Global Warming – It’s a Colorado Problem

Scientists and experts often talk about the impacts of global warming on a global scale—rising oceans, melting icecaps, changing weather patterns. But the direct effects of global warming on our quality of life in Colorado are a real, local concern.

Water Shortages
Colorado’s precipitation has decreased 20 percent in the last century and water supplies are already stretched thin. Colorado’s mountain snowpack acts as a massive natural reservoir, storing water during the winter and releasing it during hot dry summer months. Increasing temperatures mean less snowpack and earlier melts, leaving Colorado with less water during hotter summers and more frequent and severe droughts.

Health Problems
An increase in summer temperature increases the formation of ozone. Ozone can affect human health by reducing lung function, aggravating asthma and causing permanent lung damage in children and adults through repeated short-term exposure—all especially dangerous for kids or anyone that spends a lot of time outdoors during the summer.

Colorado is Ready to Move Forward
America produces 25 percent of the pollution that causes global warming, with only 4 percent of the world’s population. We have the responsibility to take action to reduce our global warming pollution emissions.

In 2002, power plants alone emitted more than 44.5 million tons of global warming pollution in Colorado. Transportation is the second largest source of global pollution in Colorado emitting nearly 20 million tons in 1997.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration, with support from the polluting fossil fuel industry, won’t take action to curb global warming.

States Are Making Progress
The good news is that Colorado is poised to join several other states by taking action on their own to reduce global warming pollution.

This winter, the Colorado Legislature will vote on a bill that would establish the Colorado Task Force on Global Climate Change, whose mission would be to develop a plan and set goals for reducing global warming pollution in Colorado.

Environment Colorado supports a plan to reduce global warming pollution 10 percent by 2015. This plan should include:

1. Clean Energy—Colorado has 300 days of sunshine a year and the 11th highest wind potential in the nation. We could easily achieve 25 percent of our energy from wind and solar by 2025.

2. Clean Transportation—Adopt strong pollution standards on cars, clean up public transit vehicles, and expand public transportation like FasTracks. Studies show that we can use existing technology to cut global warming pollution by 25 percent from new cars and small trucks.

3. Energy Efficiency—According to a Rocky Mountain Institute study, most commercial and industrial facilities can cut energy use 70–90 percent for lighting, fan, and pump systems and 60 percent in areas such as heating, cooling, office equipment, and appliances.