On January 14, 2021, Colorado published its Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap, representing the most substantive planning process the state has ever undertaken on climate.
Posted by Jan Wondra | Jan 27, 2021
Even as winter snows cover the ground, the unease is growing across this state and the nation that the steady march of climate change is impacting our western forests in ways we cannot stop. Here in Colorado, our timberlands are beset by drought, being eaten alive by a variety of beetles, loved to death by human beings over-running public lands, with their resiliency damaged by decades of fire suppression that has left the dead timber load at historically high levels.
The Colorado Forest Service estimates a backlog of $4.2 billion in forest-thinning, just to protect homes in the growing urban-wildland interface areas. (see related
A climate-action executive order signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday was cheered by conservationists and top Colorado Democratic political officeholders while being met by an immediate legal challenge over a provision suspending oil and gas leasing involving federal lands and waters pending a review.
The wide-ranging executive order also includes measures such as making climate considerations an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security, seeking to conserve 30% of lands and oceans by 2030, creating a White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy and a National Climate Task Force, and directing federal agencies to procure carbon-free electricity and zero-emission vehicles, eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and work to spur clean-energy technologies and infrastructure.
As we begin the new year, we see hope on the horizon for one pressing global challenge in the vaccine for the coronavirus. This year can also bring big new steps to tackle the global…