By Susan Potts and Mark Reynolds
Monday, August 30, 2021
A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that climate change is accelerating at an alarming speed, causing the heat waves and weather disruptions that are now part of our weekly news.
News alerts are dominated by stories of wildfires and extreme weather in many parts of the U.S. and globe — incidences that science tells us are exacerbated by climate change.
But these global warming events aren’t just far and distant. Climate change is on our doorstep in Northern Nevada too. Rising temperatures and smoke from wildfires are all increasingly part of our modern lives.
In Nevada less rain and mountain snow in our already dry region is a recipe for severe drought. According to Climate Central, there is an 80 percent chance our region could face a megadrought lasting decades as the climate warms.
According to Andreas Prein, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, “Nowdays, the droughts are not the same as 30 years ago. They can be more intense and last longer than we would expect 30 years ago.”
Climate scientists who released the IPCC report warn that human activity has already heated the planet by 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the 19th century and the window for action to prevent the worst is expiring. Even with a drive to cut emissions across the globe, we will still likely reach 1.5 degrees Celsius warming within the next two decades. Any further warming beyond 1.5 Celsius will have catastrophic consequences for humankind with heatwaves, food and water shortages, and the increasing financial burden of recovery after extreme weather events.
“We’ve known for decades that the world is warming, but this report tells us that recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid, intensifying, and unprecedented in thousands of years,” Ko Barrett, vice chair of the IPCC said in a press briefing. “It is indisputable that human activities are causing climate change.”
The evidence is clear. If we continue to procrastinate and rely on fossil fuels, the resulting carbon emissions will cause our planet to warm more and more. Each percentage of a degree will threaten our lives, economy and health exponentially.
While this is alarming, there is one clear takeaway from the report: it is not too late. We still have a small window of opportunity to reduce our emissions and avoid the worst consequences. If we act with urgency right now, there is still hope.
It has been encouraging to see Nevada’s U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen and a bipartisan group of senators leading on this issue. Earlier this month, they passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill with more than $150 billion in funding earmarked for a transition to clean energy, more EVs, green jobs, and climate resilience.
While this is a great start, more wide-reaching policy is still needed to address climate change with the speed required. If the U.S. is to reach its goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half within 10 years, a robust price on carbon, requiring fossil fuel companies to pay for their emissions, needs to be in place.
As this process plays out, we ask Cortez Masto and Rosen and U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., to support a price on carbon as part of the budget reconciliation negotiations.
In the last few weeks, concerned citizens have generated more than 50,000 emails and phone calls to their members of Congress, including Cortez Masto and Rosen, asking them to support a price on carbon. We will continue to write and call and urge our fellow constituents to do the same.
If the IPCC report tells us anything, it is that every person, place, or passion we care about relies on a livable world to thrive. We’re counting on our elected officials to ensure that we have a livable world by getting effective carbon pricing policy over the finish line.
Susan Potts is a volunteer with the Carson City chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Mark Reynolds is executive director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
