[MCN] Sage grouse is ally in preventing dangerous climate change

[Lance Olsen]

First, it's become well-established that 75-80% 
of fossil fuels must stay in the ground if 
humanity and the rest of life on earth (including 
humans) has a chance of avoiding worst-case 
scenarios for climate change. If put into policy 
now urged not only by environmentalists but also 
by an increasing number of entities in the 
business world, keeping that much coal, oil, and 
gas in the ground would mean a lot of money lost 
by the fossil fuel companies and their 
shareholders. A recent analysis by the Economist 
Intelligence Unit 
<<http://www.economistinsights.com/sites/default/files/The%20cost%20of%20inaction.pdf>>
confirms that coal, oil, and gas companies will 
lose mountains of money if the fuels stay 
sequestered in the ground, but goes on to report 
that the losses to the economy as a whole will be 
far greater if the fuels are burned.

Second, the fossil fuel industry is now putting 
efforts into warning that Endangered Species Act 
protection for the sage grouse will stop the 
industry from drilling on much of the wild 
grouse's range. What the industry is effectively 
saying is that protection of the grouse would 
effectively keep a lot of fuel in the ground, 
where it could not damage the environment and the 
economy.

It turns out then that, while the best protection 
for the grouse may be a threat to coal, oil, and 
gas, that same protection is also protection not 
only for the grouse but also for the broader 
economy as a whole.

Similar results apply to other animals, and to 
other places including the Blackfeet sacred lands 
just south of Glacier National Park. It is 
important that the elites recognize that such 
protection is not a case of choosing between the 
environment and the economy, but that instead it 
is a protection against endangering environment 
and the economy at the same time.


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"Climate change is not a new topic in biologyŠ 
Observations of range shifts in parallel with 
climate change Š date back to the mid-1700s."

"A surprising result is the high proportion of 
species responding to recent, relatively mild 
climate change (global average warming of 0.6C). 
The proportion of wild species impacted by 
climate change was estimated at 41% of all 
species (655 of 1598)."

Parmesan, Camille. Ecological and Evolutionary 
Responses to Recent Climate Change. The Annual 
Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 
2006. 37:637-69. First published online as a 
Review in Advance on August 24, 2006

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