As many of you know, we're in an urgent battle to protect wildlife in the face of global warming. Many of you have taken action, but we need your help to spread the word and bring greater awareness to strong legislation that can really have an impact.

National Wildlife Federation’s Ranger Rick is mobilizing supporters with his new web video located on the recently launched Climate Action Center.

Help Ranger Rick spread the word!

Early this June, a historic bipartisan bill is expected to come to a vote in the U.S. Senate. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act would be the biggest step ever taken to reduce global warming pollution. It will also provide dedicated funding to help protect and restore America's natural resources that are being affected by global warming.

We need wildlife champions like you to continue to take action and tell your friends and family to speak up in support of this important legislation.

Please check out these simple tools that make a big difference:
www.nwf.org/climateaction

See Ranger Rick's video (middle button) after a short welcome from National Wildlife Federation’s Senior Director of Congressional and Federal Affairs, Adam Kolton.
Check back and stay updated! Thank you for your support in protecting our natural resources and our planet.

Dr. James Hansen, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the world’s leading climatologists, has written a persuasive article on the effects of climate change on wildlife in "2008-2009 State of the Wild, A Global Portrait of Wildlife, Wildlands, and Oceans" (Wildlife Conservation Society, published by Island Press)

Here’s how Dr. Hansen begins:

Animals are on the run. Plants are migrating too. I wrote those words in 2006 to draw attention to the fact that climate change was already underway. People do not notice climate change because it is masked by day-to-day weather fluctuations, and we reside in comfortable homes. Animals and plants, on the other hand, can survive only within certain climatic conditions, which are now changing. The National Arbor Day Foundation had to redraw its maps for the zones in which tree species can survive, and animals are shifting to new habitats as well. Are these gradual changes in the wild consistent with dramatic scientific assessments of a crystallizing planetary emergency? Unfortunately, yes. Present examples only hint at the scale of the planetary emergency that climate studies reveal with increasing clarity.

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An outbreak of mountain pine beetles in British Columbia is doing so much damage that by 2020, the forest is expected to release more carbon dioxide than it absorbs. Beetle outbreaks have affected 33 million acres of lodgepole pines in British Columbia and have killed huge swaths of pines in the western U.S.

The spread of these beetles was once controlled by colder and longer winters. Now, warmer winters can mean these beetles thrive, with damaging results.

As trees killed by the beetles start to decompose, they release carbon into the atmosphere, potentially exacerbating the global warming that contributed to the outbreak in the first place.

Read the USA Today Article.

As part of my Good Neighbor pledge, my family bought a Toyota Prius car. This car’s hybrid technology allows us to reduce our gas consumption and fuel bill. We also reduce our atmospheric carbon emissions by 700 lbs/year. Our Prius gets 60 mpg in the city and 50 mpg on the highway. It will pay for itself in less than two years.

Our secret to our better than average fuel economy is that my wife has better driving habits than I do. I am working on my driving habits by thinking there is an egg between my foot and the gas pedal.  We also keep the car maintained.

By choosing the most fuel efficient vehicle that meets your needs, you can save $200 - $1,500 in fuel costs each year. You can also improve your fuel economy by driving more efficiently and keeping your car properly maintained.

Check out your own savings and carbon reductions if you own a hybrid or are thinking of getting one.

Dr. Rosina M. Bierbaum, professor and dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, has been selected by the World Bank to co-author and co-direct its prestigious World Development Report 2010. This report will focus on climate change and development.