FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2010
Contact: Kristina Johnson
(415) 977-5619
Sierra Club Applauds Climate Task Force for Wildlife Survival Strategy
Washington, D.C. – Today, the federal Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force delivered a report to President Obama calling for a national strategy to help wildlife and natural resources adapt to climate change.
Statement of Sierra Club Resilient Habitats Campaign Director Fran Hunt:
We are pleased to see the Obama administration take this important step towards safeguarding America's natural heritage, and the $700 billion outdoor recreation economy it supports. Today, America's wild legacy faces its biggest challenge. We are already watching global warming threaten habitat with forest fires and drought and begin to take a toll on wildlife like grizzly bears and lynx.
Protecting our wildlife and wild places from the worst effects of climate change will require limiting outside stresses like irresponsible oil and gas development, off-road vehicle abuse, and logging, which make it even harder for wildlife to survive global warming. The measures recommended in this report could make a huge difference in our fight to help wildlife survive and to pass on a wild legacy to our children and grandchildren.
It is now vital that every federal land management agency take the charge in this report seriously and transform their policies, budgets and planning documents to address climate change. The National Park Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service have already led the way down this path. Other agencies should follow them quickly.
We need to ensure that these crucial efforts are fully funded. And we need to continue our fight to curb the worst impacts of global warming by moving America off of dirty fossil fuels and into a clean energy economy.