The latest in a series of unprecedented weather-related tragedies, Hurricane Sandy has been called “Frankenstorm Sandy” for its massive size, loss of lives and property and horrific infrastructure damages. Catastrophic events like Sandy are demonstrating that there is an enormous price to pay for ignoring climate change. It also may have been the event that finally awakened mainstream media, Wall Street and many U.S. citizens to the dire consequences of climate change.  It may be too late to make climate change disappear, but it’s not too late to act boldly and make a decisive difference for the future.

This period reminds me of a story I heard long ago about a small boy who went downstairs one Sunday morning while the rest of the family slept. The clock was striking 8, but he noticed that it was out of order. As it struck 9, 10, 11, 12, then 13 and 14, the youngster raced upstairs, yelling, “Wake up, quick! It’s later than it’s ever been!”

Clearly, years of ignored warnings have passed us by.  I recently participated in a conference call organized by World Bank leaders, who released a study in November alerting us about trouble ahead. The report, Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4° C Warmer World Must be Avoided “spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.”

 The report goes on to say, “The 4° C-scenarios are devastating: the inundation of coastal cities … unprecedented heat waves …  substantially exacerbated water scarcity in many regions … irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems. And most importantly, a 4°C world is so different from the current one that it comes with high uncertainty and new risks that threaten our ability to anticipate and plan for future adaptation needs.”

Every 1-degree C rise in temperature equates to a nearly 2-degree F increase. Since Hurricane Sandy was in large part the result of warmer-than-normal ocean water caused by a 1-degree F rise in global temperature, imagine what will happen with a 7- to 8-degree F average increase. Because of the massive carbon pollution spewing into the atmosphere, the planet is entering into a more-aggressive climate paradigm scientists are calling the “anthropocene,” in which entire ecosystems will be disrupted and most forms of life will be threatened with extinction.

But the World Bank report, as with other reports, points out that the 4 degree C scenario can be avoided if we act boldly and quickly.  The longer we wait, however, the more difficult the job becomes. “We have passed a critical threshold …,” begins a recent report from the auditing giant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.  We must prepare for a warming world, it concludes, while also acting boldly to head off the types of catastrophic scenarios the World Bank lays out. 

 The study examines the goal agreed to by the world’s leaders in recent climate treaties: preventing the planet from warming more than 2-degrees C. Achieving that target will “require unprecedented and sustained reductions” in the emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. For us to have a 50 percent-chance of avoiding climate catastrophe, PricewaterhouseCoopers warns, the United States and other industrialized nations need a bold carbon pollution reduction program that cuts greenhouse gas emissions in half in the next 20 years. Developing nations also will need to significantly curb their booming emissions. Any plan achieving less will lead to ecological and societal disaster.

 For years, we have heard similar conclusions from prestigious institutions, yet the nation’s fossil-fuel interests with their massive advertising campaigns have dismissed these clear warnings, even suggesting that climate change is some kind of science conspiracy. Despite record low approval ratings of the U.S. Congress, we continue to reelect many intransigent politicians who remain under the thumb of dirty energy, refusing to acknowledge climate change and turn the corner with an effective clean-energy policy

Have I lost hope that we will wake up and act? My enduring hope is in you, National Wildlife Federation members and supporters, and all who care about wildlife and our children’s future. Together, we must demand policies to stop carbon pollution before it stops us. But it is not enough to care; we must link our concern to each other and act collectively. After all, that is why conservationist Ding Darling created National Wildlife Federation. He knew that “a thousand stallions unconnected could not move a baby carriage.” We must work to move our wayward lawmakers to fast action. To learn how you can get involved, visit www.nwf.org/climate.  

On a flight from Washington D.C. to San Francisco I found sitting in the window seat next to me a rather obese 10 year old boy. As soon as our plane was over ten thousand feet, the boy broke out his Game Boy and settled in for a long and intense session. After a couple of hours of this, our pilot came on the intercom and said, “Folks, off to our left is one of the best views you will ever see of the Grand Canyon.” I watched the boy and noticed how his eyes never left the Game Boy, not even for a second. I was saddened that this child had no apparent interest in the wonders of nature below. It occurred to me then that I was witnessing firsthand an important phenomenon that was having a profound impact on our children’s future and the very future of nature itself.

You can help NWF meet our goal of getting 10 Million Kids outdoors.

