More than 84 million acres make up the 423 national parks in the United States. But these forestsgrasslands, mountain ranges, hiking trails, and more are at risk because the climate crisis will not allow us to have nice things.
The National Park Service, created in 1916 to help preserve the best of our landscapes, last year released a new guide for park managerswhich warned that a changing climate meant that the service would now have to pick and choose what to save and to plan for the worst-case climate scenarios.
“The scope, pace, and magnitude of climate-related changes will continue to present new challenges for the National Park Service, with an accompanying reality that it will not be possible to safeguard all park resources, processes, assets, and values in their current form or context over the long term, ”the guide explains.
With that in mind, here’s a list of what we stand to lose if we do not mitigate our changing climate.