America’s Best Idea in Peril: Climate Change & the Future of Our National Parks

National parks are bellwethers of climate change, indicating a much more widespread problem. The ecological integrity of almost every unit of the National Park System has been in some way eroded by human-caused climate change, and in the coming decades, further widespread system degradation is expected. As temperatures keep going up and precipitation continues to become more intense and unpredictable, “America’s Best Idea” is being eroded away.

For nearly a decade, Congressman Mike Quigley (IL-05) has led delegations of members of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) of the U.S. House of Representatives to national parks throughout the United States as a way to hear firsthand from the National Park Service how the National Park System is responding to climate change, and see those climate impacts for themselves. 

This report from SEEC Institute and The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks places the experiences of these Members of Congress within the context of published research to develop a complete picture of the different ways the changing climate is affecting our national parks, pulling from the expertise of retired National Park Service superintendents, scientists, and administrators.

In addition to describing in detail how climate change is impacting specific parks, this report proposes solutions. Download the report to learn more.

Download the Report

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