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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Climate threat

Arrowhead faces dramatic change without action on carbon emissions

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When it comes to climate change, the media often focuses on the coasts, where rising sea levels and more severe storms will undoubtedly affect millions of Americans.

But far from the coast, right here in Minnesota, we’re already seeing the effects of climate change, as a valuable series of stories prepared by Minnesota Public Radio pointed out this week.

Over the past 100 years, Minnesota has seen its average annual temperature increase by three degrees Fahrenheit. That may not sound like much, but it’s a substantial change in our climate and scientists expect the trend to accelerate over the next several decades— and that’s expected to yield dramatic changes to the Minnesota landscape and economy.

Imagine northeastern Minnesota without its signature forests of spruce-fir, pine, and paper birch. Imagine our region without the lakes that currently attract so many to our region in the summer months. Most of our lakes might still exist in some fashion, but they would likely be shallower, warmer, and devoid of many of the fish species, like walleye and trout, that keep anglers returning again and again.

Minnesota, which sits at the confluence of three major North American biomes— the boreal forest, the prairie, and the eastern deciduous forest— is likely to experience the most dramatic change of any U.S. state as a result of a warming world. The boreal forest, which extends into the northern half of the Arrowhead, is perhaps the most threatened landscape of all, which means many of the boreal forest species, like moose, lynx, and pine marten, that we associate with the North Country, could easily disappear. Most wildlife researchers already believe climate change is playing a significant role in the decline of moose populations throughout the southern edge of their range, including here in northeastern Minnesota. While last winter was severe, the long-term trend is clearly in the opposite direction and milder winters have allowed lynx competitors, like bobcat, to expand their range into our region. While lynx still reside in Minnesota’s North Country, their long-term prognosis is highly questionable. Moose and lynx are simply among the more prominent species that could well disappear in Minnesota. Many other lesser-known species will vanish along with them.

Yet too many in our area are still unwilling to confront the reality and the many risks to our world posed by climate change. Too many have chosen to reject the overwhelming scientific consensus, simply because they’re unwilling to adjust their behavior in any way, or suffer from an ideological blind spot.

Such attitudes virtually guarantee the fallout of climate change will be more severe than it need otherwise be. The good news is that the ranks of climate change deniers have whittled greatly in recent years as the scientific evidence of real effects in the here and now continues to mount.

Sadly, there are still too many in the halls of Congress who are unwilling to face reality, and who fail to understand that continued investment in the dirtiest types of fossil fuels, such as Canadian tar sands, will only make a bad situation worse. It’s time that our political leaders begin connecting the dots. When Congressman Rick Nolan votes to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, as he did recently, he’s putting northeastern Minnesota’s future further at risk.

Minnesotans gain nothing from further exploitation of the tar sands, which is facilitated by the controversial pipeline. It won’t reduce gas prices in the U.S., since the pipeline is being built to provide access to sea ports on the Gulf Coast. That means much of the world’s most environmentally-destructive oil will be shipped to China and other Asian markets.

While some tout the pipeline as a temporary jobs program, it’s time we realign our thinking. We should be creating jobs that help reduce our carbon emissions, not that further exacerbate the problem. Solar is now our fastest-growing energy sector as the sharp decline in the price of power-producing solar panels has made solar competitive with conventional forms of electricity production for the first time.

Pushing more fossil fuels infrastructure with all that we know today, over viable low-carbon alternatives that produce far more permanent jobs, is not just foolish, it’s reckless.

Minnesotans have too much at stake in this fight to accept business as usual. It’s time we pressure our politicians to do the right thing.