Clock ticking on climate change.
The Green Bay Packers played the hottest game in Lambeau Field’s history last Sunday, when it was 89 degrees at kickoff, 5 degrees warmer than the previous record set in 1965.
Climate change won’t thaw out Green Bay’s storied “Frozen Tundra” anytime soon or make Lambeau any more hospitable for late-season opponents visiting from warmer spots such as, say, Atlanta.
Sunday’s record-breaking heat, though, was a warning. The changing climate already is beginning to affect the cherished way of life in Wisconsin and elsewhere. The clock’s ticking. We need to take action to avert the worst impacts of climate disruption.
Over the past century, most of the state has warmed about 2 degrees Fahrenheit — slightly above the global average.
That might not sound like much. Warming temperatures, though, can have a real impact.
Warmer temperatures combine with chemicals in the air to produce ground-level ozone, pollution that can reduce the output of crops such as soybeans and winter wheat, but the impacts aren’t limited to the farm. Ozone, which combines with other pollutants to form smog, also causes heart and lung problems.
If warming trends continue, by mid-century Milwaukee could expect 50 days each summer when dangerously hot weather raises the risk of heat stroke, heart attacks, asthma attacks and other maladies, up from an average of 10 days each summer now. The result could mean 170 heatrelated deaths per summer in Milwaukee, up from 19, on average, now.
Warmer air holds more moisture, which can lead to more and larger floods. Annual rainfall across most of the Midwest has increased, on average, up to 10% over the past century, while there’s been a 35% increase in rainfall during the four wettest days of the year.
Warming waters have led to algae blooms in Lake Michigan, including the dead zone in Green Bay, impairing water quality and choking out fish and other aquatic life. Scientists predict water temperatures in the Great Lakes overall will warm from 3 degrees to 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 70 years.
Trout and other cold water fish are threatened by warming streams, and rising temperatures put at risk the majestic birch, balsam fir and red pine forests of northern Wisconsin.
All of this gets worse — much worse — unless we act now to protect our children against the growing dangers of climate change.
That means cutting the carbon pollution that’s driving climate change, chiefly by reducing our reliance on coal, gas and oil and shifting to cleaner, smarter ways to power our future. We’re making real progress. Since 2005, we’ve cut our carbon footprint in this country 14%, while our economy has grown more than 17%. We’ve done it by investing in efficiency so we do more with less waste, building some of the best allelectric and hybrid cars anywhere in the world and getting more clean power from the wind and sun. And doing all that has put more than 3 million Americans to work at goodpaying middle-class jobs that can’t be outsourced or shipped overseas.
Wisconsin has cut its carbon emissions as well, led by forward-leaning cities and counties, such as Milwaukee, working to cut carbon pollution to fight climate change while upgrading its stormwater system and other city infrastructure to better cope with increased rainfall.
And Milwaukee has joined with more than 360 other cities in pledging to adhere to the principles of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
The problem is that President Donald Trump is trying to take the United States out of the Paris accord, open up more public waters and lands to fossil fuel development and roll back a 2015 rule to clean up the dirty power plants that account for nearly 40% of the nation’s carbon footprint.
We can’t afford to turn our backs on a decade of climate and clean energy progress and lose ground on the fight to leave our children a livable world. That’s a fight we’ve got to win, by standing up to the growing dangers of climate change, before the clock runs out.