Addressing the Climate Crisis

The climate crisis is real, and it is deadly serious. WildEarth Guardians' Climate & Energy program is working to bring about the practical solutions. Despite a big bucks disinformation campaign by a few fossil fuel companies, reasonable people no longer dispute that humans are responsible for the high rate of greenhouse gas emission that is heating up the planet.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the authoritative body on the matter, released its fourth assessment that confirmed beyond debate that humans are causing climate change and that society needs to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. 

The Panel said:

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.

The West is heating up particularly rapidly. The damage this is causing and could continue to cause is widespread and severe and includes:  

• Increased droughts and forest fires and fostering infestations by pests in forests;
• Disruption of rain and snow patterns that result in natural systems and people having less water available at critical times;
• Changes in the number, distribution and types of wildlife species
• Loss of wildlife habitat
• Viruses and diseases spreading to new areas or at new times, such as West Nile Virus; and
• Increased pressure on fossil fuels production and food production.

The solution is simple: emit less greenhouse gases; allow native ecosystems to absorb more greenhouse gases and ensure that native ecosystems are strong enough to withstand the increased temperatures that will result from past emissions.

WildEarth Guardians is working to bring this about. We are promoting clean, renewable energy like wind and solar and increased energy efficiency so that the demand for fossil fuels and their greenhouse gases are reduced.

We are also fighting fossil fuels on a variety of fronts. WildEarth Guardians’ Wildlife and Wild Places programs are working to ensure that the West's natural places are strong enough to withstand the climate change that is already happening due to past emissions of greenhouse gases.