Egads! The stupid, it burns like magnesium. And I thought the cannibal lobsters were bad. This is what I call parasitic messaging, they are hoping they will get some sort of mention in March Madness basketball related stories. – Anthony
From the NWF Media Center: With the annual NCAA college basketball tournaments set to begin, a new National Wildlife Federation report details how the climate crisis is hurting the real-life species that are mascots for many of America’s college athletic programs. Climate change is the most serious environmental threat today to many animals and plants and urgent action is needed at all levels, according to Mascot Madness: How Climate Change is Hurting School Spirit.
“We have a new version of ‘March Madness’: Extreme weather fueled by climate change, deeper droughts, and intensifying wildfires,” said Dr. Doug Inkley, senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation and lead author of Mascot Madness. “From wolverines to gators, species that have spent countless centuries adapting a home court advantage are now watching the rules of the game changed before their eyes by industrial carbon pollution. If we’re going to turn climate change into a Cinderella story, we need to act now.”
Mascot Madness looks at the best available science on how climate change is impacting many of America’s best-known mascots, from familiar species like bears and bison to exotic cats like lions and tigers. Warmer temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and rising sea levels are altering habitat in ways that can affect animals’ diet, range and behavior:
- Wolverines (U. of Michigan) rely on deep snowpack for building dens to raise their young and may be declared a threatened species as the climate continues to warm.
- Terrapins (U. of Maryland) and Gators (U. of Florida) face reproductive threats. When alligators overheat, more eggs hatch as males. In contrast, terrapins produce more females in hotter temperatures. Imbalances in sex ratios like these can be a threat to sustaining healthy populations.
- The entire range of the critically-endangered red wolf, a real-life inspiration for the North Carolina State Wolfpack, is found at only three feet elevation or less, making them extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels and hurricanes.
- Buckeyes (Ohio State) are threatened by stronger storms, deeper droughts, and more intense heat waves fueled by climate change and are being pushed to migrate north – into rival territory in Michigan.
“The National Wildlife Federation’s Mascot Madness report is a creative tool for getting past the noise and engaging people about the real-life impacts of climate change. There is no questioning how serious the numbers are on rising sea levels and global temperatures,” said Rep. Donna Edwards (MD-4th). “But it is also important to take that to the next level by conveying the public health impacts and the tragic loss of biodiversity that is an undeniable result of a changing climate.
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Read the report at NWF.org/Mascots and get more National Wildlife Federation news at NWF.org/News.
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Getting past the noise? Scuse ‘me but this ploy IS noise.
I used to work for NWF – unfortunately its current senior leadership is obsessed with climate change. Sadly it’s no longer the organization it used to be.
My lament of NWF’s direction http://conservefewell.org/?p=104
Hmmm.
Why not just name team mascots after creatures we WANT to go extinct, such as fleas, ticks, cockroaches, parasitic worms etc. Then everyone will be happy.
Recent refugee from Michigan. Job thing, not global warming. But I do recall that in 2004 there was a single (lost?) Wolverine that was found in Michigan, the first seen in something near 200 years. The thing died in 2010, no doubt due to global warming. Or an Ohio State fan, tough to tell.
You couldn’t make this s*#t up if you sat around stoned for a week and tried to think of the most absurd nonsense your addled mind could imagine. The truth is stranger than fiction, but this brand of fiction is the strangest stuff of all.
I realise that I’m a bit on the slow side but, If elevation is height above mean sea level how will the red wolf recognize a lift in sea level.
What we all ought to be concerned about is the effect of global warming on Australia’s drop bears!
Next they’ll be pointing out that there are no grizzlies in Memphis. Right around NBA playoff time.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
I hope rising sea levels and increased ‘acidification’ don’t affect my beloved Crimson Tide!
I went to the University of Maryland. I don’t recall any enthusiasm for the Terrapin as a mascot anyway.
Maybe we can get the excess of gator males to mate with the extra terrapin females to beget a new species -Terragators!!! What a ferocious mascot that would make.
I for one would like to see and end to the pandering bears of the Leftist team. I think they were a hockey team. All the climate sensitivities made them scratch their backsides with their hockey sticks, but all they got was s…
“When alligators overheat, more eggs hatch as males. In contrast, terrapins produce more females in hotter temperatures.”
Warmth being worse for gators is why they are prevalent in Alaska and unknown in Florida { / sarcasm off }. Global warming (mostly high latitude non-equatorial warming back when it was happening) would tend to expand, not decrease, gator range and populations overall, but activists can’t even have the shred of honesty to admit that. They can’t even be honest about the name either, calling their global warming predictions “climate change” to hide that global cooling mismatches it.
Love all the great comedy here… great way to finish off a very busy day. Especially enjoyed Steve in SC says: March 11, 2014 at 3:04 pm.
Gonna have to remember that one, Im sure I’ll have ample opportunity to use that line in the not to distant future.
Geology Jim, from personal experience, hoyas or waxplants make great mascots:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoya
Sadly, my High School mascot was a victim of climate change. Alas, “Sabercats” and other sabre-tooth tigers are no more.
It was in the news that some billionaire socialist (other than Soros) is dangling huge amounts of cash in front of the democrats/academics recently to inflame the climate wars, hence the recent uptick in nonsense as they scramble & scrounge for crumbs.
Another creature that survived the Medieval Warm Period was off course the Human Being
This should be enough to warrant classification of the National Wildlife Federation as a predatory species.
The Jayhawkers were anti-slavery settlers to the Kansas Territory–we seem to be alive and well, thank you very much. On the other hand, losing the star forward to a back injury doesn’t bode well for tournament hopes.
Maybe the falcons are threatened, but the cuckoos are thriving at the NWF.
There are lots of names waiting in the wings, ready for use as school mascots. so GO YOU MIGHTY COCKROACHES! FIGHT ON YOU FIGHTING JELLYFISH! SUCK THEIR BLOOD MOSQUITOES! ON TO VIC-TOE-REEEEEE!
Shows a serious lack of knowledge about Gator nesting behavior. Momma gator regulates the temperature through her nest upkeep skills. Sheesh.
UC Santa Cruz is the Banana Slugs – wonder what their fate is with all this (brrr) AGW?
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Probably one of those migrating Buckeye trees stepped on it.
(Was Treebeard a Buckeye?)
The danger is apparently especially high if the mascot is a lobster!
If only energy were as cheap and plentiful as idiocractic ideas from AGW kooks and rent seekers…………