Environment a Low Priority Among U. S. Voters

Most Americans are not shy about professing their support for environmental protection; i.e. saving whales, adopting wolves and stopping energy development in ANWR. However, when it comes to voting, the environmental positions of candidates rank low among the various factors that people weigh in choosing their elected officials. Iraq, abortion and gay marriage rank far higher as priorities among voters. If voters do not care about environmental issues, politicians are not going to waste their time and money passing legislation to strengthen environmental protection.

Emissions Continue to Rise Desipte Decade of Effort

Despite more than a decade of formal international efforts to control human induced climate change, C02, Methane and other GHG emissions continue to rise. According to the UNFCCC report ‘Greenhouse Gas Data, 2006’ emissions of non Central and Eastern European industrialized nations rose by 11%. Emissions from transport activities increased by 23.9%. These figures do not include GHG increases by developing countries like China and India which continue to grow at an even faster rate. It is clear that negotiators have their work cut out for them at the United Nations Climate Change Conference - Nairobi 2006 which will be held in November 2006. Industrialized countries will have to cut even more if there is any hope to stabilize C02 emissions before we pass the point of no return. What is it going to take before the countries most responsible for global warming wake up and start taking real action to combat climate change?

And You Think Americans Pay Too Much for Energy?

We love to complain about high energy prices in the United States. But prices are much higher in other countries. That may sound like a good thing for Americans, except for the fact that higher prices usually lead to less energy use, and lower GHG emissions. Per capita GHG production is much higher in the United States than in other developed countries.

Country		Price Premium/Liter		Electricity/KWH*
United Kingdom		1.56		0.158
S. Korea		1.53		0.089
Germany		1.52		0.198
Italy		1.51		0.12
France		1.46		0.137
Spain		1.19		0.154
Canada		0.8
United States		0.62		0.096
Mexico		0.61		0.101
Source:Key World Energy Statistics 2006: International Energy Agency
*Electricity Rates for Households
Prices are as of Q1 2006

Glaciers on the Rocks

Some of the most striking geographic features of Washington and northern Oregon are its five towering volcanoes. As you travel south from Seattle along I-5 towards Portland, Mount Rainier and a somewhat stunted but still imposing Mount Saint Helens dominate your view. The southernmost of the “Five Sisters” is Mount Hood. One especially distinctive characteristic of these peaks is their perpetual glacial white “caps” floating above the landscape, seemingly untouched by the march of time.

The naturalist John Muir was especially enamored of the mountain glaciers of the Northwest. Here is an account of one of his meetings with these majestic edifices:

The entire front above the glacier appeared as one tremendous precipice, slightly receding at the top, and bristling with spires and pinnacles set above one another in formidable array. Massive lichen-stained battlements stood forward here and there, hacked at the top with angular notches, and separated by frosty gullies and recesses that have been veiled in shadow every since their creation; while to right and left, as far as I could see, were huge crumbling buttresses, offering no hope to the climber” (Muir 1985 reprint, 43).

Even more beautiful are the watery kin of these imposing mounds of ice: glacial lakes. In their clear waters are reflected the majesty of glacial creation: steep slabs of granite, jagged crags, and crevasses scraping the sky. Glaciers are like the fingers of God, molding everything in their path to their own will, in their own sweet time.

Sadly, glaciers worldwide are fast disappearing from the scene. Virtually every large mountain glacier in the world is in retreat. Again, the main culprit is global warming. Many pseudo scientists assert that all this “hooey” about rising temperatures is really just the result of temporary regional variations. Scientists have detected many regional weather cycles. El Niño, which occurs every few years, is one example. However, if warming trends are only the result of regional weather patterns, how can you explain the worldwide disappearance of glaciers? Obviously, something else is going on.

The Salmon’s Sad Fate

The effects of temperature change on creatures at the base of the food chain has ramifications for those higher up both in and outside the water, such as larger filter feeders, perch, trout, salmon, birds, and a large variety of mammals. Salmon runs provide a major source of protein for black and grizzly bears. Plummeting salmon populations often force bears to look elsewhere for food. In the Puget Sound area, the number of bear sightings in suburban neighborhoods is increasing. In parts of the Northwest where grizzly populations are prevalent, human attacks are on the rise. Talk show host David Letterman’s country home in Choteau, Montana, was invaded by an unwelcome grizzly prowler in 2003. Fortunately, no one was at home at the time (Hanson 2004).

There are seven species of salmon in the Puget Sound. Most are in precipitous decline. Salmon populations most affected by increasing temperatures live in stream and estuarine habitats. A combination of increased flooding, lower summer and fall stream flows, and higher temperatures increases their susceptibility to disease and disrupts their reproductive cycles. Most salmon species are vulnerable when water temperatures rise above 70˚F. Since 1974, temperatures in the main migratory route used by salmon moving from Lake Washington to the Puget Sound have risen. The number of days during which summer temperatures rose above 70˚F in this waterway has almost doubled (Puget Sound Action Team 2005). These temperature changes are responsible for up to 50% death rates for migratory species.

Grandma's Hangout Under Threat

In the mid-nineteenth century, my grandmother’s great grandparents traveled along the Oregon Trail in search of a better life. My grandmother’s family settled in Camas, Washington. Poor but undaunted, they eked out a life as owners of a small flower shop. Evelyn, was the youngest of eight children. When she was in her 20s, she married a railroad conductor and moved to Yakima, Washington. In 1944, cancer, took her husband’s life. Suddenly, she found herself widowed with one teenage child to feed. Fortunately, a year earlier she landed a teaching job in Yakima. Twenty-five years and thousands of students later, she retired around the same time that I was born.

Grandma’s favorite leisure activity was flower collecting. Each summer she took me up into the hills above Yakima along the eastern slopes of the Cascades to walk the high mountain meadows, searching for the perfect blooms for her pressed flower collection. Under the bright summer sun, these meadows were a sunburst of color, with green, white, and purple hues. Bees floated lazily by, spreading the nectar of life everywhere they went. Snow-tipped peaks beckoned above us. She knew the name of every flower, every tree, every bird. Along the way, we would stop at a mountain lodge to feast on freshly caught trout. What a delicacy!

Like the glaciers, these fragile mountain micro-ecosystems are also under assault from climate change. Meadows supported by glacial runoff are drying up. Insect infestations are stressing the gorgeous but fragile wildflower blooms that my grandmother so loved. As the plants die, so too do the native insects and animals that depend on them for their survival. Grandma’s flower hunting days are over. She died a few years ago at the ripe old age of 102. But I know that if she were still around, she would be saddened by the fact that her favorite natural playground was under threat of destruction.

Welcome to Witnesses to Global Climate Change

Climate Change is a clear and present danger. It is happening in our own backyards. Just take a look around the community you live in. Doesn't something feel different? Is spring coming earlier each year? Do summers seem hotter and drier than they used to be? Are extreme weather events causing havoc in your region? Is your communtiy being swallowed up by rising seas? Is the permafrost that your house is built on melting?

Are these only problems for future generations to worry about? No! They are affecting the lives of our children, families and communities right now.

The purpose of this website is simple; to give citizens an opportunity to 'tell their stories' about climate change. All people from all nations, political persuasions and walks of life are invited to participate.

Tell your story: Be a Witness to Climate Change!