Yosemite National Park
Sierra Sun Times file photo
NPCA: Climate change is happening. Ignoring it won’t stop it.
February 26, 2020 - Washington, DC – At the Department of the Interior on Tuesday, environmental organizations, congressional members and national park advocates showed up to in full force to speak up for the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a law that has protected America’s public lands and national parks for the last 50 years. NEPA gives people a voice in how their public lands are used, ensuring that impacts to our air, water and wildlife are considered before development projects move forward. Now, the administration is proposing unprecedented revisions to NEPA that deliberately ignore years of science-driven data and let the government and industry off the hook for addressing the impacts of climate change on our national parks.
Theresa Pierno, President and CEO for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), was one the many voices who testified directly to the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, urging the agency to withdraw its proposal to gut this bedrock conservation law and demanding the administration take the effects of climate change on our public lands and communities seriously.
Testimony by Theresa Pierno, President and CEO for the National Parks Conservation Association:
“The revisions being proposed to the National Environmental Policy Act are an insult to the original intent of the law. In just three minutes, how can I possibly address all of the ways these appalling changes harm front-line communities and public lands? None of us testifying today should have to ask our own government to use science when making decisions that impact the entire country. Climate change is causing catastrophic damage to our environment. That’s a fact. Stripping one of our best tools to address it is inconceivable.
“In its more than 100-year history, climate change is the greatest threat our National Park System has ever faced. Parks are melting, burning, and drying as our country’s dependence on fossil fuels pollute our landscapes and harm our communities.
“One of the many victims is our world-renowned Everglades National Park. Its pristine beauty, from mangrove forests to sawgrass plains, has been ravaged by fluctuations in annual temperature and extreme weather events. Rare or endangered species, such as sea turtles and Florida Panthers, are being pushed from their native habitat, risking their very survival. Sea level rise and storm surges are collapsing these already vulnerable ecosystems.
“And it’s not just the Everglades. Dire situations are developing across the entire park system. Biscayne in Florida has lost 80 percent of its coral reef. Four glaciers have melted in the North Cascades since 1984. Joshua Tree National Park will likely see its last Joshua tree in the next 80 years. These losses are direct consequences of a rapidly changing climate caused by human activity. Our park system is the canary in the coal mine - unless we act immediately and with purpose, they will no longer exist the way we know them today.
“I cannot say this strongly or clearly enough: NPCA is opposed to these revisions to NEPA. Analyzing how a federal project, through potential cumulative impacts, could degrade the environment is fundamental to the NEPA process. But if these changes go through, the federal government will no longer be obligated to consider how the latent effects of an action could threaten the health of our public lands, visitors and surrounding communities. In the past, using NEPA, we avoided unnecessary environmental damage, such as increased carbon dioxide emissions and downstream pollutant damage, around vulnerable communities. From oil pipelines to wildlife management – the public deserves to know that their government is protecting national parks now, and for generations to come.
“These changes to NEPA are equivalent to the federal government putting their heads in the sand. Climate change is happening. Ignoring it won’t stop it. For the future of our most cherished wild spaces, from Acadia to Zion, we must use our best available science in decision making, especially in an increasingly fragile natural world. Now is not the time to abandon science. We must embrace it. The American public and our National Parks deserve better.”
About National Parks Conservation Association: Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks. NPCA and its more than 1.3 million members and supporters work together to protect and preserve our nation’s most iconic and inspirational places for future generations. For more information, visit www.npca.org.
Source: NPCA