While we can’t bring those days back, we can move the pendulum back toward the middle. NWF is committed to helping parents, policy makers, educators and child-serving organizations so that children can get the outdoor time they need to be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy. My parents taught me why it’s called the Great Outdoors, I will teach my grandchildren, and NWF is going to make sure lots more kids know why too.

Our efforts will be focused on giving parents the knowledge and tools they need to make outdoor time a daily habit. We’ll work with schools to restore recess and incorporate outdoor learning into their curriculum. Other child-serving institutions like parks and recreation departments will be encouraged to foster outdoor play. Policy makers will wake up to the problem and recognize the integral role outdoor time plays in the health and well-being of our nation’s kids.

Learn more about NWF’s Ten Million Kids Outdoors goal and how you can help make it a reality at NWF.org/10millionkids. Looking for ways to get kids outdoors? NWF’s Be Out There website is full of ideas. Join the movement and take the Be Out There pledge. By helping NWF reach its goal, we can help ensure a nation of happier, healthier kids.

“I never wanted to become an activist, but I had to,” Gibson told interviewer Taylor Lee Kirkland in 2009. “If I hadn’t I would have been torn off this mountain a long time ago. There are thousands of people around the world who have heard me speak since I started this work, but honestly I wish to God no one knew my name. I wish I didn’t have to leave my home and talk to people about mountaintop removal. Last year I traveled eight months out of the year talking to people about this stuff. But I know I have to bring this message to the world and I’m gonna fight for justice in every way I can. We have to have an uprising. This isn’t an uprising that can be bought with money, but one that’s coming from the hearts of honest and hardworking people.”

In the evenings, our family would gather in front of the Crosley, waiting for it to “warm up” so we could watch the live evening news. Inspired by the tradition of Edward R. Murrow, in those days the newscasters always reported hard-hitting facts ferreted from diligent journalism. Today, with few exceptions, those days are all but gone. In recent years, the media has changed in several ways that, if left unchecked, threaten the future of wildlife and civil society.

First, traditional television and radio stations are competing with cable and satellite channels for advertisers and audiences. Now, it’s all about creating loyal market segments.  Rush Limbaugh and Fox News know their conservative market and give them what they want to hear. MSNBC has a liberal market segment and it plays to its audience. All too often, these and other networks rely on handpicked “authorities” under contract to be their talking heads. They hire surrogates because it is cheaper, and most viewers don’t seem to mind that they are being told what to think instead of seeing and hearing the news for themselves.

Rather than bringing people together to solve urgent problems, market segmentation also has the unintended consequence of deeply dividing viewers and listeners into more intense, unbuffered left and right viewpoints. Traditionally, our nation has always worked best when our citizens come together to confront a common challenge. We are a second rate nation when we fight among ourselves.  We are now a divided nation.

Second, with the intense competition, broadcast news content naturally skews toward the interests of big advertisers, reflecting a diminished sensitivity to important issues that threaten wildlife, such as pollution, climate change and habitat destruction. We hear a lot on the news about massive drought, record-breaking floods and other extreme weather around the world, but we hear little about the causes of those extremes because special interest advertisements dominate the airwaves and stifle the newsrooms. How can we learn about the threats to nature when the media often is allergic to the subject?

Third, in the 1980s after the Federal Communications Commission repealed the Fairness Doctrine—which had required companies holding broadcast licenses to present controversial issues of public importance in a balanced manner—free public-service announcements have all but disappeared from the airwaves. For decades, NWF relied on a vibrant public-service campaign featuring such celebrities as the Muppets, Walt Disney, Bing Crosby and John Denver to promote our annual Wildlife Week. But as soon as the Fairness Doctrine was eliminated, our Wildlife Week public-service promotions died for lack of interest from the networks and local stations.

Broadcast advertising is changing, too. In the past, it was all about selling products to consumers. Today, increasingly it is about selling opinions to voters year-round and unchallenged. This fall, we will see an historic deluge of advertisements by shadowy super PACs and other special interest groups that are peddling their self-serving perspectives. They hire the best marketing agencies so the ads are focus-group tested and influential, prompting us to believe in their worldview.

In short, much of broadcast news today is junk food with too much candy and spice, and too little fruits and vegetables. Americans are living on this junk food and it’s not healthy.  In large part, it’s our own fault. Too many of us have an appetite for watching the latest “reality” show and ignoring the more profound reality of a shifting climate that is engulfing our world with excess retained heat, threatening our food and water supplies.

