Global warming tour comes to the Palouse

Lobbyists and private citizens discussed ways to address climate change with a focus on bipartisanship Tuesday.

The Citizens' Climate Lobby and the Washington Audubon Society stopped in Palouse and Colfax as part of their Wind, Water and Fire Tour to help create a "durable public will" for climate action. The 12-city tour throughout Washington and the Idaho Panhandle, stresses that effective change must be bipartisan.

"We need a durable solution to climate change that appeals to Republicans as well as Democrats," said presenter Steve Ghan, a climate scientist and a leader of the CCL's Richland chapter.

Ghan said 75 percent of people in Whitman County agree the climate is warming, but only 55 percent believe it is caused by humans. One reason is that the science supporting this is complicated and hard to grasp, but, Ghan said, there's another reason.

"There has been a coordinated public campaign to confuse the public," he said.

"As an example," said Ghan, holding up a book, "here is a book called 'Climate Change Reconsidered.' It's been published by the Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change, which was published by the Heartland Institute, funded by the fossil fuel industry."

"It lays out all the reasons climate scientists are wrong," Gahn said. "It actually talks about my own work."

Although mainly written by three authors, the book's publisher could easily be confused with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change involving hundreds of scientists.

John Sandvig, an aerospace engineer and volunteer with the CCL, said while individual efforts to diminish our carbon footprint are important, an enduring solution must be more.

"It needs to be massive, it needs to pervade the economy and all of our behaviors" Sandvig said. "The best way to effect change in undesirable behavior is to make it expensive."

Sandvig said there are market solutions such as carbon fees that would force producers and consumers to reconsider the viability of fossil fuels and other emitters of greenhouse gas. Coupling such fees with dividends disbursed to the public would help offset cost increases to the individual, Sandvig said. Whatever the solution, he said, it must address climate change in a way that doesn't hurt the economy.

The Audubon Society, a group concerned with bird conservation, said they have a real stake in the discussion as well.

"Audubon has identified climate change as the number one threat to birds," said Jen Syrowitz, conservation manager for Audubon's Washington chapter. "Birds have been great indicators of environmental health for a very long time. You're familiar with the phrase 'canary in the coal mine?' That's a thing."

Syrowitz said the two nonpartisan came together to help create a "durable public will" for climate action.

Scott Jackson can be reached at (208) 883-4637, or by email to sjackson@dnews.com.