Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
salmon gets more money than 956 other plants and animals combined.
The top fi fty best-funded species include salmon, trout, sea turtles, eagles,
bears—and just one insect and no plants.
Only fi fteen U.S. species have offi cially been declared “recovered.”
They are three plants, two obscure tropical birds, and ten animals that
would look good on a T-shirt. These include gray wolves, bald eagles,
brown pelicans, and the Yellowstone subpopulation of grizzly bears.
There clearly has been a very heavy bias toward charismatic megafauna.
All other classes of fauna, and all fl ora, have gotten extremely short
shrift.
Is the Environment Threatened or Resilient?
Environmentalists who
focus on possible harm to plants and animals that might result from
climate change invariably describe ecological environments as “delicate,”
“sensitive,” “threatened,” and “endangered.” They never describe such
environments as resilient, adaptable, mobile, robust, or accommodating.
However, as the report by the IPCC illustrates, environments that harbor
life expand, contract, or move their ranges as conditions change; they
do not disappear. It is analogous to beaches. As sea level rises, beaches
do not vanish. They move inland. There is always a beach where the
land meets the sea.
There is simply no evidence that a signifi cant amount of life on earth
will be destroyed by whatever types of climate change may result from
global warming. Some changes will occur, but their importance will be
confi ned to academics and economics. Maine's cold-water lobsters and
New England's maple syrup trees will probably partially relocate to
Canada. The region's syrup production has been declining precipitously
for fi fty years, a refl ection of the warming climate. Tropical fruits such
as mangos, bananas, and papayas may no longer be confi ned to small
areas in southern California. The state's grape-growing region may
shift northward. Some species of plants and animals may vanish, but
others will take their place, and life will go on. Such changes have
been occurring for at least hundreds of millions of years without human
interference.
Humans migrate easily and will not be irreparably harmed, only
inconvenienced, by climate change (fi gure 9.2). The migrations may
cause political turmoil in some areas. Populations may decrease in the
Gulf states as people fi nd the increased heat too uncomfortable, air-
conditioning bills too costly, and increasingly severe hurricanes too dan-
gerous and expensive. Immigrants from the Gulf Coast will repopulate
