keeping began over a century ago.”

And it’s not just here. Britain’s Guardian reports this week that Scotland just finished a record wet may, while parts of England have had spring rainfall totals more at home in the Sahara, amidst a heat wave and drought that extends over much of western Europe. China also experienced a 100-year drought this year, whereas Australia is still recovering from record floods. While La Niña is probably partly to blame, this year’s events are also consistent with the conditions researchers project are coming with climate change.

“There’s never been a spring this extreme for combined wet and dry extremes in the U.S. since record keeping began over a century ago.”

How are policymakers responding to this? Unfortunately, by going to some extremes of their own. Not content to simply avoid addressing the root causes of climate change pollution, some in Congress are now trying to prevent the government from even preparing for and responding to the impacts of climate change.  Earlier this month, the House of Representatives voted to strip funding for climate change preparation from the Department of Homeland Security – that’s the department that includes FEMA, our main federal responders to climate-related disasters, and the Coast Guard. And just last week, they did the same thing to the USDA. You read that right — the Department of Agriculture. Because unprecedented fires, floods, tornadoes, droughts and extreme temperatures couldn’t possibly have any effect on our food supply, could they?

These weather extremes should be treated as the serious and threatening events they are, and should also serve as a warning of what is to come. Our government should be taking steps to prepare us for an uncertain future, instead of pretending it’s all blue skies ahead.

Learn more:

See how Defenders is working to protect wildlife and natural places from the harmful effects of climate change.

Read more about how moves by Congress to eliminate climate change-preparation measures threatens our nation’s security.

The over-developed barrier islands of Cancun are extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Post by Noah Matson, vice president of climate change and natural resources adaptation at Defenders, who traveled to Cancun, Mexico for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change talks.

In the past year, we have seen some of the best opportunities for progress on climate change come tumbling down – first in Copenhagen (last year’s international climate meeting) where hopes for a binding new international agreement were dashed, and then in the U.S. Senate, which was incapable of even voting on a comprehensive climate and energy package.

So it is easy to see why expectations for the negotiations here in Cancun are low.  In fact, there are only about a fifth of the attendees from last year’s talks.  But those of us here, both the delegates and the non-governmental observers like Defenders, are the committed, and though there are no allusions of hammering out a new binding, comprehensive agreement, there are many building blocks that can be agreed upon leading up to next year’s meeting in Durban, South Africa, where hopes are again high for a broader agreement.

So what is at stake? I attended the plenary meeting of the section of the negotiations working on a framework for a future agreement, and it was the delegate from Micronesia, representing the small island nations of the Pacific, who gave the most empassioned case for the need for action on climate change:  The current emissions reductions pledges by the parties of the convention would likely result in a 3°C rise in global temperatures, which would render many Pacific island countries uninhabitable due to sea level rise.  He went on to add that though emissions were the central goal when the parties started this process 20 years ago, they need to now also seriously address adaptation to the impacts of climate change.

The current emissions reductions pledges by the parties of the convention would likely result in a 3°C rise in global temperatures, which would render many Pacific island countries uninhabitable due to sea level rise.

And that’s why I’m here at these talks.  Wildlife and ecosystems are already experiencing huge impacts from climate change, from the loss of sea ice affecting polar bears, to the drying of the Southwest U.S. threatening fish and other aquatic species, to the massive forest die-offs caused by beetles and other pests released by warming temperatures.  Climate change is no longer some predicted future, it is now and going to get worse.

Plenary meeting of the negotiations on a future climate framework.

The U.S. is only beginning to think about preparing for the impacts of climate change.  But the rest of the world, which in general has much broader acceptance of climate change, has been developing climate adaptation strategies for years.  For example, Australia released a “Biodiversity and Climate Change Action Plan” back in 2004.  We have a lot to learn from other countries, as the U.S. moves forward with preparing for the impacts of climate change.

There are many aspects of these international negotiations which I will report on in future posts.  But at least on day one, there is a cooperative spirit among the delegates to put in place small steps towards a larger agreement next year.

Learn more:

Stay tuned for more from Noah in Cancun this week!

See how climate change is already impacting wildlife across the United States with our interactive map.

This week, YOU have the chance to be a part of the CoolClimate Contest, an effort to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change and initiate discussion about what we can do about it.

Only 20 images remain from 1,000 submissions from artists all over the world. Finalists were chosen by guest judges including Jackson Browne, Chevy Chase and his wife Jayni, ecologist Philippe Cousteau, environmental activist and former Obama advisor Van Jones  and more.

Defenders is partnering with this great event and we want to know what YOU think!

Click here to view the photos on the Huffington Post and VOTE for your favorite!

Winners will be announced this Thursday at the Center for American Progress. Check back in this Friday to see if your selected picture was chosen!