You can strike back against all the propaganda with one press of the button on the top of your remote control. Shut the television off and go take a hike in the outdoors. Find a high place in a meadow, under a tree or along a stream bank. Clear your head of all the media clatter, listen to the sounds of nature. Take a deep breath and enjoy the fragrances of the natural world around you. Cherish these moments with your loved ones. Taste the beauty of nature and rediscover all that is important to you. You will be a better citizen for having done this.

Spring flowers, by Wikipedia user Halpaugh.

By Larry J. Schweiger

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”

–Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

I have long been fascinated by the biological richness of western Pennsylvania and, like Rachel Carson, I find reserves of strength in the beauty and renewal of nature. As a boy, I had the good fortune to know Roger Latham, then the outdoor editor of the Pittsburgh Press. A well-recognized wildlife scientist, he gave wonderful wildflower presentations that included the many graceful images he had captured on film.

Roger’s passion for native wildflowers hooked me. I saved my money from milking cows and baling hay on a nearby farm and bought a 35-mm camera and proper lenses to photograph blossoming plants. Armed with the two-volume Wild Flowers of Western Pennsylvania and the Upper Ohio Basin, I went on a spring mission to find the rare beauties that dotted the varied landscapes. Since Pennsylvania has 2,151 native plant species, I had my work cut out for me.

Years later, while working for the Pennsylvania General Assembly, I discovered a flaw in the U.S. Endangered Species Act: the law prohibits destruction of federally listed plants only in “areas under federal jurisdiction.” Unfortunately, more than 70 percent of federally listed plants occur outside of those areas. In 1974, I wrote a bill that extended protection to Pennsylvania’s threatened and endangered plants against bulldozers and other threats.

For the next eight years, I followed in Roger’s footsteps, crisscrossing the state and giving presentations to hundreds of garden clubs, civic groups and sportsmen’s organizations in order to rally support for the measure, which finally was signed into law by the governor in 1982. Today, the Commonwealth lists 682 plants as endangered, threatened, rare or undetermined.

I share this story because wild native plants in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation increasingly are falling victim to habitat shifts caused by rapidly changing climate and, in many areas, by feral hogs introduced to North America from Europe.

Today, feral swine populations are exploding around the country. Now estimated at more than 5 million, the animals are eating, rooting and wallowing their way through forests, fields and wetlands, aggressively devouring and destroying native plants and damaging important wildlife habitats. Invasive swine also are causing millions of dollars in damage to agricultural crops and are threatening humans, native wildlife and livestock, which can be impacted by novel pathogens that the feral creatures may transmit.

At NWF’s annual meeting in May, delegates from 48 state and territorial wildlife affiliate organizations passed a resolution to draw attention to this growing problem. Because existing laws, regulations and management tactics have proved insufficient to stop the spread of swine populations, we are calling for increased coordination between local, state and federal agencies to minimize the animals’ impact and contain their numbers. Authorities need to give more attention to the possible role of large predators and other control strategies. Farmers, ranchers and hunters also can do their part to help.

It is a fool’s errand, of course, to think that we can somehow eradicate 5 million hogs hiding in the nation’s swamps and forests. But with some thoughtful resource management and collaboration, much of the damage caused by the creatures can be reduced or avoided in the future.

More than anything, we need a proactive approach for dealing with such alien invaders. NWF has long been a proponent of legislation that would help protect the nation from the economic and environmental threats posed by invasive species. Recently introduced into the U.S. Congress, H.R. 5864, the Invasive Fish and Wildlife Prevention Act of 2012, would strengthen regulators’ ability to make rapid, science-based decisions about whether nonnative fish or wildlife species pose a risk to ecosystems, cause economic damage or threaten public health. The legislation also would prevent more damaging invasives from entering the United States, using proactive rather than reactive approaches.

As the world globalizes trade, we must take steps to end accidental and intentional importations of nonnative fish and shellfish in bilgewaters. We should restrict importation of exotic animals as pets, and we must end the introduction of foreign species for commercialized hunting and fishing. Working together, we must call on Congress to pass protective legislation, and we must mobilize action at the local level to contain the exotic invaders that already are thriving in our nation.

Help protect wildlife, including Florida Panthers, from invasive species like the python.

Ford F-150 SVT Raptor at 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit (Flickr's Sarah Larson)

You can’t look at 2012 vehicles through a 2002 lens. “Efficient” no longer just means hybrid or electric – it means the new base models themselves are now much more efficient than the older vehicles they’re replacing. Every new vehicle – efficient conventional engines, hybrid, or electric - will save drivers big against an older, less efficient model.

