Human-caused climate change has come to Utah with a vengeance!
Do you remember the “good old days”? I remember when 600 inches of snow was an average snow year at Alta ski resort! Do you? I remember one March when Salt Lake City got nearly 18 inches of snow in one day! Where I live in south-central Utah we used to get about 40 inches of snow a winter. Now the average is about 15 inches.
Some climate change skeptics argue, “What difference is a couple degrees warmer going to make?” Now we know! Ski resorts struggle to make snow as the average temperatures go up. Snow in the high desert in southern Utah soaks in slowly. While rain helps, it does not soak in as well.
This winter a slower-moving jet stream with its larger meanders has set up an omega block (shaped like the Greek letter omega) with a high pressure in the middle often settling over Utah. This persistent system brought heavy rains to California and record low temperatures and high snow levels to the east, leaving Utah “high and dry.”
What can we do? Individuals can do some things, but to make large constructive solutions requires actions at all government levels. Check to see if local, state and, in particular, federal elected officials are supporting actions that actually fight climate change.
We all know that for most people economic issues are at the top of their concerns and climate change is adding to those costs at every level. We can no longer ignore the dramatic and dangerous effects of a warming planet, which is already happening and will get worse.
So vote like your future and the futures of generations to come depend on it!
Because it does!
David Hart, Torrey