by Playfuls Staff |
19th March 2007
When environmentalists gather in Washington Tuesday to protest climate change, they have no further to go than the [more] state of Maryland to see its effects.
Scientists say the state bird of Maryland, the Baltimore oriole, has been moving north while the state bird of Louisiana, the brown pelican, finds Maryland's climate appealing, The Washington Post reported.
About 1,000 brown pelican chicks hatched in Maryland last year while the Oriole might be forced to shift its territory north as Maryland warms.
"We certainly know that we've been experiencing climate change impacts," said Bill Dennison of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
Researchers have begun to learn how climate change is affecting the surrounding ecosystems.
Brook trout, which once lived all over the Washington area, were decimated by urban pollution and officials fear climate change may finish them off.
"All it takes is a couple of degrees to lose those fish," Don Cosden, a state fisheries official, told the Post.
© 2007 UPI
