美國國會調查機構所公佈的最新報告指出，有近30%的國土是受聯邦機構管理，包括6億公畝的土地、15萬平方英里的保護水域，但這些管理機構非但不重視氣候變遷問題，提出的策略計劃中也沒有針對氣候變遷問題提出因應之道。
在對美國參議院所發表的報告中，美國國會總審計局建議農業部、商業部以及內政部長，建立一套整合各機構主要業務內容的方案，用以提供管理人員在面對資源受氣候變遷影響時有可參考的辦法，或是搜集相關資訊的管道。
報告發現，美國土地管理局、林務局、漁業與野生物管理局、美國海洋暨大氣總署，以及國家公園管理局所管理的海岸、海洋、森林、淡水水域、草原以及灌木叢林，都會受到氣候變遷的影響。
專家學者在美國國會總審計局的研討會上也指出，美國的土地和水資源相當容易因為氣候變遷效應而受到破壞，甚至有些已受到影響而產生變化。
這些變化中包括自然界層面，像是乾旱、洪水、冰河融化和海平面上升，以及生物界層面，例如物種分佈區域的轉移、自然現象週期的改變，而在經濟社會層面，則是對觀光業、公共建設、漁業和其他資源造成負面衝擊。
Federal agencies manage almost 30 percent of the land area of the United States - over 600 million acres of land, and more than 150,000 square miles of protected waters - but these agencies have not made climate change a priority, and the agencies' strategic plans do not address climate change, according to a new report by the investigative branch of the U.S. Congress.
In its report to the senators, released Thursday, the GAO recommends that the secretaries of agriculture, commerce, and the interior develop guidance incorporating agencies' best practices, which advises managers on how to address climate change effects on the resources they manage and gather the information needed to do so.
Climate change will affect the coasts and oceans, forests, and fresh waters, as well as grasslands and scrublands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Park Service, the report finds.
According to experts at the GAO workshop, federal land and water resources are vulnerable to a wide range of effects from climate change, some of which are already occurring.
These effects include, physical effects, such as droughts, floods, glacial melting, and sea level rise; biological effects, such as increases in insect and disease infestations, shifts in species distribution, and changes in the timing of natural events; and economic and social effects, such as adverse impacts on tourism, infrastructure, fishing, and other resource uses.
全文及圖片詳見ENS
作者
In my healing journey and learning to attain the breath awareness, I become aware of the reality that all the creatures of the world are breathing the same breath. Take action, here and now. From my physical being to the every corner of this out of balance's planet.
