I’m extremely honored that Western Resource Advocates has decided to post one of my poems on its blog, Western Views: “Global Warming Scenarios: Rocky Mountain Region.”
Some years ago I directed communications for Western Resource Advocates, an environmental law and policy organization active in eight states. WRA works on good policy, whether it’s renewable energy standards, which they helped co-author, better transmission planning to support renewable energy, site analysis that takes into account historical, Native, aesthetic, and production concerns, smart water planning that helps avoid the need for dams, and sound forest and public lands management that keep the wild in wilderness.
While I worked there I read a very disturbing report on climate change authored by GW Bush’s Department of Defense. It went region by region, projecting impacts across the country. The images haunted me; eventually the above poem resulted.
I can’t locate that original report, but I did find a newer one from the DoD that was pretty interesting. Regarding the other impacts mentioned in the poem, a paper from the NRDC covers snow, aspen, and glaciers. You can find out what’s happening to the pika from the National Park Service. And the New York Times ran a good piece on how trout habitats are changing.
I hope you don’t mind checking out the poem, and while you’re at it, exploring some of the other writing on Western Views. Maybe you’ll hop over to WRA’s main site as well.
Note: “Global Warming Scenarios:…” was originally published, in somewhat different form, in Weber: The Contemporary West.
We were so honored to have the chance to share your poem! Thanks!