Dear Editor,
Six Wisconsin Republican congressmen-Bryan Steil, Derrick Van Orden, Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, Tom Tiffany, and Tony Wied-recently sent a letter to the EPA blaming Canada’s wildfire management for the toxic smoke affecting our state.
The letter, however, makes no mention of climate change. While management practices matter, climate change is the primary factor behind Canada’s megafires. As Natural Resources Canada explains:
“Warmer-than-average temperatures, decreased levels of snowpack, low soil moisture and elevated drought conditions are indicators that climate change is impacting the frequency, size and range of wildland fires in Canada. For example, the number of over-wintering fires is increasing.”
In fact, NASA reports that, due to human-induced climate change, “Extreme wildfire activity has more than doubled worldwide.”
More intense wildfires are just one symptom of a much larger problem. A study in the journal Science concludes that global soil moisture is in permanent decline because of our warming climate.
The drying of continents, driven by increased heat and evaporation, has been so pronounced that the transfer of water to the oceans has altered the distribution of our planet’s mass and affected Earth’s rotation on its axis.
As continents dry and water resources are polluted and overused, researchers conclude that the world has entered an era of “global water bankruptcy”, in which critical water systems can no longer realistically recover to their former state.
Water bankruptcy is already evident in the United States. America’s largest groundwater reserve, the Ogallala Aquifer, that supports Great Plains agriculture, is being pumped far faster than it can recharge. Water levels have fallen by hundreds of feet in some areas, with portions now effectively nonrenewable under current climate conditions and irrigation practices.
As Wisconsinites, we must insist that our legislators stop pointing fingers north of the border and act to cut emissions, conserve water, and protect Earth’s life-support systems on which we all depend.
Terry Hansen Grafton, WI