The Greatest Threat

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• The Greatest Threat

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Alaska North Dakota Commonalities

• Wetlands ponds
• Waterfowl
• Critical Habitat
• Cold Water Fish
• Fish Sticks and other Seafood
• Winters
• Robust Renewable Energy Potential
• Small, innovative, pioneering population
• Warming ground
• Important Senators

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Alaska Waterfowl
Cackling Hatchlings

• Hatch dates have advanced 5 to 10 days since
  1982 in all 5 species studied in Yukon Delta NWR.
• Seal level rise, increased storm frequency and
  intensity and wetland drying will likely cause
  dramatic changes in waterfowl communities.
  -- Julien Fischer,
  Scientist, USFWS

Brandt Geese
Aleutian Cackling Geese
White Front Goose on Nest
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Wind Power

• Wind potential 1.3 trillion kilowatt hours (100
  times the amount of electricity used in ND in
  2000). Redefining Progress 2004

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Conservation Tillage

• Carbon Credits
• Farmers Union enrolled 833,000 acres in North
  Dakota (equivalent of 320,000 tons of carbon).
  Bismarck Tribune 4/07
• 1.50/acre for no till
• 2.50/acre for grass
• 4 to 12/acre for forestry
• Chicago Climate Exchange

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Waterfowl -- Scaup

• Population of these diving ducks appears to be
  in peril (Consensus Report 2006 CR).
• Declined from over 7 million (in 1970s) to 3.39
  million (2005) (CR).
• Record low in 2006 -- 3.2 million (Ducks
  Unlimited 2007). 
• 70 breed in western boreal forest fastest rate
  of decline (94,000 birds per year (1978 to
  2005.)) declines reflect breeding season
  events (CR).
• 19 wetland loss in Yukon Flats
  (1985-89 v. 2001-03)
• Where ponds lose 20 or more surface, decline in
  scaup food sources (i.e., amphipods, gastropods
  and chironomid larvae) (Corcoran et. al 2007).

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Hunting and Angling
In 2001 and 2002, sportsmen and women spent more
than 468 million hunting and fishing in North
Dakota. Gross business volume, including direct
and indirect hunting and angling spending, was 1
billion, supporting than 13,000 jobs. National
Wildlife Federation
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Existing Impacts in North Dakota

• Across the Northern and Central Great Plains,
  temperatures have risen more than 2o F in the
  past century Over the last 100 years, annual
  precipitation has decreased by 10 in North
  Dakota. (National Assessment Synthesis Team
  2000/2004)
• Temperatures in 2006, 3.94o warmer than 30-year
  benchmark
• December 2006 February 2007 8.94o F warmer
  than baseline in Fargo. (Fargo Forum 4/07)

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Existing Impacts in North Dakota
There was a dramatic warming of the ground
sometime after the Industrial Revolution.. But
its in the last decade or two that temperatures
have increased at the greatest rate. Dr. Will
Gosnold of University of North Dakota , analyzed
952 boreholes
Dr. Gosnald and Shannon Heine recording readings
at one of the 952 boreholes sites
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Future Impacts in North Dakota

• Dr. Andrei Kirilenko UND professor, study
• Region could suffer from
• Increase in drought
• The introduction of new, invasive species that
  could harm crop yields
• Reduction in insect species that are integral to
  ecosystem

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Carbon Sequestration

• Coal Gasification North Dakota to Saskatchewan
• 10 million/year
• 8,900 tons/day piped
• Other projects being explored
• Bismarck Tribune 4/07

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What We Can Do
Government Actions
Senator Byron Dorgan

• Energy Efficiency Promotion Act
• Sets aggressive national goals for reducing
  gasoline usage by 20 percent by 2017 35 percent
  by 2025 and 45 percent by 2030.
• Expedites New Energy Efficiency Standards for
  Appliances
• Promotes Advanced Lighting Technologies
• Promotes Federal Leadership in Energy Efficiency
  and Renewable Energy
• Federal and state fleets of civilian vehicles are
  required to reduce petroleum consumption by 30
  percent by 2016.
• Efficiency in buildings,efficiency in
  appliances,
• greater efficiency in automobiles by battery
  
• technology and electric drive vehicles all of
  this
• I think will be very helpful to our country and
• especially to North Dakota.

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Be Heard
Global Warming Our future is at risk. Please
Act Now
Be Heard Write Your
Montana Senators

• Alaska Conservation Solutions http//www.alaskacon
  servationsolutions.com
• Ducks Unlimited at http//www.ducks.org/states/21/
  index.html
• North Dakota Farmers Union http//www.ndfu.org/
• Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
  http//www.npwrc.usgs.gov/
• Plains CO2ReductionPartnership http//www.undeerc.
  org/PCOR/default.asp
• US Department of Energy North Dakota
  http//www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/projectdatab
  ase/stateprofiles/2004/North_Dakota.html

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Dall Sheep
were going to have declining Dall sheep. Were
losing their habitat Dr. John Morton - Kenai
National Wildlife Refuge

• Dall sheep live exclusively in alpine tundra
• Due to warmer temperatures, the treeline in
  the Kenai
  Mountains has risen at a rate of
  about 1 meter/year over the past 50 years.

Photo Tim Craig, Wildlife Biologist BLM
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Muskoxen

• Population in northern Alaska and Canada declined
  from approximately 700 to 400 (Pat Reynolds FWS
  2007).
• Risk Factors
• Icing events
• Lower calf production
• Deeper snow
• Not highly mobile
• Increase in disease e.g. nematode
  lungworm (able to complete life
  cycle in 1 years vs. 2
  years) (Kutz et. al, 2004)

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Brown Bears

• Factors of Concern
• Diet Impairment fish and berries (Kenai Brown
  Bears fish 90 of diet vs. black bears 10)
• Hibernation disturbances for reproducing females
  (Jan-May)
• 2 months to implant
• Cub growth
• Flooding of dens (Sean Farley ADFG 2007).

• Reduction in productivity and survival rates
  followed salmon decline in Kuskokwim
  (additional research underway) (Steve Kovach FWS
  2007).

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Polar Bear in Peril

• Largest land or ice predator on earth. Males
  weigh more than 1200 lbs, 12 ft. long and 50 in.
  necks.
• Born in snow dens, weighing about a pound and
  half
• Most mobile of all quadrupeds some in excess of
  600,00 km2
• Feed almost entirely on 2 species of ice seals
  ringed (90) and bearded
• Evolved between 80,000 (fossil record) and
  200,000 (molecular genetics) years ago (Steve
  Amstrup, 2007).

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Statement of Conscience

• We as Unitarian Universalists are called to
  join with others to halt practices that fuel
  global warming/climate change to instigate
  sustainable alternatives and to mitigate the
  impending effects of global warming/climate
  change with just and ethical responses.

ANTHC photo
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Extra Pictures