Opinion: Climate change takes color from season

This is altogether anecdotal, so I won’t pretend it’s based on scientific observation, but I’ve noticed something in my annual trips to Arkansas for a Thanksgiving get-together in the Ozark Mountains.

The autumn leaves seem to be peaking earlier.

October is the best time to see a brilliant display of colors in the Ozark Plateau. It’s as if God painted the mountains just for our viewing pleasure. But by the end of November, when I take my trip, the fiery splash of the red, orange, yellow and green broadleaf colors have all but disappeared, leaving a brown and empty landscape in the mountains of northern Arkansas.

I’ve been taking this autumn trip to “The Natural State” for close to 20 years now, since moving out here to New Mexico, and I’ve noticed something. The color is still there, even in late November. Sure, they’ve gone past their peak, but they’ve still got color.

I figure it’s a sign that global warming is upon us.

You can see it in the colors, feel it in the air, and see it in the data. According to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the 10 hottest years on record have all been since 2005 (about the time I moved to New Mexico) — and there’s nothing anecdotal about that. It’s fact, based on hard data.

Out here in the Land of Enchantment, we have our own evidence. The Albuquerque Journal in a Sunday editorial decried the impact it’s having on the International Balloon Fiesta held with the onset of October every year. Back in the 1970s and ’80s, when the event was still young, the Journal remembers, “predawn temperatures meant we could see our breath and we wore thermal base layers, gloves and heavy jackets.” Not so much anymore, as temperatures have been milder, the Journal noted.

Of course, that’s anecdotal too, but it’s backed by science. Not only are the temperatures rising, but tornadoes, hurricanes and superstorms are becoming more frequently globally. They may be a rarity, or even nonexistent, in New Mexico, but we’re not immune from extreme weather events being created by a changing climate. Here, we’re experiencing deepening drought conditions, drier winters that don’t provide as much snow melt for our spring runoffs, and more intense wildfires. Good thing our economy is based on far more than farming or ranching, because it’s getting harder to live off the land.

Climate change is without a doubt the biggest issue facing humanity, and that includes New Mexico. We may have an economy that’s propped up with fossil fuel production, but we’re going to have to get away from that if we’re going to survive. The state’s Energy Transition Act, with its emphasis on renewable energy development, is pushing us in the right direction, but that’s only the tip of a melting iceberg. Far more will have to be done to mitigate the mess our fossil fuel consumption has created on earth.

The fact is, the technology is here — humanity has the capability to convert to cleaner fuels now, thereby bringing down the temperatures — but our politics isn’t. New Mexico may be going in the right direction, but the U.S. isn’t. Our own disunity, both culturally and politically, is holding us back.

The world needs leadership to take on climate change in substantive ways, but the U.S. — once the most powerful and influential nation on earth — is unwilling or unable to muster the unity we need for such a “moon shot.”

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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