Jami Westerhold

September 26, 2007

The headlines of newspapers are filled every day with the concerns of global warming and when these articles explain the effects to animals, we often see the friendly face of the polar bear. Though the polar bear stands to be the first mammal in the world to lose its entire habitat to global warming, it is not the only species affected by global climate change. The World Conservation Union estimates that more than one-in-three assessed species is threatened with extinction and that global warming is a damaging factor for nine percent of those species. Most of these designations occurred since 2000 and this suggests that a large group of species—those still awaiting listing—will have global warming as a cause of their decline. For example, this year, ten species of coral were added to the "Red list" for the first time. These coral species are estimated to be in the midst of a thirty-percent decline as a result of human activities, including global warming.

This may all change due to a September 4th settlement between the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The CBD brought suit on behalf of four listed species—elkhorn coral, staghorn coral, smalltooth sawfish, and the green sturgeon— which are threatened by abnormally warm water, disease, and over fishing. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires that a critical habitat be designated for endangered and threatened species within a year after their placement on the endangered species list. After years passed without NMFS allocating a habitat, CBD filed a lawsuit. The parties settled this lawsuit with the NMFS agreeing to protect the "critical habitat."

By agreeing to protect habitat, not just species, the NMFS expanded the leverage of the ESA. Now, the federal government potentially is placed in a situation where it must challenge any threats to the species' habitat and these threats include global warming. With the swelling support acknowledging the existence of global warming, some believe that the increasing evidence that climate change affects endangered species could create additional considerations for proposed carbon-intensive projects. Though mandating consideration of the ESA elements when emitting a greenhouse gas may seem futuristic, with this settlement, it may now be a reality. Andrew Baker, a University of Miami marine biologist specializing in climate change impact on coral, summarized the impact of this case for The Christian Science Monitor by saying "'It's pretty exciting to find that a lowly marine invertebrate might actually someday be the legal catalyst for ruling against greenhouse gas emissions.'"

Citations

Mark Clayton, New Tool to Fight Global Warming: Endangered Species Act?, The Christian Science Monitor (Sept. 7, 2007), available at http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0907/p03s03-usgn.html.

Settlement Provides Protection to Endangered Coral, Sawfish, Naples Daily News, (Sept. 4, 2007), available at http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/sep/04/settlement_provides_protection_endangered_coral_sa/?breaking_news.

Environmental Protection Agency, Climate Change- Health and Environmental Effects, http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/eco_animals.html (last visited Sept. 20, 2007).

National Geographic, Most Endangered Animals of '07 Announced, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/photogalleries/animal-pictures/index.html (last visited Sept. 20, 2007).

Catherine Brahic, Endangered Species List is More Bad News, New Scientist Environment, http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12632-endangered-species-list-is-more-bad-news.html (last visited Sept. 20, 2007).

John C. Toppin, Jr., Where Will All the Fish have Gone?, Climate.org, http://www.climate.org/topics/climate/where-are-the-fish.shtml (last visited Sept. 20, 2007).