One week after the release of Ken Burns’ 12-hour documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, the Natural Resources Defense Council published a sobering report on the 25 most endangered national parks. Great Smoky Mountains National Park continues to be one of the most endangered parks in the country, primarily due to air pollution and the impacts of climate change. New to the list of endangered parks are Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Assateague Island National Seashore—both are threatened by the effects of rising sea levels and climate change.
The report offers 32 recommendations for saving America’s 331 parks. They include hastening the development and deployment of clean technologies and urging National Park Service officials to speak out publicly about how climate change and its impacts threaten national parks and the broader ecosystems on which they depend.
Read the full report here.
