DIVERSITY | Offering a place for everyone
15 July 2008
A Climate of Change
A Climate of Change
By Jeff Rennicke
Glaciers that are the namesake of Glacier National Park are one third the size they were more than 100 years ago, according to research from the U.S. Geological Survey. The freshwater prairie of the Everglades is threatened by the encroachment of salt water from nearby Florida Bay. Climate change is a reality for the National Park System, and comprehensive steps to reduce carbon emissions are beginning.
Jeff Rennicke is a teacher at Conserve School in Wisconsin’s North Woods.
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of National Parks, a publication of the National Parks Conservation Association, a private nonprofit organization devoted to protection and enhancement of U.S. parks.
From increased smog in the Great Smoky Mountains to the loss of prairie pothole habitat for waterfowl breeding, no corner of the National Park System is out of reach of the hot fingers of climate change. “This is the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced,” says Mark Wenzler, clean air program director for the National Parks Conservation Association, “one that threatens to change the very fabric of the places we call national parks.” The reality of that challenge has created what Wenzler calls “a real sense of urgency to act.”
One result of that urgency has been the creation of the Climate Friendly Parks (CFP) program, a cooperative effort of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service. Begun in 2003, CFP has a triad of goals: training park staff on the issue of climate change; helping parks to evaluate, monitor, and lessen their own environmental footprint; and showing visitors how climate change may affect the parks and illustrating ways they can get involved in the solution. Parks are asked to hold CFP workshops, develop action plans, and continually monitor and evaluate their progress on the path to becoming Climate Friendly Parks. To date, 10 national parks, including Delaware Water Gap, Everglades, Glacier Bay, Yosemite, and Zion, have held workshops, and more are in the works. It is a new vision for our parks, says Shawn Norton, one of the program’s coordinators. And when asked to describe the perfect Climate Friendly Park, he speaks with a visionary’s zeal.
“A perfect Climate Friendly Park is first and foremost carbon neutral, adding no emissions to the atmosphere,” Norton says. As you enter the park you are given information about sustainable practices along with a trail map and park pass. Instead of a snarl of too many private, polluting cars jostling for too few parking spots, you board an alternative energy shuttle system that takes you quickly, quietly, and cleanly anywhere you want to go in the park. The visitor center, which blends almost invisibly into the background because of its natural architecture and landscaping -- including a “green roof” of native plants -- is a clean energy facility that takes advantage of solar, wind, or geothermal energy, LED technology, and natural lighting. The food you purchase at the snack bar is organic and locally grown. The artwork for sale in the gift shop is made from recycled materials such as glass and aluminum. The restrooms are fitted with low-volume toilets and automatic faucet shutoffs for water savings, and they are kept clean with nontoxic cleaning products. Ranger vehicles patrolling the park emit no harmful pollutants. Remote buildings are fitted with photovoltaic panels to meet their own energy needs. And interpretive signs explain it all to park visitors, offering tips on decreasing their own ecological footprint while in the park and back at home.
This vision isn’t simply a futuristic daydream, either. “We’re not that far from making much of this a reality,” says Norton. “We can cut our energy use substantially. We can cut our emissions substantially. We can lower our water consumption substantially using today’s technologies, and, if we got aggressive about it, we could do it in just about every park within 10 years. We are just getting started, but more parks are stepping up every day.”
One such park is Zion in Utah. In 2000, a park shuttle system replaced 5,000 private vehicles per day with 30 propane-powered buses, eliminating almost 14,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions that otherwise would have filled the park’s skies over the course of a year. A new “green” visitor center taps into solar power for 30 percent of its energy, takes advantage of natural light for 80 percent of its lighting needs, and features large cooling towers that provide low-energy air conditioning in the summer and a passive solar heating system with a Trombe wall (a sun-facing wall made from heat-absorbing materials such as adobe or stone) for heat retention for cooler days. Considered a model for national park construction, the new facility reduces energy use by nearly 75 percent and eliminates more than 300,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions every year.
Less visible are increases in the use of environmentally friendly building materials and nontoxic cleaning supplies, and a drastic rise in recycling efforts within the park. “The Climate Friendly Parks initiative allowed us to address environmental management and climate change while identifying priority areas for our environmental management system,” says Zion superintendent Jock Whitworth. “Now we have a better idea of the impacts of climate change on the park’s natural and cultural resources, and we can identify possible solutions.”
Change is coming to our national parks, that much is clear. Exactly what that change will look like and how park staffs, park visitors, and the parks themselves will adapt to this new reality is not as clear. But as Apostle Island superintendent Bob Krumenaker points out, “We in the National Park Service are in the perpetuity business. Whatever changes are coming in the climate, our parks will still be here. In the face of global climate change, our parks may take on even greater importance as some of the most pristine, untouched, and ecologically significant places left on the planet.”
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government.
