Susan J. Crockford, PhD
On August 2, 2023, a new regulation that would allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish experimental populations of designated threatened and endangered species of plants and wildlife in areas outside of their normal historical range became effective. The regulation is based on the expectation that ongoing or predicted “irreversible” harms from invasive species or global warming caused by increasing carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels may make certain habitats so profoundly unsuitable for some species that their continued survival may depend on direct human interference.REF
This is an unprecedented response to the perceived threat to U.S. biodiversity from climate change, yet it has received little attention from the media or conservation organizations. But are the actions made possible by this potentially game-changing new rule actually needed to deal with the effects of global warming, or was climate change simply “tacked on” to a rule meant to deal with the well-documented damage caused by invasive species like feral swine and Burmese pythons?REF
It is claimed that over the 21st century, changes in climate will cause temperature-sensitive species to shift north and to higher elevations, thus fundamentally rearranging historical U.S. ecosystems. Coastal areas are said to face other adverse impacts, especially habitat loss from rising sea levels, including land loss due to inundation, erosion, and wetland submergence. Together, it is argued, these effects will negatively impact the provision of market goods and services produced from these ecosystems, including food, fuel, fiber, water, tourism and recreation, and pure aesthetic value.REF
All of these predictions about 21st century habitat changes and associated wildlife survival depend on computer-simulated models of future climate conditions that are based on a mix of scientific principles, assumptions, and data collected over previous decades.REF Presumably due to the potential inaccuracy of assumptions that must be made and the inability of the models to account for naturally occurring climatic variables (including clouds and wind), » Read More
https://www.heritage.org/environment/report/resilient-wilds-unmasking-the-surprising-adaptability-us-ecosystems-climate