Keep Telling Stories About Climate Change

I’ve learned that humans, me included, have a hard time understanding climate change as an abstract concept.  We need to be experiencing it for the idea to fully sink in. 

When I moved to the US Mountain West a few years ago I observed the ravages of climate change, writ large:  Dead trees that can’t handle the dry and the heat, unable to fight off marauding beetles;  Empty riverbeds due to changes in precipitation;  Scorching summer temperatures in Las Vegas and Phoenix;  Less snow in February on Mount Timpanogas (check out this image from my house).  The evidence was everywhere, but not that many people made the explicit connection with climate change.

People communicating the urgency of climate change need to tirelessly connect this LOCAL observational experience with climate data, so that regular people can internalize it.  Doing so will allow regular people in a local are to understand the global threat more directly.  

Credible climate change data is often published, but may feels less accessible to the general public.  Climate story tellers can bridge the gap, connecting climate data to lived experiences.  To demonstrate, I’ll use Utah as an example, the US State where I live, which has had very little snow this year, and at my altitude/latitude/longitude, falls below freezing much less frequently than in the past.  In a report from Utah State University, mean temperature in Utah has increased .4 degrees fahrenheit per year for the last 45 years, mostly driven by summer heat. 

Summer days feel hotter than they ever used to! 

I went for a walk this winter, wearing shorts and a t-shirt!  

There is a similar but different story about precipitation.  Although overall precipitation has not declined that much, the proportion falling as snow has declined 9%, and peak snow pack has declined by 23% over the last 70 years.  A lot of Utah water comes from streams fed by this mountain snowpack, and in Utah rain is less recoverable for human use than snow. 

I’m really disappointed there is less snow for me to ski on this year! 

I’m concerned my city has told me not to water my lawn! 

I’m concerned there may not be enough water to grow my alfalfa crop this year!

These are the climate effects that regular people in Utah feel.  They may seem banal compared to extreme consequences elsewhere, such as island nations steadily becoming submerged, or people’s homes destroyed in hurricanes, or massive wildfires raging through the tundra.  But Utahns–and people all around the world–need to recognize what’s happening in their own surroundings in order to understand the global climate change problem.  

Wherever we are, we ALL need to continually tell localized stories about climate change.