Salt Lake Tribune
By: Laura Schmidt
Published April 15, 2017
Recently, I traveled from Salt Lake City to Denver for a Climate Reality Leadership Corps training. Former Vice President Al Gore and his team taught and inspired a room of nearly 1,000 people about the urgency of climate change. We made a pledge to bring that message back to our communities.
Climate change isn’t a far off possibility. Its effects are felt here now. Today. Yesterday. Tomorrow. Temperatures in the month of February were off the charts. Since each month seems to be breaking heat records, I’ll bet March is included too. In fact, our state has already warmed two degrees Fahrenheit in the last century. Because of this, we are already seeing reduced snowpack, an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires, more effects from thriving pests like the bark beetle, and increased air pollution from dust. Utah is changing and we need bold action by our policymakers to mitigate the worst impacts of a warming world.
Our elected officials in Utah refuse to hear that message. Literally.
The six-week state legislative session just recently wrapped up and two important climate change resolutions got little attention.
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