Let’s have a conversation about climate

The Flathead’s snowpack was 80 percent of normal this year. We received very little precipitation in March and April. May was extremely warm, and it rained on the top of the mountains. Spring runoff occurred four weeks early and took with it the high elevation snowpack that supports our summer stream flows.

Now an extreme drought has grasped the headwaters of the Flathead, exacerbating our depleted snowpack. Rivers are running at 30 percent of normal.

What’s unfortunate is that this climate disruption will worsen. “Normal” weather patterns will become more erratic, extreme and unpredictable. The glaciers will be extinct by 2035, and ski days reduced by half by 2050. More rain will fall in fall and spring, and summer will be longer and hotter.

We’ll see five separate wildfires start after one lightning storm, like we saw on July 30. This is just the beginning.

We wish we could rush back to “normal” as quickly as possible. Because carbon lasts for decades in our atmosphere, we can’t. Alas, there’s no one – certainly not the operators of the dam or a water compact negotiated over decades – to blame. So … what can we do?

We have but two choices. We can adapt, which will become increasingly difficult. Or we can stop our reliance on fossil fuels. The first step is personal, and the second step is political.

At this point, there is no doubt that greenhouse gases are causing climate breakdown. We’ve reached a point where it is costing us more to pay for climate damage than it does for us to pay for the transition to clean energy. This transition will result in cheaper, less polluting energy sources for Montana.

As Mark Jacobson, the Stanford engineer, testified a few weeks ago in the Held V. Montana trial, it’s not the lack of technology holding us back. “Montana has so much renewable energy potential, it’s incredible,” Jacobson said.

By using available energy storage technology and grid interconnections with other renewable generation, “it’s very easy to keep the grid stable in Montana,” he said.

So that brings us to the lack of political will. America used to solve problems, big problems. We can solve this one, too. But it will take electing leaders able to lead the way. It will take sacrifice in the midst of infrastructure changes, inconvenience, vehicle and home heating changes, taxes, and … nerve.

But there will be positive changes as well. Getting to 90 percent clean electricity by 2035 will mean spending $60 billion a year on wind and solar development. Ninety percent of this money will go to rural communities, where the wind and solar resources are. These communities will add jobs, agricultural vitality, a new tax base for schools and roads, and a new sense of pride that they are an essential part of solving the biggest problem in the world.

So, let’s slough off our lethargy and speak out in favor of viable solutions to the climate crisis.

We’ll talk about other issues that will come with the green power revolution next.

Hannah Hernandez works for the Flathead Lakers and Jeff Smith is co-chair of 350 Montana. Both live in Polson. Their column will appear once a month in the Leader.