Climate change seen hurting national parks

America's beauty spots of Yosemite National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area won't escape the consequences of global warming over the next decades, according to a report released Tuesday by a national environmental group and a Colorado climate coalition.

Rising waters of the Pacific Ocean, due to melting glaciers and other events caused by the warming atmosphere and oceans, could inundate and erode coastal parks. That includes 59 miles of Golden Gate National Recreation Area beaches such as Ocean, Baker, Muir and Stinson.

Records already show that the Western United States is warming twice as fast as the rest of the country. And based on widely accepted computer models, national parks in the West and Southwest face climate disruptions leading to prolonged drought, severe wildfires and melting snow, the report said.

from the San Francisco Chronicle

download the National Resource Defense Council's report