Climate Change: Taking Action, Building Hope

Great Bay Estuary, where the Conservancy, federal, state, and local partners have invested millions for conservation, is one of many places threatened by sea-level rise. Photo © Jerry & Marcy Monkman

Let’s go back, for a minute, to early January. There wasn’t a speck of snow on the ground and temperatures were pushing into the 60s.

The weather was so warm and so strange, it was downright creepy. There were joggers in shorts. T-shirts were being worn by ordinary people, not just defiant teenagers. Spring was in the air … and climate change was suddenly on everyone’s lips. It was the topic everywhere: at the store, at the dump, at the post office. It was in the newspaper and on the radio. It was the warmest December on record, State Climatologist David Brown told the press, part of a warming trend linked to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Add to this the back story: Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, was being shown in communities across the state. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued dire warnings. Presidential candidates were discussing the issue at every stop. Even President Bush mentioned it during his state-of-the-Union speech.

And while climate change is suddenly the hot topic, it has, of course, been happening gradually for more than a century. And the implications for New Hampshire and the rest of the world are a far cry from an occasional shorts and T-shirt day in late-December.

Climate change poses one of the greatest threats to people and nature. It is already changing our everyday lives and the places we live, and will have a dramatic and lasting impact on plants, animals, people, economies and our way of life.

Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns are drastically shifting the face of our planet, forcing plant and animal species to migrate towards polar regions and up mountain slopes to new, cooler areas in order to survive. Many species and ecosystems, such as frogs in Latin America and coral reefs around the world, are being driven to extinction.

Broad Impacts in New Hampshire

Here in New Hampshire, climate change “will broadly affect every species and habitat of concern in New Hampshire,” according to the state’s recently completed Wildlife Action Plan. Some species, such as rare alpine butterflies, already have limited habitat and have few opportunities to move uphill or north. Native brook trout are hanging on in many marginal streams; given higher stream temperatures, they may blink out one-by-one, starting in less suitable habitats. Other species at the southern edge of their range face consequences, like snowshoe hare and moose.

Great Bay Estuary is one of many places where The Nature Conservancy, federal, state and local governments and other organizations have invested millions of dollars to protect important biodiversity. Rising sea levels threaten the health of those salt marshes, along with other species that TNC and others have been trying to restore, like oysters and eel grass.

TNC Climate Change Initiative

Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's Climate Change Initiative

Addressing climate change is essential to fulfilling the Conservancy’s mission. We have a unique stake in the problem, and are uniquely positioned to make a difference. Our non-confrontational, science-based approach, coupled with our on-the-ground work, places us in a position to bring stakeholders together to take meaningful actions to reduce these threats.

The Nature Conservancy is tackling climate change in three main ways:

1. Mobilizing governments to enact legislation that addresses the causes of climate change.

We collaborate with countries and international partners to build a framework for climate change that addresses the climate impacts of deforestation, which contributes roughly 25 percent of carbon emissions annually.

At both state and federal levels, we support cost-effective, mandatory policies that help reduce heat-trapping emissions from fossil fuel consumption, deforestation and other damage to natural landscapes.

In New Hampshire and the region, the Conservancy is actively encouraging one of the United States’ most promising regional programs to address climate change — the Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). New Hampshire and eight other states have agreed to proceed with the adoption of a mandatory reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from power generation facilities. This market-based system to achieve the emission reductions can demonstrate that emissions can be capped without hurting economic growth.

2. Working to create global incentives to reduce deforestation emissions through policy and partnerships.

We engage governments, businesses and other institutions to develop partnerships and policies that reward countries for preserving their forests, grasslands and other habitats.

We also maintain several climate action projects in which we are measuring carbon storage and facilitating the sale of carbon “credits” to governments and businesses looking to offset their carbon emissions.

3. Analyzing impacts of global warming and seeking innovative conservation solutions that will enable natural areas to cope with and adapt to what may be unavoidable effects of climate change.

The Conservancy recognizes that climate change is already changing the places we know and cherish — and more change is coming. That is why we are analyzing the likely impacts of climate change on plants, animals and natural communities. With this information, we can develop tools and strategies to lessen these harmful impacts, as well as prioritize which new places we should conserve. Strategies developed at one project site can be applied at places around the world.

Taking action now can avert the extreme impacts of climate change and can have positive effects on people’s everyday lives. It is our responsibility to future generations and to ourselves.

Feeling the Heat:

• The five hottest years on record have all occurred since 1997 and the 10 hottest since 1990. Scientists predict that this trend will continue, with temperatures rising every decade.
• Following the current high-emissions scenario, ocean temperatures off New Hampshire’s coast could rise 8°F, and sea-levels could rise between 8 and 33 inches.
• The average global temperature has increased by about 1°F over the last 30 years and about 1.4°F over the last century. This rate is faster than in any other period over the last 1,000 years. That means that Manchester now has the climate that Boston had a few decades ago.
• If we follow our current trend of high greenhouse gas emissions, the typical New Hampshire summer could feel like the current summer climate of North Carolina by the end of this century.