Climate, conservation, and biodiversity

I've been telling our conservation students, faculty and supporters for several years now that climate change is the major conservation and biodiversity issue. It wasn't entirely deaf ears, but I guess my message wore out its welcome with some. In particular, students who came to college with more conservative political attitudes were reluctant or hostile to the notion that their future "blue-collar" conservation jobs as game wardens, foresters, wildlife and fisheries biologists and park rangers were anything at all to do with something as "hippy-ish" a notion as climate change. This was culture wars lite, as those of us who teach climate change and sustainability at this college, where the classes have been required since 1999, struggled to find ways to get inside the heads of our most conservative students.

As time wore on, the news about climate change worsened, and the degree of certainty about its effects on conservation and biodiversity increased. But each year a new clutch of students shows up fresh from high school, and while I've noticed a difference in the degree of interest and level of existing knowledge in students who come into the more pure science majors such as ecology, or the environmental policy major, many of whom now arrive just knowing climate change is their personal life-time problem and just thirsting for knowledge to deal with it (very gratifying), every year a new clutch of conservative students also arrives, barrelling onto campus in their eight cylinder pick ups, lugging big ole boat-and-snowmobile-trailer-loads of bad attitude about climate change and sustainability.

One surprising thing that has helped me in this is that I'm the guy who mentors the SAR team. Search and rescue is a necessary skill for game wardens and park rangers. I have 29 years of experience in SAR. It's hard to be dismissive about that. With this background, I can get these particular students' respect in short order where other professors may struggle. I also now teach the Introduction to Conservation Law Enforcement labs, a required first semester class for future park rangers and game wardens. My job is to teach them their map and compass skills. I'm more than expert at land navigation, especially in the woods and mountains. Hard to be dismissive of that. And in general, for the guy who teaches sustainability, I'm a serious drill sergeant, and I take zero BS from 18 year olds.

Who's the hippy now, dudes?

I'm happy enough to get out in the fresh air with these students and hike in the woods and learn to read maps, let them get themselves thoroughly lost and give them a hard time when they do. They need to have someone get tough with them, because the minute they get out on the job as uniformed conservation officers, for most of them, there will be a real sergeant, and a real rank hierarchy with real discipline and real standards, and real standard operating procedures and real emergencies to respond to.

I use the credibility it gives me later, when they have to take their required third year class in sustainability. This is one way inside their heads, and with luck we can turn out more and better game wardens, foresters, wildlife and fisheries biologists and park rangers who know about and understand the effects of climate change on biodiversity. It doesn't hurt that, additional to staffing the Maine Warden's Service which is responsible for SAR, a significant minority of these students will join police and other emergency services all over the country. We are going to need more and more folks in the emergency service world who can prepare to deal with natural disasters from extreme weather events.

But our ability to address the most serious issue on planet earth should not be trammeled by "culture war" attitudes. I shouldn't have to prove my blue collar, drill sergeant "cred" and woodsman and SAR skills to college frosh, to get the respect I need, to get them to work on their knowledge of the most serious problem humanity has ever faced.

They came to college to become leaders for society. Studying climate change is what they're supposed to be doing right now.

We all need to grow up and get over the culture wars thing. Climate change is neither a Republican nor a Democratic thing, it's not just an issue for wealthy bleeding heart two-coast liberals. It's a problem right now for all kinds of folks all over the country, as we get hit by more tornadoes and more hurricanes each year, it will ruin our hunting and fishing in short order, and in the worst possible case, reduce civilization to a shadow of its former self, where we'll be lucky to have a democracy at all, let alone the right to bicker over which party or which subculture of American society is best.

Time to grow up.




World's wildlife and environment already hit by climate change, major study shows

· 90% of damage caused by rising temperatures
· Conclusions based on reports going back to 1970

Guardian, Friday

Global warming is disrupting wildlife and the environment on every continent, according to an unprecedented study that reveals the extent to which climate change is already affecting the world's ecosystems.

Scientists examined published reports dating back to 1970 and found that at least 90% of environmental damage and disruption around the world could be explained by rising temperatures driven by human activity.

Big falls in Antarctic penguin populations, fewer fish in African lakes, shifts in American river flows and earlier flowering and bird migrations in Europe are all likely to be driven by global warming, the study found.

The team of experts, including members of the UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) from America, Europe, Australia and China, is the first to formally link some of the most dramatic changes to the world's wildlife and habitats with human-induced climate change.

Read more....