This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

"In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is nothing."

- THEODORE ROOSEVELT

The time for debate about whether climate change is happening and whether we humans are largely to blame has passed. It's time to start doing something about it.

That seems to be the message in a report from eight Utah scientists for use by Gov. Jon Huntsman's Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Climate Change. The report doesn't recommend any particular steps to reduce carbon emissions, but the implications of doing nothing come through loud and clear:

If the United States does nothing to reduce greenhouse gas, Utah's average annual temperature will rise about 8 degrees over this century. Such dramatic warming would drastically and negatively alter our economy, lifestyle, health and environment.

Climate scientists from the University of Utah, Brigham Young University and and U.S. Department of Agriculture were joined in writing the report by the state climatologist, based at Utah State University. They reviewed and analyzed scientific research on climate change to determine how global warming is likely to affect Utah.

The conclusions they reported to the governor's panel were unanimous. The findings reflect what international groups of scientists, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United Nations Scientific Expert Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development, have already reported.

Overwhelming evidence points to human-produced carbon emissions as the main culprit in the unprecedented warming trend of the past half-century. The Utah scientists say we can expect to warm even faster than most of the rest of the world and that warming will cause more drought and less snowpack. That means less water for farms and homes, since Utahns take their drinking and irrigation water largely from reservoirs fed by snowmelt.

The predictions are dire, but we're not necessarily locked into this bleak scenario. We can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but we have to act soon to replace fossil fuels with clean-burning power sources. Since carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for nearly 100 years, it will be decades before cutting emissions impacts the pace of global warming.

Failure to act now means that the Utah of today will not be the one we bequeath future generations.