“Climate change is the biggest threat to our national parks,” the blog stated. “It’s not just a future threat -- we’re seeing the impacts right now at national parks and other public lands across the country. “We must #ActOnClimate to ensure that current and future generations can enjoy America’s most treasured places,” the blog stated. “If we don’t, we will have to say goodbye to these iconic views.” Here are the seven places the federal government said are in danger of extinction because of climate change:
• The wildflowers of Shenandoah in Virginia are threatened because spring is coming earlier in three-quarters of national parks, according to a study funded by the federal government. “In Shenandoah, an earlier spring is giving invasive plants a head start, and they’re displacing native wildflowers, leading to costly management issues. In Acadia, it’s not just the flowers but also bird migration that’s being impacted by earlier springs.”
• The trees of Joshua Tree National Park in California: “It’s said that Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax was inspired by Joshua trees. Now life is imitating art, but this time the trees are threatened by climate change.” It predicted that because of rising temperatures, “the trees will be unable to persist much longer within Joshua Tree National Park. Soon, Joshua trees may no longer be found in the park bearing their name.”
• Glacier National Park’s “namesake” is threatened, the blog stated. “Scientists predict the glaciers in Glacier will be completely gone by the year 2030.”
• “The Statue of Liberty as we know it,” is threatened by climate change, the blog stated. “One of the most recognizable statues in the world could someday be underwater. Sea-level rise and an increase in storm surges are putting the Statue of Liberty at risk.”
• Virgin Islands National Park is facing rising sea levels, warmer ocean temperatures and coral reefs are being bleached from acidic water, caused by “increased carbon dioxide levels,” the blog stated.
• A photograph of bison plowing through snow at Yellowstone National Park may become a thing of the past, the blog stated. “Average temperatures are now higher than they were 50 years ago, and the park sees 30 fewer days of snow on the ground a year. Snow totals and the timing of snowmelt affect the rivers and streams of the park, which in turn impact plants and the movement of wildlife like the park’s bison and cutthroat trout.”
• Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado features ancient cliff dwellings, but “higher temperatures and earlier snowmelt” can lead to fires that threaten the dwellings, which, according to the National Park Service, are “some of the most notable and best preserved in the North American Continent.”
Feds: Because of Climate Change ‘We Will Have to Say Goodbye’ to Lady Liberty
