Governor, read the international climate report | My View ... - Santa Fe New Mexican

Governor, read the international climate report | My View | santafenewmexican.com

As shown by her vetoes of tax credit legislation, our governor does not understand climate change. Neither, unfortunately, does the president, having just approved massive oil leases in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. Nor do many people in Santa Fe.

Climate change is an imminent, existential crisis. It cannot be successfully addressed by moderate, incremental politics as usual solutions.

Climate change is occurring now, and its effects are growing exponentially. What happens by 2100 or even 2050 is irrelevant. The benchmarks should be what happens by 2030 and 2040, and, absent radical action, what happens will not be very nice and will punish the comfortable as well as the poor.

Allen H. Olson is a retired agricultural and environmental lawyer, law professor, freelance writer and donkey wrangler who lives on a mesa near Cerrillos.