The Nature Conservancy in Ohio

What Ohio Can Expect

Climate change will alter landscapes and seascapes as we know them, including the Conservancy’s own conservation portfolio. Climate change is already affecting fundamental conditions for biodiversity conservation in Ohio. Among the changes scientists believe may occur:

• An increase in summer drought stress to river and lake habitats
• A decrease in the number of cool water fish species
• A drop in lake and river levels.
• Wetlands drying up, due to decreased surface water recharge
• A shift of hardwoods out of southern Ohio

What You Can Do

Travel light. Walk or bike instead of driving a car. Cars and trucks run on fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you’ll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

See the light. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. These energy-efficient bulbs help fight climate change because they reduce the amount of fossil fuels that utilities burn. You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent, over the life of the bulb.

Plant native trees. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and use it as their energy source, producing oxygen for us to breathe. A tree in the temperate zone — found between the tropics and the polar circles—can remove and store 700 to 7,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime. A tree that shades a house can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

Act globally, eat locally. If you shop at a supermarket, the food you buy may travel in a plane from the other side of the world, burning fossil fuels the entire trip. Shop at a local farmers’ markets and you will find fresh and healthy food, and help save our climate.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its most recent report, highlighting and adding an exclamation point to the news that most conservation scientists accepted long ago: the Earth’s climate is changing, and it’s our own fault.

Specifically, the IPCC – a group of scientists convened by the United Nations – reported unequivocally the following findings:

• Human activities have increased greenhouse gases to their highest level in the atmosphere in 650,000 years, outweighing all other factors in causing global warming;
• Global temperatures have risen to their warmest level in 500 to 1,000 years;
• Climate change is causing more extreme weather events, such as severe storms and droughts; and
• Climate change threatens ecosystems and human-well being.

That last point, that climate change poses one of the greatest threats to people and nature, is a reality that has worried The Nature Conservancy for many years.

“After more than five decades of using our science-driven selection process to protect some of the world’s finest plant and animal habitat, the Conservancy now faces the knowledge that the places we’ve saved may no longer harbor the species they were designed to protect,” explains Denise Franz King, director of government relations for the Conservancy in Ohio.

The Conservancy is fighting back. With the help of our partners and using the best available science, we’re tackling climate change in three ways:

• We are mobilizing governments to enact legislation that addresses the causes of climate change.
• We work to create global incentives to reduce deforestation emissions through policy and partnerships.
• We analyze the impacts of global warming and seek innovative conservation solutions that will enable natural areas to cope with and adapt to what may be unavoidable effects of climate change.

In addition to efforts to establish U.S. and international climate change policies, the Conservancy is addressing climate change at more than 20 sites in 10 countries. By taking action now we 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.

WHAT'S YOUR CLIMATE IMPACT?