New fuel economy standards and the burst of automotive innovation coming with them are bringing dramatically improved efficiency and fuel savings to all types of vehicles at all types of price points. The auto industry’s renaissance is bringing not just savings at the pump, but less dependence on the oil that puts us at risk of spills, pollutes our air, worsens climate change, and weakens America’s energy security.

From commuters to sportsmen looking to save on their next trip to the lake, many consumers are judging that these new benefits are worth it.

Today, we know that Rachel’s observations about “the global thermostat” were prescient. Recent studies confirm that the oceans have indeed warmed by about 1 degree F to a depth of 200 feet, and the overwhelming scientific consensus is that increasing levels of human-caused greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are the principal cause of this profound change in marine temperatures.

Since higher surface-water temperatures amplify hurricane intensities, the implications of warming seas should not be ignored. As ocean temperatures continue to increase, hurricanes are expected to have stronger winds and produce more rainfall—unwelcome news for coastal areas already experiencing storm-related losses.

Warmer ocean currents also can introduce migrating fish and invasive species to areas they previously didn’t inhabit, and the new arrivals can overwhelm native populations or alter newfound aquatic habitats. Warm waters tend to amplify the threats of pollution and exacerbate overfishing on weakened marine systems. Overheated, these systems have less ability to hold oxygen, threatening near-shore habitats that carry high pollution loads. Degraded estuaries, tidal flats, bays and other nursery waters are at particular risk. These fragile habitats can become oxygen-deprived faster in a warming world. Oxygen depletion is not limited to coastal habitats, however. It is a growing menace to vast oceanic regions.

As water temperatures rise, the ocean’s most productive and sensitive ecosystems are showing the strain. On reefs, the algae living symbiotically within coral die, leaving the telltale ghostly bleached coral skeletons. Lacking algae for prolonged periods, the coral can suffer irreversible decline and, ultimately, death. Loss of coral has enormous implications for fish and the rest of the marine web of life, as well as coastal communities.

Researchers have documented that warming ocean currents have accelerated melting of the floating Arctic sea ice sheet and the decline and breakup of Antarctic ice shelves. Greenland is now losing an estimated 100 billion tons of ice annually as a result of this accelerated melting. And sea levels are now projected to rise much faster than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 as a result of this acceleration, further threatening coastal habitats and human infrastructures.

Warming is not the only threat to our seas. Oceans collectively absorb about 25 percent of the annual carbon dioxide emissions from human activities, and they are becoming more acidic as carbonic acid accumulates. This has caused seawater to become more corrosive to shells and marine organism skeletons, and is interfering with production of phytoplankton.

A recently published study revealed that phytoplankton has declined by about 40 percent in the past 60 years. Another study suggests that increasing acidity reduces the availability of iron, an element crucial to phytoplankton production. Because iron already is limited in marine waters, increased acidity may have grave implications.

This is extremely important to everyone, even those of us who don’t visit beaches, scuba dive or go deep-sea fishing. Phytoplankton are responsible for more than 50 percent of the oxygen-producing photosynthesis on the planet. They also are vital building blocks in the oceanic web of life.

I wish I were making this stuff up. Sadly, the facts about these threats are well-documented in scientific literature. The simple truth is this: If we continue to pollute the air with carbon dioxide, the more acidic oceans will block iron needed for phytoplankton and become more corrosive to the shells of marine organisms. This will surely threaten the entire marine food web.

While more research can help us better understand the full range of consequences of human-induced acidification, carbon pollution clearly is acidifying the oceans, as well as heating our atmosphere. Leading climate scientist Robert Corell has determined that even with carbon reductions planned by 194 nations, average global temperature is expected to rise by 4 degrees F by 2050 and acidification of our oceans would continue.

What can each of us do to help reverse this crisis? Tell the president and Congress—and everyone who aspires to those elected offices—we need a science-based energy policy that ends carbon emissions. To learn more about NWF’s efforts to protect and restore coastal areas and combat warming, visit www. nwf.org/globalwarming and http://www.nwf.org/Oil-Spill/On-the-Ground.aspx.

