Climate change worries sportsmen

[BigBrother]

From today's The State newspaper

Climate change worries sportsmen
By SAMMY FRETWELL
sfretwell@thestate.com
South Carolina sportsmen are increasingly worried that fish and wildlife populations will dwindle as global warming continues, according to a survey released Wednesday by two conservation groups.

The survey of 305 sportsmen said most are concerned about climate change, and many have seen signs of global warming on the landscape and waterways where they hunt and fish. Earlier springs, hotter summers and lost wetlands are among the conditions sportsmen attributed to global warming.

Commissioned by the state and national wildlife federations, the survey is the first of its kind in South Carolina. It examines what some of the state’s most conservative citizens — those who hunt and fish — think about global warming.

The National Wildlife Federation and the S.C. Wildlife Federation hope to use the results to sway politicians to adopt policies and laws that stop global warming. Most of the sportsmen surveyed identified themselves as Republicans, who voted for George Bush in the last election.

Global warming is occurring as heat-trapping gases increase in the atmosphere. Factory and automobile pollution contribute to the problem.

If global warming continues, it could heat up trout streams and keep ducks from flying south for the winter, officials said. It also could cause rising seas to flood wildlife-rich islands.

Tom McInnis, chair of the S.C. Council of Trout Unlimited, said Palmetto State trout are particularly vulnerable because they live at the southern end of the fish’s range.

“I’m encouraged by the poll results because it shows that sportsmen are getting it,” McInnis said. “It’s time for the policymakers to get it.”

South Carolina was one of a handful of states chosen for in-depth surveys. Of the sportsmen surveyed in South Carolina:

• 59 percent agreed that global warming is caused primarily by pollution from burning oil, gas and other fossil fuels.

• 65 percent agreed that global warming is a serious threat to fish and wildlife

• 90 percent favored a statewide energy policy that encourages the use of alternative energy sources, such as solar.

• 86 percent supported reducing power plant pollution that contributes to global warming.

The wildlife federation survey was conducted by Responsive Management, a Washington, D.C., firm that specializes in natural resource surveys. The survey has a 5.6 percent margin of error.

Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537.

[GMAC]

Don't worry. Be happy

[JABIII]

Waaahhhhh Waaaahhhhh the sky is falling! The sky is falling! Global Warming! Global Warming!

No shit global warming. 20,000 years ago, North America was sheathed in ice a mile thick running down into Kentucky. Since that time the Earth has been warming and the ice has been receding.





Before the last ice age North America was:

"28,000-25,000 14C y.a.; shortly before Last Glacial Maximum. In the eastern USA, conditions may have been generally drier than today. A xeric scrub cover existed in Florida at this time, instead of the present forest (Watts & Stuiver 1980). In Maryland (38N, 75W) pollen evidence indicates pine-birch barrens or spruce parkland dominating after 30,000 14C years ago (Wells 1992 p.612), and it is possible that most of the eastern USA had an open wooded vegetation cover at this time.

Delcourt & Delcourt (1981) give a summary map for the eastern USA at 25,000 y.a., showing spruce and jack pine forest extending south to about the latitude of Washington DC, and thinning out into forest-steppe west of the Mississippi River. A mixed cool temperate forest belt seems to have existed across the south Appalachian region. From South Carolina southwards to northern Florida, oak-hickory and southern pine forests are suggested as having survived.

In the western cordillera of the USA, lake levels were higher than today (indicating moister conditions) but not generally as high as they would become at the LGM. In northern Arizona, altitudinal zones of vegetation had not yet declined to their LGM positions (which were reached by about 24,000 y.a.), but were lower than today. In the NW Cordillera of the USA, in eastern Cascades Range at 45 deg.N, 120 deg.E, forest cover was considerably less than today, with more steppe and cold-tolerant species (Whitlock & Bartlein 1997). This followed an earlier stage, 30,000-40,000 y.a., when there had been slightly warmer conditions in the Cascades with more forest cover (though still considerably less than today)."

Oh MY! Do you think the little cavemen were scurrying around like rats bitching about global cooling as the ice age set in or do you reckon they just went out and whacked an extra mammoth against the cold winters to come?

Aren't we Americans so smart and advanced that we can change the entire global weather pattern all by our little selves. Poor, poor, fragile Mother Earth...



[img]graemlins/shakehead.gif[/img] Damn, the sheep in this country...

[Aging Baby Boomer]

Google "little ice age" for more information on cyclical climate change which was unrelated to modern man's industrial activities.

Crippling our economy in a futile attempt to modify natural cycles makes no sense.

[GMAC]

Heavens, no. We must never stand in the way of Economic Growth.

[IB Tokin]

Please. Don't tell me that some of you actually doubt Global Warming is caused as a direct result of man's assault on the planet.

[Big Al]

Tokin it is up for debat. True intellectual debate. The earth has gone through cyclical changes in climate. Heck the magnetic poles even reversed once. Oh yeah and they are doing it again. And yeah...that is "definately" a direct effect of human influence.

[IB Tokin]

Originally posted by Big Al:
Tokin it is up for debat. True intellectual debate.

Only to those with very small intellects.

[John_boy]

Originally posted by GMAC:
Don't worry. Be happy

I agree [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Jimmyfly]

You guys have obviously not seen "The Day After Tomorrow"

[JJ McGuire]

Originally posted by IB Tokin:
Please. Don't tell me that some of you actually doubt Global Warming is caused as a direct result of man's assault on the planet.

Golly you sound angry. I bet you haven't gotten home to beat the old life partner yet have you. I know how that stress can build up. You should have a bourbon and kick back before you stroke out on us.

[secondamendment]

somebody get the bolt cutters. Tokin has chained himself to a tree again. Do us all a favor...fire you up another fatty...and leave the big boy discussions to the smart people.

[Mergie Master]

Not only does Tokin boy smoke too much dope he drinks the media Kool Aid! [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]