Our climate touches
every part of our lives. That’s why figuring out what to do about climate change, or global warming, or severe weather — the name is unimportant and often serves only to polarize us — is daunting.
Let’s start with the human element. We’re all susceptible to "the temptation to pass the buck on to the future, the poor and nature," Stephen Gardiner wrote in
A Perfect Moral Storm. The first thing we all must acknowledge is that no one wants climate change to be true. We also want to protect and preserve the places or people we love, and that can motivate change.
Thinking longer term can bring up questions about the world we leave behind for younger generations. As Drawdown.org says, "We are either stealing the future or healing the future." Most of us will want to heal it, especially when we live in a place as beautiful as our community.
Dr. Steve Running, Professor Emeritus from University of Montana, has traveled tirelessly around the state for 15 years to share his knowledge. He kindly took an interview about how we can all be more effective climate stewards.
"How to present and frame climate change is an ongoing struggle," he said. "Even more so when current politics purposely try to tear down people’s trust of basic science and facts." Having earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his climate-based work in 2007, and given that climate change is caused by an invisible collection of
gases, thus necessitating science to measure, it is understandable that Dr. Running wants others to grasp the severity of our situation.
So he opens with unifiers, like the traditions that unite us culturally. Hunting and fishing are great examples in Montana, and he pointed out that changes in weather patterns impact forest and river ecosystems.
"I was a hunter, and dreamed of snowfall up high to bring the elk down," he said, pointing out how late in the year snowfall comes now. He makes a similar case with how midsummer streams and rivers get too low for fishing. He suggests that we all can make these types of connections to bring climate change into our personal sphere.
Dr. Running also offered tips, like driving 65 mph to decrease fuel usage, walking or biking when possible and wasting less food. He also suggests minimizing dryer usage and rethinking lawn care to rely less on water and fertilizer. He encourages aluminum and cardboard recycling and swapping air conditioning for fans when possible. These are all simple changes that have a big impact within a community.
We can all pay attention to lawmakers and their decisions, from the Public Service Commission to the Montana legislature. Ongoing drilling and fossil fuel usage, especially coal, may inspire us to act on behalf of our grandchildren. We all have an open forum to speak out with local representation.
While our personal actions do matter profoundly, it’s also important to note that just 57 corporations contribute
80% of global emissions. That’s why policy and system changes matter, like the Montana Supreme Court’s verdict to uphold the
Held v. Montana decision. This precedent takes future generations into account by guaranteeing the constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment — something that Montanans have maintained the right to since the state constitution was ratified in 1972.
An open mindset about climate change might be our biggest superpower. This means accepting the "gut punch" of climate science and deciding that we can alter the status quo. No one is going to tell us exactly what to do or how to do it, and no one is interested in taking anything away from us. Instead — like any worthy moral question — it comes down to our own choices.
If you do nothing else, consider being open to learning and to seeing. Have you experienced changes in Montana weather in your lifetime? What might they mean longer-term? What happens if our familiar climate becomes an unfamiliar one? What impact does it have on our agrarian community?
These questions are hard. A changing climate is our "watershed moment in history," says Drawdown.org. "To address and reverse the climate crisis requires connection and reciprocity. It requires moving out of our comfort zone to find depth of courage we may never have known."
Twenty Questions is a series by Heidi Harting-Rex, a Choteau resident and avid climate change reader.