We need to take action on climate

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. That needs to change.

January and August 2006 had the highest temperatures on record for those months ,CNN reported in a special broadcast on global warming aired on Sept. 20.

Eight of the last 10 summers have been warmer than average. Record wild fires have accompanied the heat, charring nine million acres of forest and wildlands this year.

Our climate has changed, naturally, before there were human beings. Perhaps nothing unusual is occurring now.

Perhaps. But there is more to the story of global climate change than a decade of hot weather. It can be found in the study of dendrochronology - the study of tree rings.

By observing the narrowing and widening in the rings of ancient trees, scientists at the University of Arizona have researched climate patterns.

Tree ring analysis shows relatively stable climate for six centuries leading up to the early 1900s. Average temperatures then curve sharply upward to the present day.

Searching for a cause for the abrupt warming, the UA scientists examined phenomena such as trends in solar radiation and volcanic activity.

In research published in 1998 they concluded that the probable explanation is greenhouse gases.

Since then, in cooperation with scientists at the University of Virginia and the University of Massachusetts, the Arizona researchers published additional findings extending the timeline back 1,000 years.

The longer view only gave more prominence to this century's temperature spike, and shows that the 1990s were the warmest decade in the past 1,000 years in the Northern Hemisphere.

We see evidence in Montana where ancient ice in Glacier Park has shrunk by two-thirds in the past 50 years.

Projections are that even the Park's largest glaciers will have disappeared completely by about 2030.

Dr. Steve Running, Director of the Montana Climate Office at The University of Montana, has compiled temperature records from airport weather stations from 1951 through 2005.

In that 50-year period, average temperatures for the month of March have increased in Billings by 7.7 degrees, in Kalispell by 5.8 degrees, in Great Falls by 4.8 degrees, in Bozeman by 7.7 degrees, and in Missoula by 4.6 degrees.

Running's research also shows that snow pack in those same locations has decreased on average by nearly a foot over the same period. The result is that fire season in Montana now begins three weeks earlier than 50 years ago.

Running estimates that Montana temperatures will be an average of 4 degrees warmer by the 2040s. If correct, the implications of this trend on Montana agriculture could be enormous.

What can we do? To begin with we need to realize that 40 percent of the world's energy consumption is used to generate electricity, about 70 percent of which comes from burning fossil fuels.

As world economies expand, particularly China's and India's, electrical consumption is projected to increase by about 20 percent over the next 10 years. China has vast reserves of coal and is determined to become a global economic power. China will generate more electricity with its coal, and the world will feel the effect.

The Chinese have the technology to generate power with advanced nuclear power plants. The United States would be in a better position to bargain with China if we make some sacrifices of our own.

California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his state's Democratic-controlled legislature, is creating a market-based system for reducing carbon emissions.

Instead of government controls, California companies reducing emissions receive credits they can sell to companies that don't. Instead of buying credits to pollute, offending companies have an incentive to devise technologies to reduce pollution.

The same concept can be implemented on a national scale.

The public is demanding more fuel efficient automobiles, and auto manufacturers are responding. Cars can be economically powered by biodiesel. Solar power has limitless potential. Hydrogen could emerge as an important option.

While infinitesimal now as a global source of power, wind is the world's fastest growing source.

Montana is recognized as the fifth windiest state in the nation (even when the legislature is not in session). Wind generation is expanding in Montana and we can develop more.

The climate challenge now faced by human-kind is daunting. The United States can't meet it alone, but for the sake of our children we had better do more than just talk about it.

Bob Brown is a senior fellow at the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West.