In Montana, climate change means drought in some places, record breaking floods in others, and wildfire seasons that burn hotter and last longer, according to a new federal climate report released last week.
The Fifth National Climate Assessment shows climate change is already affecting the mental and physical health of people living in the Northern Great Plains, which includes Montana.
“The impacts of air pollution, climate change, extreme weather events, all of that on people’s mental health, that was under-recognized in the past,” Dr. Rob Byron said.
Byron is a physician in Montana and one of the authors of the assessment. Montana has the highest proportion of premature deaths caused by wildfire smoke in the country.
The congressionally-mandated report is released every five years, but unlike its predecessors, this report focuses more on how climate change is affecting people’s health.
The assessment shows that for this region, more residents have livelihoods that depend on natural resources, making them vulnerable to climate-related weather changes.
“It’s one thing if we are in a smoke cloud and have a flare up of an asthma attack. It’s less understandable when the ranchers are suffering because this drought has been going on and then you get an extreme precipitation event and it runs off because the ground is so baked,” Byron said.
The report shows extreme weather events are happening more often and marginalized groups suffer even more of the effects.
Although the U.S. is not on track to meet current goals to reduce further warming, the assessment outlines measures that can be taken to get closer to those goals. Byron said he finds hope in climate solutions and that more people are aware of the climate crisis now than ever before.
“We need to talk about it. And I don't mean people involved in it. I mean everybody. That's how we normalize this and say there’s a problem. What can we do about it? Well there’s a lot we can do about it,” Byron said.
This report also includes, for the first time, an interactive online atlas anyone can use to understand how climate change is affecting where they live.
-
Federal environmental regulators Thursday repealed the bedrock finding that climate change endangers human health. It authorized the EPA to regulate planet-warming emissions as part of the Clean Air Act and to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Experts say the repeal will worsen climate change and have a negative impact on industries across the state. -
Montana’s largest utility is planning how it’s going to generate power and meet rising demand in the era of data centers. The company is now soliciting public feedback on that draft plan. MTPR’s Ellis Juhlin attended a recent meeting in Missoula and reports. -
In this episode of “Grounding” season two, Sarah Aronson talks to Hannah Dusek and Jonathan Marquis, two artists who turned to their respective media—dancing and drawing—to help them make meaning during the climate crisis. Aronson’s been searching for names for our feelings, like “dissonance” and “the myth of apathy.” It turns out that a lot of people have experienced these sensations but just haven't been able to name them. Sometimes, when words aren’t enough, Aronson, too, turns to art to face the dissonance that comes with watching a world she loves change—complex feelings that are intensified as animals, plants and glaciers disappear. -
In this episode of “Grounding,” season two, Sarah Aronson talks to Renee Lertzman and Panu Pihkala, two experts in the field of climate emotions, who offer models for processing our feelings as well as understanding why we assume people don’t care about the environment when they actually might. Aronson explores how language can be helpful in identifying what we’re feeling. -
In this episode of “Grounding,” season two, host Sarah Aronson talks to Peter McDonough—director of the Climate Change Studies Program at the University of Montana—his students, and another educator at the intersection of climate change and mental health at UM, Jen Robohm, about the dissonance of climate change. Aronson explores this friction in order to better understand the times we’re living in, and how to live well in spite of compounding stressors. Though there might end up being more questions than answers this season, it’s clear that the answer to the central question, “Are we alone?” is unequivocally, “no.”
