Wyoming's Climate Curve
Last Saturday morning, I had coffee with my Uncle Gary and Aunt Ruthie in my hometown of Pinedale, Wyoming, where I am home for a visit. Like much of my family, they are conservative, skeptical people. But, like most people, they are also reasonable. They know that climate change is real, and they are concerned, for example, about wildfire smoke, which increasingly drifts in during the burning season to pollute the air and block the high-plains view of the mountains. Yet, according to a recent Yale Climate poll, they are just barely in the majority: Only 59 percent of Wyomingites believe climate change is happening — the lowest belief-rate in the nation — even as the state faces more drought, heat, and wildfires. It would be easy to dismiss the people who live here as a lost cause in the climate fight. That would be wrong. It’s just that people in my home state have a pragmatism that comes, I think, from the harsh environment. Uncle Gary made his living as a very good mechanic of snowmobiles and ATVs — among other things. He brought a kind of engineering and creativity to his trade that made him famous in certain circles, and to this day he loves to take his snow mobiles far into the mountains of his youth. When I mentioned, EVs, for example, he was dubious. Out here, he said, they just aren’t practical. He’s right. EVs won’t work out here, at least not yet. But it’s a windy state, and so a prime candidate for renewable energy. That could help people live off the grid, or pump water, or just lower their bills. And it helps the state contribute energy elsewhere. In fact, a major wind farm here will soon provide power as far as California. Too often in the climate space, I find myself mired in theory and abstraction, in models, predictions, and forecasts. But I was reminded over coffee that a lot of people happen to live in the present. Besides, 59 percent is more than half, and I’d wager that number is climbing. We just need to be patient.
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