At the start of the new legislative session, Coloradans got a taste of what state lawmakers are prepared to prioritize. There are many good things: education, public safety and the economy.
Sadly, of the 102 bills and resolutions already before the House and Senate, few seem poised to seriously address the root cause of climate change: fossil fuels.
To suggest that this oversight is annoying would be a gross understatement. In recent years, Colorado has witnessed firsthand the impact of a rapidly changing climate. More recently, the Marshall Fire became the most destructive wildfire in state history, destroying nearly 1,100 structures worth more than half a billion dollars.
Prior to that, Colorado saw a growth in extreme wildfires, including a truly historic 2020 fire season. This included the Pine Gulch Fire, the Cameron Peak Fire and the East Troublesome Fire, all of which easily exceeded 100,000 acres burned – and one over 200,000 acres – breaking records several times over the course of the same season.
Then there were the 2021 Glenwood Canyon landslides that went far beyond anything engineers had prepared for due to the intensity of the fires.
The slides shut down I-70 for weeks, cutting off the main connection across the state and prompting officials to seek more than $116 million in taxpayer dollars for repair costs. The intensity of the mudslide was a direct impact of climate change.
Aside from wildfires and extreme mudslides, there have been a myriad of record-breaking events in Colorado lately: record heat, record winds, record drought, record hail, record tornadoes, record cold bombogenesis and same record. It’s worth noting that my iPhone desperately wants to autocorrect the latter to “jeans bimbo,” a testament to the relative newness of word usage.
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Of particular concern is that it is no longer unique enough to simply break existing records. Now we are breaking previous records, even breaking records for heat, wind, drought and hail with new records for heat, wind, drought and hail in the same season.
For all intents and purposes, the solution is deceptively simple: more policies that reduce the burning, release, and accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere.
Yet, for years, the urgency to act has been lacking, as if climate change were yet to come. We set goals for 2030 or 2050, which means we have time when we don’t. Climate change is not an on/off switch; it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a long, bubbling boil, and for years the molecules have already been moving faster and faster.
For this reason, the climate crisis must be a constant legislative priority this year, next year and every year to come for the foreseeable future. We must also be exceptionally clear in our messaging: Actions taken now are not intended to prevent climate change from happening – it is impossible, it is already happening. Instead, actions today are intended to lessen the severity of the impact of our past actions. What we are currently experiencing is only a wake-up call.
Above all, prioritizing the climate crisis does not mean that we somehow abandon other priorities. On the contrary, almost all policy areas relating to climate change are part of the solution.
Consider the economy. If the goal is to save money for Coloradans, one of the best solutions is to fight climate change. On a personal level, we won’t save a few tens of dollars in taxes a year as much as avoiding the loss of thousands of dollars in insurance deductibles, lost wages and travel costs when a fire forest fueled by climate change burns. in much of our city.
Likewise, we cannot achieve social equity without mitigating climate change — the burdens will fall disproportionately on disadvantaged communities. We cannot achieve sustainable agriculture or outdoor tourism on the western slope without alleviating the lack of rainfall. We can’t even achieve sufficient education with stuffy classrooms, reduce health problems, or sustain a federal budget with multi-billion dollar disasters.
It should be noted that there are several bipartisan wildfire mitigation bills this session, and that is something we can be proud of. Yet this is about adaptation, not a climate change mitigation strategy. Without doing more to target the underlying source of the problem – basically the burning of fossil fuels – there is not much that can be done.
After listening to the State of the State last Thursday, it became incredibly clear that climate change is simply not the focus of this session – and unless the message changes drastically, it won’t. . Like a journalist strongly underlined on Twitter, the governor used the word “climate” three times, just one more time than he mentioned Taylor Swift.
It got me thinking.
Maybe the Coloradans would do well to make our requests directly to Mrs. Swift instead. After all, a catchy song about climate change seems like the only way to take center stage.
Trish Zornio is a scientist, lecturer, and writer who has worked at some of the nation’s top universities and hospitals. She is an avid climber and was a 2020 candidate for US Senate from Colorado.
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