There hasn’t been much noise from climate change deniers this week.
Maybe the silence is due to the unprecedented heatwave in the West and Southwest. The photos of livestock roaming brown fields with no grass might encourage the deniers to lay low. Then there are the photos of Lake Mead. If you’ve ever toured Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, you know that this symbol of American scientific innovation built during the Depression was a stunning tourist destination well as a source of water for drinking and irrigation. Today’s situation leaves the water level at its lowest since the 1930s. You can now see the stone walls of the lake, and we’ll see even more in the coming months.
Maybe the silence of the deniers is a matter of timing. With epic winters like the one that froze Texas, deniers declare it proof that there’s no global warming. But climate change isn’t just a matter of heat and drought but of multiple weather extremes.
Some say that the water level will rise as it has in the past 22 years of drought. Maybe. But not before the entire region is affected. The lack of water will affect millions, and its electricity production is at risk. How much pain must be inflicted before we stop electing deniers who refuse to take steps to remedy climate crises?
Utah’s Gov. Spencer Cox called for Utahns to participate in a weekend of prayer for rain. He’d already asked them to avoid long showers and water-needy landscaping. But with Utah’s soil moisture at the lowest level since it’s been monitored, Cox declared the need for divine intervention.