Written by: Staff
Posted: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
The nation’s leading voice
for the national parks, the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association
(NPCA), announced it is launching a new website, Do Your Part
for Climate Friendly Parks, which empowers national park visitors to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and helps national parks nationwide become
leaders in combating global warming.
“The 300 million people who visit
America’s national parks annually could be a tremendous force in combating
global warming,” said NPCA Clean Air and Climate Programs Director Mark
Wenzler. “We are giving park visitors a tool to make a difference by cutting
global warming pollution and helping to protect the national parks they love.”
Developed
in concert with the Park Service’s Climate Friendly Parks program, the website,
http://www.doyourpartparks.org,
encourages national park visitors to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and
thereby help to protect America’s national parks from the effects of global
warming. Visitors choose from a drop-down list of 15 national parks, create a
personal profile, and pledge to take climate-friendly actions that would then
“benefit” that individual national park.
According
to the website, if only five percent of national park visitors substituted 10
percent of their current electricity use with greener sources of power, they
would save 11 billion lbs. of CO2 per year.
The
15 national parks listed on http://www.doyourpartparks.org are among the
40 parks nationwide that have joined the Park Service’s Climate Friendly Parks
program and committed to taking on-the-ground action to address global warming,
including working to achieve maximum energy efficiency in park buildings and
expanding park shuttle systems. Participating parks featured on the website
include Apostle Islands, Glacier, Yosemite, Zion, Rocky Mountain National Park,
among others.
Rocky
Mountain National Park earned its distinction within the Climate
Friendly Parks Program by completing a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission Inventory,
hosting a Climate Friendly Parks Workshop, and completing an Action Plan to
reduce their greenhouse gases.
In
2007, NPCA published Unnatural Disaster, a report about the
ongoing and forecasted effects of global warming in national parks nationwide,
from increased flooding and fires to the loss of plants and animals. Glaciers
in the national parks of Alaska as well as North Cascades and Mount Rainier
National Parks will continue to disappear; Joshua trees will no longer exist at
Joshua Tree National Park; and a rising sea will drown Everglades National Park
and portions of historic sites such as Colonial National Historical Park, site
of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown. In its report, NPCA
offered recommended actions for federal, state, and local governments, and
individuals, to slow, and in some cases, halt the damage from global warming to
our national parks.
“The Do
Your Part website provides national park visitors with easy-to-follow
opportunities to reduce our personal contributions to global warming and thus,
ensure a healthier park system for our children and grandchildren,” said
Wenzler.
In the spirit of this election year, as candidates local and national are out campaigning and the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Denver end of this month, we decided to check in with busy politicians around our active state to hear how they stay fit and healthy. 
