As a birding and natural history guide, I spend a lot of time in beautiful natural settings throughout the Americas.  While this is a great privilege, it also provides a ringside seat to how these areas and the species they support are faring.  It is painfully obvious that the climate is changing toward hotter, drier summers and milder winters, leading to more forest and range fires in the Western U.S.; and to more frequent, powerful hurricanes and flooding events in the Eastern U.S.  None of this bodes well for natural lands nor the species that inhabit them, including us.  We can all play a constructive role, however, in reversing this trend.

On trips I have led in West Texas, we have had to detour around range fires, including abandoning plans to visit entire state parks that have been turned into command centers for fire-fighting crews.  Some species of birds have reduced their nesting activities due to drought and fire, and others are migrating farther north due to climate change.

In Yellowstone Park, due to milder winters, Whitebark Pine Trees are suffering from Pine Bark Beetle infestations.  Although they always have been afflicted, infestations have increased dramatically because the beetles can now survive through the winter.  This keystone high elevation tree provides key nutritional nuts to Clark’s Nutcrackers and Grizzlies, among other species, and it acts as a snow fence, holding in snow that later releases water that feeds the parks streams, lakes and geysers.

Decades ago, I attended the U of Montana, where I studied Wildlife Biology and Geography.  One summer I worked in Glacier National Park where I hiked its trails extensively.  Many of the same glaciers I saw in 1970, like Grinnell Glacier pictured below, are melting, and the namesake glaciers throughout the park are predicted to be gone in just a few decades.  A June 2018 Great Falls (Montana) Tribune article sounded the alarm:

The glaciers of Glacier National Park: See them before they are gone

“When Glacier was established as a national park in 1910, the 150 glaciers carving out the high country of the park and amazed visitors and made its name an obvious choice. Today, less than 30 of the actively moving masses of ice, those that must encompass at least 25 acres, remain. And according to current climate predictions, by 2030 they, too, may cease to be classified as glaciers. If visitors want to see them before they’re gone, it’s best to do it now.”

Last Spring while guiding in Cuba, we visited sites that had been recently hit by Hurricane Irma.  This storm caused widespread damage to the Cuban populace,  to its bird and wildlife populations and its tourist industry.  Powerful hurricanes like Irma now come more often due to the warming climate and warming seas which spawn these high-powered storms.

In the western U.S., the hotter, drier summers have caused unprecedented forest fires.  In the past two years, my home city of Seattle has been so polluted by forest fire smoke in August that it has been unsafe to go outside.

For the third summer in a row, the Pacific Northwest city is blanketed in air pollution from massive wildfires nearby. This is the worst year yet.

As a parent, I worry about the future of my two adult “kids” and any grand kids they might have.  One has to wonder these days if  our current administration cares at all about future generations, or if it only cares about getting all the resources and money while it can.

As a recent climate report by 13 federal agencies pointed out, climate change will worsen national disasters, degrade infrastructure, disrupt agriculture and slice as much as 10% from U.S. economic production by the end of the century.  What is the current administration doing about this?  Absolutely nothing.  Actually, it is doing worse than nothing.  The President has clearly announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, and has led efforts to weaken clean air and water regulations, allowing more carbon and other pollutants to enter the atmosphere.

Is every U.S. agency ignoring climate change as if it did not exist?  Actually not.  An August 2018 AP article Big Oil Asks Government to Protect It from Climate Change reports on a proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project: “As the nation plans new defenses against the more powerful storms and higher tides expected from climate change, one project stands out:  an ambitious proposal to build a nearly 60 mile “spine” of concrete sea walls, earthen barriers, floating gates and steel levees on the Texas Gulf Coast.”  The project would “…shield some of the crown jewels of the petroleum industry which is blamed for contributing to global warming and now wants the federal government to build safeguards against it.”

As described in the AP article: “Texas is seeking at least $12 billion for the full coastal spine with nearly all of it coming from public funds.”  The irony of this was not lost on the authors of the article: “Many republicans, including Ted Cruz, argue that this and other Texas oil projects belong at the top of Washington’s spending list.”

Aren’t these the same republicans who adamantly deny that climate change exists?  Actually, yes, including Cruz.  As the article continues: “…the idea of taxpayers around the country paying to protect refineries worth billions in a state where top politicians still dispute climate change doesn’t set well with some.”

In the final analysis, despite our current administration’s backwardness, there is still time to address climate change.  States, cities, businesses, and other countries around the world are moving forward with plans to meet the goals established by the Paris Accord.  Thankfully, as of this writing, the U.S. just signed on to abide by the Paris Accord guidelines, despite our president’s vow to ignore them.  Most Americans are ready to join this effort.  Let’s follow the science, our moral compasses and the will of the people to do the right thing for the earth, for our kids and our grand kids. The remedies will lead us to a cleaner, more sustainable future.