Climate change bracketology -- too many losers (and you won't like the winners)

So, March Madness is in the full swing, with three Pennsylvania teams in play: the St. Joe's Hawks, the Pitt Panthers, and the Villanova Wildcats.

"Goodness," you might be thinking. "Why is March Madness a topic for PennFuture's climate change blog?"

So glad you asked. It's due to a great new report by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) titled Mascot Madness: How Climate Change is Hurting School Spirit. 

Florida panther
(photo courtesy of National Park Service)

Here's what we're hearing from our friends at NWF. It turns out the real-life species that serve as mascots for many of America’s college athletic programs are on a losing streak to a new opponent that’s growing in strength: Climate change. 

From familiar species such as bears and bison to exotic ones like lions and tigers, our warmer temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and rising sea levels are already altering habitat in ways that can hurt food supply, range and reproduction. (Are you listening, Bucknell fans? The bison are in trouble.)

But it’s not too late to turn this into a Cinderella story – if we act now to cut industrial carbon pollution. (Tell the Environmental Protection Agency to act now.)

Overall, 40 percent of the mascots in the men’s basketball tournament as detailed in the report are impacted by warming temperatures. Of the four number one seeds in the tourney, three have mascots threatened by climate change.

How about the Pennsylvania mascots represented in March Madness this year? How are they doing so far in our warming world?

The good news is the (St. Joe's) hawks seem to holding their own in a warming climate.

But it's a different and disheartening story for the Pitt Panthers and the 'Nova Wildcats. Large cat species are in trouble in the wild. To quote from the NWF report:

"North America is home to wildcats like the Canada lynx, the ocelot, and the Florida panther. Lack of snow cover, rising sea level, and drought are all affecting these wildcat species and impacting them in a negative way."

The year 2013 tied for the fourth-warmest on record globally, more than a full degree above what was normal in the 20th century. Every single one of the warmest years on record has occurred since 1998.

Really cool local angle: Mollie Simon, the author of the Mascot Madness report for NWF, is a 2013 grad of Villanova. Mollie, a native of Abington, Pa., writes in the report, "As a Villanova alum myself, I know that no 'Nova basketball game would be complete without our favorite Will D. Cat in the stands."

And heaven forbid that Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh accuse us of not giving equal time to the species that actually might benefit from climate change, locally and beyond. So you should put these species at the top of your bracket for climate change winners:

- Ragweed, cause of hay fever (which is not caused by goldenrod, a benign, native species)
- Poison ivy and many vines in our region
- Bark beetles 
- Jellyfish,who are not as harmless as one might suppose, in terms of mucking things up for their fellow sea mates
- Mosquitoes

Oh boy. Now I'm feeling kind of itchy. And sneezy. And sad.

I think I'll go watch some hoops and try to forget about climate change for an hour or two.

Joy Bergey is federal policy director for PennFuture and is based in Philadelphia.