So perhaps we shouldn�t be surprised by some recent conservation news: wildlife species are beginning to respond to global warming. The Wildlife Society has released the first comprehensive assessment of the consequences of climate change on wildlife and plants. This report from the nation�s leading group of wildlife professionals confirmed that many species of North American animals and plants are shifting northward in range and upward in slope in response to slight but persistent temperature increases that are the early harbingers of global warming.

In short, the report, Global Climate Change and Wildlife in North America, shows current climate change is markedly different from �historic climate variability� change because of the magnitude of change over a short time. The report highlights the change as a major threat to wildlife and plants by marshalling scientific evidence that validates what many of us already have witnessed:

• Songbirds are arriving earlier in the springtime; The first fall frost is arriving a few days later than in the past;
• Mosquitoes are biting longer because they, ticks and other pests have longer breeding seasons. In turn, there�s a related spread of Lyme disease, West Nile Virus and even dengue fever; and
• Trees that once existed only in the South, such as the Loblolly pine, are moving steadily into Yankee territory.

In South Carolina, climate change threatens to make sea levels rise more, which poses serious risks to people, wildlife and plants. In my hometown of Charleston, for example, the sea level is up nine inches since 1922, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Scientists estimate the sea level could rise another 20 inches by 2100. Such a change would push the coastline inward, increase flooding, make the city more susceptible to storm damage and cause more erosion.

Throughout South Carolina�s coast, rising sea levels also may cause serious threats to critically important habitat for endangered and threatened species, including American alligators, Bachman�s warblers, bald eagles, brown pelicans and loggerhead sea turtles. Higher levels also could threaten Carolina bays and pocosins that contain a number of endangered plants, many of which cannot live anywhere else.

These conclusions should give us pause. The overall movement northward and upward of many species in North America to accommodate a warmer climate means we face the prospect that big changes are on the horizon unless we solve this problem. If we don�t, the world of wildlife that we now know and many of the places we�ve invested decades of work in conserving as refuges and habitats for wildlife may cease to exist as we know them.

From the Atlantic to the Upstate�s mountains, South Carolina is home to an incredible 554 wildlife species, including 318 birds, 98 mammals, 74 reptiles and 64 amphibians. In 2001 alone, nearly 1.19 million wildlife watchers spent $256.4 million in South Carolina, which in turn supported thousands of jobs. Add that to the $815 million that hunting and fishing bring to the state, and South Carolina has quite a bit invested in its rich biological diversity.

It is not insignificant that The Wildlife Society is calling on its 9,000-plus members to recognize global warming as a factor in wildlife conservation. The Wildlife Society is the gold standard among wildlife professionals for providing comprehensive analyses of today�s most pressing wildlife issues.

Our state leaders must conserve South Carolina�s natural assets as they would gold bars, stocks or bonds so our children and our children�s children may experience the beauty and the bounty the Palmetto State has to offer. Leaders should focus on ways to reduce the effects of climate change when seeking economic development, making energy decisions and setting coastal policies.

We cannot afford to let global warming change the fabric of our natural world, and we cannot ignore our own responsibility to address the problem head-on. While we develop solutions that cut our emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce our dependence on the fossil fuels responsible for much of this problem, let�s be good stewards of the land and waters and find ways to help wildlife survive an era we have made ever more formidable. What on Earth is our alternative?

For a copy of The Wildlife Society report, go online to: http://www.nwf.org/news/clickThru.cfm?path=/nwfwebadmin/binaryVault/Wildlife%5FSociety%5FReport2%2Epdf.

You also may want to read a new NWF report on threats to waterfowl from global warming, The Waterfowler�s Guide to Global Warming.

(Images provided by SCWF.)

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