Sportsmen Want Action on Climate Change

(DesMoines Register)By: Joe Wilkinson

Another day, another half-dozen presidential candidates in Iowa restaurants, town meetings, neighborhood meet-and-greets and down on the farm. The talk is of Iraq, health-care coverage and education funding.

However, if they want to know what's on the mind of someone like me, they need to shift their attention to climate change. It is an issue that hits me where I live.

I'm one of those so-called sportsmen you hear about - white, middle-aged, moderate, likes to hunt and fish. You know, the "original conservationists." I live for the first day of the next hunting season. I like to disappear for the afternoon on an Iowa trout stream. I think I know a thing or two about what's going on with our land, air and water. Climate change means more to me than just some issue of the week. To me, it is the issue of the century.
When I see the presidential candidates out talking to "real Iowans," I wonder why they don't spend more time with folks like me, who want some real leadership on global warming. I wouldn't just tell them Iowa's climate is changing, I'd show them. Come deer hunting with us, but bring your mud boots. The slippery hills used to freeze solid in December.

I'd take them to the Prairie Potholes in northern Iowa, or to DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, where they could see for themselves the decline in wetlands. These places provide critical breeding and stopover habitat for hundreds of thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds, but the projections are dire for how hotter, drier summers will affect these wetlands.
I'd introduce them to friends who work at the local bait and tackle shops, or who sell firearms and hunting supplies in area outdoor stores. I'd remind them that in 2006, more than 436,000 anglers spent more than $313 million in Iowa on our sport. There's also the $296 million that 254,000 hunters spent here. For us, wildlife and habitat mean jobs and a boost to the economy.

Sportsmen have always been on the conservation movement's front line. Our concern over climate change is no different, except that mounting evidence shows it may be irreversible, if we don't act soon. We don't believe we have to choose between economic prosperity and environmental health. We know we can improve the environment and strengthen the economy by investing in renewable-energy technologies that create jobs while reducing global warming.
In the past couple of months, how many stories have you read about wind-energy employers locating in Iowa? And while corn-based ethanol is all the rage now, we want a candidate to look ahead to growing "next generation" biofuels on our rich croplands. Climate change threatens our future. We want political leaders to do more than offer a little lip service.

Fortunately, our own Sen. Tom Harkin has shown his support for sportsmen by stepping up on climate change. He was one of the first to join Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican, in support of their critical new legislation, America's Climate Security Act, a bill that would cut greenhouse-gas emissions while providing important funding for conservation programs.
I hope all the presidential candidates coming through town over the next few weeks will take a lesson from Harkin's bold leadership. I want them to remember the open letter they just received from 28 Iowa sportsmen's groups, asking them to confront global warming.

And if all that doesn't convince candidates to take global warming seriously, consider this: Only 9 percent of Iowa sportsmen have made up their minds about which candidate to support in the January caucuses. Even if the preservation of our planet doesn't appeal to them, self-preservation just might.

JOE WILKINSON of Solon is president of the Iowa Wildlife Federation.