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National Parks Conservation Association Highlights Alarming Effects of Climate Change, Challenges Congress and White House to Take Action

Knoxville, Tenn. - The nation's leading park advocacy group, the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), today released a new report that calls global warming an "unnatural disaster" for national parks in Tennessee and across the country. NPCA is calling on Congress and the Administration to take action now before the centennial of the National Park System in 2016.

"Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of our nations most visited national parks, offering a variety of recreational opportunities, irreplaceable memories for visitors, and economic benefits to East Tennessee and Western North Carolina," said Bart Melton, NPCA's Southeast Program Analyst in Knoxville. "Global warming is a disaster in slow motion-a crisis that without immediate action will result in dramatic changes in our environment over time. We must act now to cut greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of global warming on our national parks."

NPCA's new report, Unnatural Disaster: Global Warming and Our National Parks, warns that if Congress and the Administration do not take action now to slow or halt global climate change, Great Smoky Mountains National Park will see more "code red" days as a result of increasing ozone pollution, which threatens the health of visitors. Warmer streams could diminish native trout populations. Droughts, stronger floods and more intense storms will intensify the risk of landslides near main access roads outside the park. Additionally, the report shows that significant park species, like Fraser fir trees could eventually disappear. Climate change may also make it harder for trees to deal with such stresses as acid rain and invasive pests such as the wooly adelgid, which are already decimating regional forests.

"Global warming is a hazard to our national parks, and will cause irreversible damage if Congress and the Administration don't put the brakes on dirty coal-fired power plants and other polluters now," said NPCA President Tom Kiernan. But instead of curbing the pollutants that contribute to global warming, the Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed a rule change to allow coal-fired power plants to emit more pollution into our national parks. NPCA is urging the agency to abandon the proposal.

NPCA recommends that state and federal governments encourage investment in clean energy like solar power and retire old, dirty coal-fired power plants. Coal plants that continue to operate should be required to significantly reduce their carbon dioxide emissions with low and no-carbon technologies. Furthermore, Congress and the Administration should provide adequate funding to enable the National Park Service to keep on top of basic maintenance and plan for storm emergencies.

"Congress and the Administration should take action now to preserve our national heritage," Kiernan added. "We have less than 10 years until the 100th birthday of our National Park System-now is the time for action. Taking care of our national parks should be a national priority."

NPCA's report is available online at www.npca.org/globalwarming.