Earth Day Message of Hope

Charles Bedford
Photo © Jan Kabili

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Great Sand Dunes National Park
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Colorado and Climate Change: Why We Matter

By: Charles Bedford, Colorado State Director

Earth Day is a time when congratulations and celebrations fly throughout Colorado’s outdoors community. We have so much to enjoy about our piece of Planet Earth, from our snow-capped peaks to the vast prairies and rugged canyon lands that define the state. But this Earth Day feels different. The latest United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report this month, forecasts extended western droughts, a drop in snowpack , increases in smog in our cities, and greatly increased wildfire risk, have all underscored that we can’t just live our lives in a ‘business-as-usual’ manner.

The report powerfully underscores the consequences of global warming. With Colorado and the rest of the West heating up as fast as anywhere else in the country, changes wrought by increased temperature will affect our state in a number of ways: from water availability, to agricultural crop stress, to actual changes in the distribution of plants in our landscapes.

It’s also a fact that climate change and variation have been a part of this landscape for millennia. However, it was never human-induced and never so acutely threatening in the span of a single lifetime. Plants, animals, and even people in Colorado have adapted before. This is why, when looking at climate change, I take the approach of an inherent optimist: I believe that humans will realize the danger and address it. But we will need to take urgent steps today or we are committing ourselves to more and more costs and consequences in the future.

Colorado can make a real difference. We now emit more fossil fuels than 174 nations, and we are part of a country that – with only 5% of the world’s population -- emits 22% of the world’s carbon dioxide. As a state known for its hardiness and innovation, we can take actions that will change the future for the better. Reducing Colorado’s carbon footprint through mitigation and emissions-reducing behavior will make a meaningful difference and can also lead to economic opportunity.

Even so, if we in Colorado and the rest of the world reduce our carbon emissions, the course we are already on will cause significant climate change before we can recover equilibrium. So, we need to take steps to prepare both people and the lands and waters upon which we depend upon to adapt to these changes as best we can.

At The Nature Conservancy, we are taking actions every day that reduce carbon emissions, create a more resilient landscape and a more water-savvy Colorado. Our work protecting prairies and increasing the health of forests and shrublands helps maintain the ability of these natural habitats to store carbon in a naturally sustainable way. Healthy landscapes can mitigate the effect of carbon emissions that converted and diseased forests, grasslands, and shrublands can not. Prescribed burning, forest thinning and specific land management actions can decrease the risk of catastrophic fires and make our forests more resilient to climatic change and maintain our healthy natural grasslands.

Climate change will certainly affect a number of species—some sooner than others. The Nature Conservancy is identifying the most susceptible species, such as the tiny brassy minnow, high altitude residents like the pika and the marmot, and birds such as McCowan’s longspur that will need extra management care if they are to survive the coming changes to their habitats. Our work to prevent fragmentation and to protect land along gradients of elevation will allow native plants and animals to migrate up mountains to lower temperatures and to reach water sources. We are also working with the Denver Water Board and other municipal water operators in the state to protect our natural flows and balance the needs of plants and animals with those of humans. Together, we are working to assure a future for the most vulnerable among us.

On the human side of the equation, at the Conservancy we are assisting with public education through our Web-based carbon calculator so that anyone can begin the process of controlling their own personal carbon budget. We are educating our board and members, who compose many globally-recognized business and academic leaders, about the severity of the climate change challenge. These are the private sector and academic leaders who can support a “Cap-and-Trade” approach to both carbon clean-up and non-polluting energy options. Our more than one million members provide a strong voice for the importance of designing a healthy, climate-stabilized future.

This Earth Day, I am deepening my commitment to lowering my energy use whenever I can – reducing my driving time, using low-energy light bulbs, turning the hot water heater down. I am also ratcheting up the pace with which the Conservancy strives to protect Colorado’s air-cleansing landscapes and vulnerable native species. The words of Richard B. Alley, one of the IPCC Report’s lead scientists, keeps running through my mind: “…this is real, this is real, this is real. So now act; the ball’s in your court.”

Charles E. Bedford
State Director, The Nature Conservancy of Colorado