Want to see what the Apocalypse in Idaho will look like? Look at Australia

It’s time for the adults in the Idaho Legislature to say enough to wasting time on things like denying climate change.

James Taylor, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, visited the House Resources Committee on Thursday to let our legislators know that climate change has been a net benefit for the state. That global warming has brought Idaho a longer growing season, less brutal winters and slightly more precipitation, he said.

This from an Illinois-based lobbyist whose group is heavily funded by the fossil fuel industry who couldn’t even get the name of our state correct. He kept calling us Iowa. Taylor acknowledged that he had not talked to any Idaho scientists, industry officials or others on the ground when compiling his 16-page policy brief.

You know who else has been a climate change naysayer?

The prime minister of Australia Scott Morrison, who has been vocal in his denial of a connection between climate change and fossil fuels and in his support for burning coal, of which Australia is one of the world’s top exporters. Even a majority of his constituents differ with him on human-caused climate change.

Now his country is burning, ravaged by wildfires due to drought, excessive heat and winds from a shifting warming ocean.

Australia may seem like a faraway place, but it portends an omen for places like Idaho.

A total of 32,400 square miles of land has burned in Australia this season as of Jan. 7. That’s 25.5 million acres.

It’s worth repeating: 25.5 million acres has burned this season alone.

For comparison, Idaho has about 20 million acres of federal forest land. Imagine that for a minute, if every acre of federal forest land burned this summer.

Placed over a map of Idaho, the area of land that burned in Australia — so far — this season would be a circle that extends from Boise to nearly Idaho Falls, from the Nevada border north to the Montana border, according to NBC News.

Smoke from Australia’s bushfires created unhealthy air quality conditions in Sydney, which measured 11 times the “hazardous” level in some parts of the city, according to CNN. An estimated 1 billion animals have died in the wildfires

Can you imagine what 20 million burning acres would do to Idaho’s air quality? It’s already so bad some summers here that our air quality index rises to dangerous on a regular basis.

What about Idaho’s economy?

The Pioneer Fire, just north of Idaho City in 2016 was absolutely devastating, bringing to a halt nearly all activity in the area and shutting down Highway 21 and the area surrounding Idaho City, Lowman and Deadwood Reservoir. Over the course of two months, the Pioneer Fire burned 188,000 acres, or 300 square miles.

Taylor’s presentation to our legislators did not include discussion of how warmer temperatures in the winter were reducing the snowpack that is the major storage of water for agriculture. His talk did not include mention that earlier drying and snowmelt have extended the fire season in Idaho by roughly one month since the 1980s. That’s according to John Abatzoglou, an associate professor in the College of Science’s Department of Geography.

We are tired of having to debate this issue, which at this point should be a foregone conclusion. We don’t need some out-of-stater like Taylor to come here and tell us, “Relax, it’s not a big deal.”

To see the consequences of not taking climate change seriously and to see a window into Idaho’s future, we need only look at what’s happening in Australia.