While public debate in the U.S. swirls over the best and quickest course of action to reduce carbon emissions, another debate on global warming is quietly unfolding in anonymous government offices across the country: how to manage wildlife and ecosystems that are certain to be greatly impacted by the forces of climate change already underway. The daunting challenges are broadly spelled out in this 32-page strategic plan put forth in December by the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service (which FWS is careful to label an "internal discussion draft"). As this passage makes clear, there is obvious concern that the "unprecendented scope and magnitude" of climate change may overwhelm the agency's best efforts:
In the history of wildlife conservation, the Service and the larger conservation community have never experienced a challenge that is so ubiquitous across the landscape. Our existing conservation infrastructure will be pressed to the limit "” quite likely ...