Smog envelopes downtown Houston, TX (Flickr's Rick Kimpel)

The oil, gas and coal industries get billions of dollars in subsidies and tax giveaways every single year. A group of 35 U.S. senators last year identified $122 billion over 10 years in oil subsidies that could be cut. And globally, fossil fuel industries receive six times more government subsidies than clean energy, according to the International Energy Agency. Those aren’t loan guarantees – it’s gone and we’ll never get a dime back. Where are the media investigations into how many millions in bonuses are paid to the CEOs of these oil giants?

Instead, today we see another headline about a clean company trying to get off the ground, this time electric car battery maker Ener1:

Ener1, an electric car battery company that the Obama administration awarded a $118 million stimulus grant to expand its operations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday after being unable to repay pressing debts. […]

Ener1 is the third company to seek bankruptcy protection among those the Energy Department backed as part of the president’s signature program to invest in clean energy. Solyndra, a California solar-panel maker, and Beacon Power, a Massachusetts energy-storage firm, entered bankruptcy court proceedings in the fall, after having received taxpayer-guaranteed loans of $535 million and $43 million, respectively.

Ener1 wasn’t controversial with Republican members of Congress when it had the backing of a Republican president:

Ener1’s application for stimulus money had bipartisan support among Indiana lawmakers. The company received $10.5 million in grants and contracts under the George W. Bush administration.

Despite obsessive coverage by the Washington Post and other media outlets, the Department of Energy’s clean energy investment program remains an incredibly safe investment. A Bloomberg Government analysis found that 87 percent of the portfolio is low-risk and that even if all 10 of the higher risk projects had to default, hundreds of millions of dollars would still remain in the Congressional fund to cover losses. And as the Ener1 example shows, even “default” could signify only a bump in the road, not the end of it – private investors have stepped up to back the company and it continues to employ hundreds of people at its Indiana plant.

America’s successful investments in the clean economy don’t get nearly as much media attention. Among the largest Energy Department investments were $5.9 billion in loans for Ford for projects in plants across 5 states. These projects were responsible for sustaining 33,000 permanent jobs making far more fuel efficient vehicles, including electric vehicles. This morning, Ford reported its sales, revenue and earnings are all rising.

As for the reporters who just can’t help themselves from writing negative stories about clean energy, you have to remember the Washington press corps thrives on controversy and in the extremely competent Obama administration, scandals have been hard to come by. But that hasn’t stopped reporters from trying. In this click-driven multimedia age, even a thin attempt at controversy can deliver big numbers for media outlets thanks to the polluter-political industrial complex.

Opposition to clean energy investments isn’t about the deficit, jobs or protecting our wildlife and public health – it’s about election year politics. Many of the very same members of Congress complaining about direct taxpayer investments are same people who blocked legislation that would’ve created a market-based cap-and-trade system to put a price on carbon pollution. So what’s their solution? They don’t have one.

But even after months of relentless attacks on clean energy, a November ORC International poll found  77 percent of Americans agree “the U.S. needs to be a clean energy technology leader and it should invest in the research and domestic manufacturing of wind, solar, and energy efficiency technologies.”

Here’s the bottom line: The National Wildlife Federation’s 4 million supporters from across the political spectrum want clean energy and they want leaders who’ll face down special interests to deliver it. And coming off a year in 2011 that saw global warming-fueled extreme weather cause record damage, action on clean energy is more critically needed than ever.

Take Action

The Environmental Protection Agency is acting now to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, but is coming under assault from polluter-funded attack groups. Let the EPA know you support limits on carbon pollution.

In 2009, when the tide was flowing against the auto industry, National Wildlife Federation stood up to support the auto recovery package because we believed that the U.S. auto industry could innovate to build the kind of clean cars and trucks that consumers – and our environment, increasingly demand.  Since then, the U.S. auto industry and its workers have proven they have what it takes for America to lead in a prosperous, clean energy future.  The standards being considered at the hearing today — which will double fuel economy from today’s levels by 2025 — are critical to staying on this path.

These standards are also critical for wildlife, which faces both the global threat of climate change and the direct impacts of oil spills and pollution.  By themselves, the 2017-2025 standards will save 4 billion barrels of oil and cut 2 billion metric tons of carbon pollution.  Taken together with the light and heavy duty vehicle standards being implemented now, they cut more oil than we get from the Persian Gulf, Venezuela, and Russia combined and cut carbon pollution annually by more than 650 million metric tons-equivalent to 10% of total U.S. carbon pollution today.  This is the single biggest step America has ever taken to cut carbon pollution and reduce our oil dependence.

Take action to protect wildlife and create jobs–show your support for strong fuel economy standards >>