A study released Tuesday by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program found that nearly 60 percent of species studied have already been affected by climate change.

The Washington Post article Report Details Effects of Climate Change Across U.S. explains additional climate change impacts we are already experiencing, including an increase in forest fires and insect outbreaks in the interior West, Southwest, and Alaska; increasing stream temperatures across most of the continental United States; and declining snowpack in the West.

Climate change isn’t something in the distant future. It’s happening now.

This disturbing news makes next week’s debate and vote in the Senate on the Climate Security Act all the more important. We have an historic opportunity to protect the conservation achievements of the past century and help our country have a bright energy future.

We must not fail future generations by leaving them a world diminished from the one we know today.

Go to National Wildlife Federation's Climate Action Center to learn what you can do.

If this Memorial Day weekend mirrors the last, about 350,000 people will cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, many to begin enjoying the ocean and bayside beaches of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Unfortunately, more than half of those beaches hang in the balance, as global warming accelerates sea-level rise and drastically alters the region’s coastline, according to a new study by National Wildlife Federation.

National Wildlife Federation’s new study, "Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Habitats of the Chesapeake Bay," maps in vivid detail the dramatic effects of sea-level rise on the nation’s largest estuary, which sustains more than 3,600 species of plants, fish, and animals including great blue herons and sea turtles.

This national treasure and the economy it supports may be unrecognizable within the lifetime of a child born today if global warming continues unabated. Projected rising sea levels will significantly reshape the Chesapeake Bay’s coastal landscape, threatening waterfowl hunting and recreational saltwater fishing in Virginia and Maryland that contribute roughly $725 million to the region’s economy. Seafood lover’s take note: Chesapeake Bay waters produce some 500 million pounds of seafood worth billions of dollars each year, including blue crab, rockfish and eastern oyster.

We’ve spent years working to save the bay, but unless we address global warming, it could all be lost. No single silver bullet will save the bay from the effects of global warming. We need action at all levels of government.

The most imperiled places are also the most valuable for fishing, waterfowl hunting, bird watching and playing on the shore: Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, the barrier islands of Tangier Sound, and Virginia’s Eastern Shore and the Lower Tidewater region, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

The study also projects that more than 415 square miles of open water will replace undeveloped dry land and marshes – an area roughly equivalent to Fairfax County (Virginia), slightly smaller than Montgomery County (Maryland), or the size of Rocky Mountain National Park – based on a global sea-level rise of just over two feet (well within the range projected this century).

This analysis goes well beyond simple inundation modeling. It documents for the first time the many landscape and habitat changes that will occur along the entire bay coastline if global warming continues unchecked.

Cutting global warming pollution two percent per year to meet an 80 percent reduction goal by mid-century will be necessary to avoid the most damaging effects of climate change, according to leading scientists. National Wildlife Federation is calling on federal and state officials to take measures to meet this goal by enacting legislation that cuts global warming pollution.

We don’t have time to waste. Our children and grandchildren are counting on us to protect what is important – including that Memorial Day trip to enjoy the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.

Sea-level rise maps and report details are available at www.nwf.org/chesapeake

British politicians, actors and singers are coming together for Britian’s biggest climate campaign – Together.

The Together campaign helped consumers save half a million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the last year.  The campaign makes it easier for people to confront the climate crisis in their everyday lives and shows that we can make a difference through the daily choices we make.

Check out their video:

.

The clearest sign yet that our work to move Congress is paying off was the defeat last night of an amendment to the budget bill that would have put Congress on record that we should hold off on enacting global warming cap-and-trade legislation to reduce America’s global warming pollution until China and India take more action.

Fortunately the amendment was defeated with 61 votes opposing. The vote is only a skirmish, and does not get into the substantive positions that we will need to get across the finish line.  But it indicates a significant swing in momentum in Congress. As you know, it takes 51 votes to pass legislation, but will take 60 votes to overcome the expected filibuster for the Climate Security Act.  In the last climate vote two years ago, only 38 Senators supported the less ambitious McCain-Lieberman bill.  Ten years ago, the Senator unanimously (95-0) voted to support a motion by Sen. Byrd (D-WV) that suggested the U.S. should not act before China and India.

To see how your Senators voted on the Demint amendment

("Nay" is the right vote)

To see how they voted on the Boxer amendment

("yea" is the right vote)

As many of you know, we're in an urgent battle to protect wildlife in the face of global warming. Many of you have taken action, but we need your help to spread the word and bring greater awareness to strong legislation that can really have an impact.

National Wildlife Federation’s Ranger Rick is mobilizing supporters with his new web video located on the recently launched Climate Action Center.

Help Ranger Rick spread the word!

Early this June, a historic bipartisan bill is expected to come to a vote in the U.S. Senate. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act would be the biggest step ever taken to reduce global warming pollution. It will also provide dedicated funding to help protect and restore America's natural resources that are being affected by global warming.

We need wildlife champions like you to continue to take action and tell your friends and family to speak up in support of this important legislation.

Please check out these simple tools that make a big difference:
www.nwf.org/climateaction

See Ranger Rick's video (middle button) after a short welcome from National Wildlife Federation’s Senior Director of Congressional and Federal Affairs, Adam Kolton.
Check back and stay updated! Thank you for your support in protecting our natural resources and our planet.

Dr. James Hansen, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the world’s leading climatologists, has written a persuasive article on the effects of climate change on wildlife in "2008-2009 State of the Wild, A Global Portrait of Wildlife, Wildlands, and Oceans" (Wildlife Conservation Society, published by Island Press)

Here’s how Dr. Hansen begins:

Animals are on the run. Plants are migrating too. I wrote those words in 2006 to draw attention to the fact that climate change was already underway. People do not notice climate change because it is masked by day-to-day weather fluctuations, and we reside in comfortable homes. Animals and plants, on the other hand, can survive only within certain climatic conditions, which are now changing. The National Arbor Day Foundation had to redraw its maps for the zones in which tree species can survive, and animals are shifting to new habitats as well. Are these gradual changes in the wild consistent with dramatic scientific assessments of a crystallizing planetary emergency? Unfortunately, yes. Present examples only hint at the scale of the planetary emergency that climate studies reveal with increasing clarity.

Read More>>