RMCO's Reports

RMCO has written and released, in partnership with other organizations, several reports detailing the effects of climate disruption on the West and across the country.

Greater Yellowstone in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption. A RMCO-Greater Yellowstone Coalition report, September 27, 2011. The report highlights the particular threats that a changed climate poses to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, parts of six national forests, and more. New climate projections obtained for the report indicate that, under a medium-high emissions rate of heat-trapping gases, summers in Yellowstone NP on average could become slightly hotter than recent summers in Culver City in the Los Angeles area.

Great Lakes National Parks in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption. A RMCO-Natural Resources Defense Council report, July 13, 2011. The report documents the vulnerabilities to human-caused climate change of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Indiana; Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and Isle Royale National Park, Michigan; and Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Wisconsin. New climate projections done for the report show that summers in Indiana Dunes could become as hot as those of Gainesville, Florida, have been, if future emissions of heat-trapping pollution are at medium-high levels.

Acadia National Park in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption. A RMCO-Natural Resources Defense Council report, November 10, 2010. The report details how a climate altered by human activities may affect the first national park east of the Mississippi River. New climate projections done for the report show that before the end of the century Acadia could become as hot as Atlantic City, New Jersey, historically has been.

California's National Parks in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption. A RMCO-Natural Resources Defense Council report, October 2010.The report details how climate disruption could affect ten national parks in California. If we do not limit emissions of heat-trapping gases, before the end of the century Yosemite National Park would become hotter than Sacramento historically has been. Temperature increases of this magnitude would have far-reaching impacts on Yosemite, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and Redwood national parks, and more of California's most special places.

Virginia Special Places in Peril: Jamestown, Chincoteague, and Shenandoah Threatened by Climate Disruption. A RMCO-Natural Resources Defense Council report, September 2010. The report details how Jamestown, the site of the first permanent European settlement in what became the American colonies and the United States, may be lost to rising waters of the James River, pushed higher by rising seas and tidal waters. Likely climate-change Impacts to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and Shenandoah National Park are documented, too.

Special Places at Risk in the Gulf: Impacts of the BP Oil Catastrophe (May 2010) -- see the next page.

Glacier National Park in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption. A RMCO-NRDC profile, April 2010, documenting how an altered climate puts at risk both Glacier National Park's spectacular resources and the tourism -- a mainstay of Montana's economy -- attracted by the park's scenery, wildlife, and other resources. National Parks in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption. A RMCO-Natural Resources Defense Council report, October 2009. This report identifies 25 national parks across the country most threatened by a changing climate and documents 11 different types of risks to our parks that are already underway or could result from emissions of heat-trapping pollution. The report also includes 32 recommendations for actions specific to our national parks to address climate change and its impacts.

National Parks In Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption. A RMCO-NRDC report, October 2009, documenting that climate disruption is the greatest threat ever to America's national parks and identifying 25 parks most at risk. It also recommends actions to protect their parks and their resources and also to reduce the emissions that put them at risk.

Hotter and Drier: The West's Changed Climate. A RMCO-Natural Resources Defense Council report, March 2008. This report documented that the West has gotten hotter at a faster rate than the planet as a whole. Across the 11 states of the American West, temperatures in 2003-2007 were 1.7°F higher than the 20th-century average for the region. By contrast, global temperatures in that five-year period were 1.0°F hotter than the planet's 20th-century average. The report also presents similar data for each of the 11 western states, and documents other ways in which the West's climate is already changing and the impacts of those changes. See also a summary of that report, the news release announcing it, a copy of key figures from the report, and a PowerPoint slide of those figures. The figures and slide may be used freely, so long as credit is given.

Losing Ground: Western National Parks Endangered by Climate Disruption. A RMCO-Natural Resources Defense Council report, July 2006. This report identifies 12 national parks in the western states most vulnerable to a changing climate.

Less Snow, Less Water: Climate Disruption in the West. A RMCO-Clear the Air report, September 2005. This report pulls together evidence of how an altered climate may affect the arid and semi-arid West's scarce snow and water resources. The report includes a new analysis of declines in snowpacks in the Colorado, Columbia, Missouri, and Rio Grande river basins.

All these reports have been widely covered in the news media. For links to particular news articles, see the section of this website on RMCO in the News, where the articles are listed chronologically near the dates of release of the reports.