Report: Climate change 'greatest threat ever' to national parks

USA TODAY, by Doyle Rice

Human disruption of the climate is the greatest threat ever to the USA’s national parks, according to a new report released Thursday by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization.

The report - National Parks in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption - outlined hazards due to rising temperatures in 25 of the country’s 351 national parks. The top risks to the parks include loss of snow and water, rising sea levels, more extreme weather, loss of plants and wildlife, and additional air pollution.

According to the report, the risks of a changed climate dwarf all previous threats to our national parks: “If we continue with high emissions of heat-trapping gases, our nation could be 7 to 11 degrees hotter by the end of the century — and our parks would be drastically changed.”

Endangered parks include some of the nation’s most popular, including Great Smoky Mountain, Yellowstone and Yosemite.

The science behind the report was based on the U.S. government’s Global Change Research Program report “Global Climate Impacts in the United States,” released earlier this year, and on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from 2007.

“We could lose entire national parks for the first time, as Everglades, Ellis Island and other parks could be submerged by rising seas,” said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the report’s lead author.

Climate change just isn’t a future threat for the parks: “Glaciers are already melting in all national parks that have them, including Denali, Mount Rainier, and Yosemite national parks,” the report said. “All glaciers in Glacier National Park could be gone in 12 or 13 years.”

“To preserve our parks, we need to reduce the heat-trapping gases that are threatening them, and begin managing the parks to protect resources at risk,” said Saunders.

Authors say the timing of the report release -- the same week as Ken Burns’ PBS documentary on the parks -- was just a fortunate coincidence.

Photo: A plume of dust shoots up after a rock slide at Yosemite National Park (National Park Service/AP)

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