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February 02, 2016 11:20 AM UTC

Rocky Mountain Whistle Pigs and Reluctant Politicians

  • 1 Comments
  • by: PKolbenschlag

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

It seems unlikely that any yellow-bellied “whistle pig” or other Rocky Mountain variant of the ground hog will be out today to cast a shadow. But I still think Colorado is in for a few more weeks of winter.  It’s going to take that long for the snow to melt in town in some places, with what we have already, and its only Ground Hogs’ Day.  If El Niño keeps up, there could be a huge snowpack in the high country come spring.

It is one of those counter-intuitive ideas that the combination of the cyclical weather pattern that drives moisture from the Pacific like a spigot across the West and climate change could be super-charging the storms, especially frozen ones.

The oceans are warming at a fast rate, capturing the vast majority of the globe’s increasing temperature over the past decades.

But it feels like winter, regardless of climate change or prognosticating rodents.

Animals do tell us something though, whether you embrace this odd relic in celebration of Imbolc or not. Including small mammals. And buried in snow or not, the science is becoming clear that climate change is a threat to many species, small and large.

On the occasion of Ground Hogs Day, the National Wildlife Federation has released a new report: “Big Climate Challenges Facing Small Mammals.”

Among the examples of animals in trouble from the impacts of climate change, the Canada lynx, pine martens, pikas, and snowshoe hare are all important species among Colorado’s healthy wildlife panoply.

“We know what’s causing climate change and we know the solutions. What we need now is national and local leadership to make smart energy choices and wise investments in protecting our wildlife and natural resources,” the report concludes.

The Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado sit in a transitional zone, highly susceptible to impacts from human-driven climate change. Climate change is already disrupting weather, driving insect infestations and wildfire, changing our forests, bringing drought and torrential downpours…

 

Natural systems here are sensitive, and more than 100 years of recorded settlers’ history gives us something of a baseline. We can see this change happening.

However, we are not only observers. We are participants. Our actions are driving climate change. And we can also choose to act differently. To challenge ourselves to do more to reduce our carbon footprint, individually and collectively, through incentive and mandate, as moral obligation and political necessity.

A first and obvious step is to support policy that moves us in a new direction. This could be a carbon pricing scheme, like the fee and dividend revenue-neutral solution proposed by the Citizens Climate Lobby.

And it is also found in federal actions like the Clean Power Plan, which will reduce carbon pollution from power plants over the coming decade.

The Clean Power Plan is policy that works for Colorado. It will further encourage our transition to clean energy and power, as well as provide opportunity to highlight Colorado innovation and leadership. It’s also likely to be upheld by the courts despite the best efforts of Cynthia Coffman and the usual cadre of Republican Attorneys General, or that Colorado’s U.S. Senators and House delegation are divided on the regulations.

For his part Gov. Hickenlooper did not feel threatened by the Clean Power Plan, but instead pledged to honor it. The governor’s leadership took some courage, as does the senator’s. This contrasts with other of Colorado’s elected officials, who followed Coffman’s lead and bunkered down to defend the status quo. Which gets us back to the yellow-bellied marmot.

Our variant of the ground hog, the marmot, is the fat, somewhat slothful creature known for lazing on sunny rocks in the mountains. And unlike some of the small mammals highlighted in the National Wildlife Federation report, the marmot may be growing fatter and more plentiful due to climate change, at least for the time being. A shorter hibernation season means more time to eat, laze about, and breed. 

Of course a spiking population might not be good for the marmot in the long run. Like politicians that get too used to an easy meal or special interest funding, they may become too lazy to notice the changing season: When change is afoot it is not wise to get too cozy with the way things are, or caught out unaware.

Because change happens. Healthy systems adjust to change, but dysfunctional systems do as well. The question becomes how change impacts those systems, how catastrophic, how evolutionary, how disruptive, how smooth.

One article on the effects of climate change on the yellow-bellied marmot, posted by the National Association of Science Writers, concludes

Implications.

The scientists’ marmots are quickly and dramatically changing their growth patterns, in response to a longer developmental season. Ecological response to global warming can clearly be quite pronounced within a short time, at least with species which reproduce quickly.

These changes probably aren’t permanent. The marmots would likely return to historical growth patterns if the climate were to return to its previous state; however, current scientific opinion is that the planet will continue its warming trend, at least if carbon emissions continue to increase.

Studies such as these are very useful for politicians, conservationists, and land management scientists who need to direct resources in accordance with ecological needs.

A take-home finding here is that ecological response to global warming may be fast and pronounced. Plans of action need to be developed and implemented now. Overpowering changes may easily present themselves in a relatively short period of time

The Clean Power Plan is such a ‘plan of action,’ as are the Paris accords. But these are just a start. They are decisive but early steps toward ending our fossil fuel addiction, toward a new energy future. Now it is up to all of us to keep pushing for these changes.

We can’t let politicians stick their heads back in the hole. Winter may be around for a while yet, but transformation is here now.

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One thought on “Rocky Mountain Whistle Pigs and Reluctant Politicians”

  1. Respect for science and informed wilderness management policies can mitigate climate change.You've made a good case in this diary for how climate change affects and is affected by small mammals such as the marmot. I remember how excited I was, as a city kid,to see marmots, picas, and prairie dogs  on our family trips to the national parks. I wonder how much all  those species are going to change irrevocably now.

    As we've seen through the disaster of the Malheur Refuge occupation, progress can also be undone by disregarding science and characterizing all wilderness policies and regulation as Federal overreach.

    The carp invasion at Malheur,held at bay for years, is in the process of being undone by the ignorant yahoos now occupying it for murky political screeds. Maybe the marmot, responding to climate change, will change its environment by consuming plant and insect species excessively, unbalancing the local ecology in ways we can't see yet.

    Thanks for the plug for Citizen's Climate Lobby. That's the organization I work with.

     

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