Making a flap about climate change

PennFuture is all a-twitter about a disturbing but important new report issued yesterday by the National Wildlife Federation. (Full disclosure: PennFuture is NWF's affiliate in Pennsylvania. We think they're great, but frankly we'd think that even if we weren't all in the family.)

Shifting Skies: Migratory Birds in a Warming World details how our changing climate could seriously hurt some of most beloved bird populations, even driving some to extinction if we don't act soon -- no, make that immediately -- to curb carbon pollution.

Although some of our fellow citizens are still inexplicably in denial about climate change, there are no deniers in the natural world of Penn's Woods.

Ed Perry, NWF's boots-on-the-ground guy in Pennsylvania, says: "Already, wildlife is feeling the effect of our warming world, and everything from smallmouth bass, to brook trout, to ruffed grouse are being harmed by climate change."  Ed has been hunting and fishing in Pennsylvania for decades, so he knows what he's talking about. And his feathers, like mine, are plenty ruffled by our nation's refusal to own up to our responsibility to cut carbon pollution.

I've been a lifelong birder, and I hate to think what our actions are doing to our native avian populations. Like the out-of-doors? Enjoy the sweet sound of birdsong? Then please do read the report -- for the birds. Then contact your members of Congress and President Obama and tell them you're watching them with eagle eyes to make sure they act soon to cut carbon.