Fuzzy hubs and mass extinction
Posted on | April 29, 2010 | 1 Comment
It’s easy to mock the language of the National Climate Change and Wildlife Center Proposed Five-Year Strategy, so I’m going to. Consider it a nervous laugh. This proposed framework for “fuzzy hubs” of various government agencies to cope with collapsing eco-systems and mass extinction deserves at least something that conveys how scary it is. Here is a sample of the kind of language being used by government scientists as the politicians who supposedly direct their activities argue over a climate change bill:
… climate change is already driving observable changes on the landscape, and will bring additional, large-scale changes in the coming decades. Many of these changes will have direct implications to wildlife and fish species and communities, and the habitats and ecosystems upon which they depend. For example, we are likely to see shifts in species’ ranges; changes in timing of breeding seasons and animal migrations; disassembly of current ecosystems and biological communities, and formation of new ones; increased rates of species extinction; more frequent and severe forest fires and drought; and altered expression for wildlife disease pathogens and invasive species. Long-standing assumptions about how we view and manage natural resources are being tested, and concepts such as “recovery,” “critical habitat,” and “historical species range” may become less relevant as ecosystems move in new trajectories. Indeed, climate change and its attendant impacts may represent the greatest natural resource conservation challenge in modern history.
To keep reading, click here. For news of an Environmental Protection Agency confab on water management for us bi-peds in the face of climate change, click here. For a new EPA presentation on climate change indicators, click here. For information on the May 5 meeting of the Climate Ready Water Utilities Working Group, click here, and for links to often water-themed climate change web pages, here.
Tags: chance of rain > Emily Green > US Environmental Protection Agency > US Geological Survey
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North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
Garden blogs
April 30th, 2010 @ 9:45 am
My version: “Everything will change.”