Colorado’s wildfires are getting bigger and growing faster, with the worst 20 wildfires in Colorado’s history all occurring since the year 2000. Why is this? Historically, fires ebbed & flowed with Colorado’s seasons, but our continued burning of fossil fuels is fueling the climate crisis, creating hotter & dryer conditions, and making Colorado wildfires increasingly concerning throughout the year.
Colorado’s ozone problem is only getting worse and Colorado’s leaders should be doing more to address the problem. Colorado has been downgraded by the EPA from a ‘serious’ to a ‘severe’ ozone nonattainment status. The Colorado Department of Public Health (CDPHE) is telling us to drive less to solve the problem, yet oil and gas operations cause far more ozone pollution than driving cars. Gov. Polis, the Air Quality Control Commission, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission should hold the oil and gas industry accountable and stop fossil fuel production, especially during ozone season when ground-level ozone levels are highest.
Earlier this month, The Guardian published an article entitled: US Fracking Boom Could Tip World to Edge of Climate Disaster. The article opens: “The fate of the vast quantities of oil and gas lodged under the shale, mud, and sandstone of American drilling fields will in large part determine whether the world retains a liveable climate. And the US, the world’s largest extractor of oil, is poised to unleash these fossil fuels in spectacular volumes.”
Let’s call the most destructive fire in Colorado history what it is: a climate catastrophe.
Governor Jared Polis (D-CO) ran and won on a platform of 100% renewables and climate action. However, his recent threat to veto SB21-200: Reduce Greenhouse Gases Increase Environmental Justice, calls into question where Polis’s allegiances truly lie.
