climate change

A hauler truck transports coal from the Rosebud mine to the Colstrip power plant in Colstrip. Missoula readies for climate change, senior citizens vested in outcome

KEILA SZPALLER

Montana 55

This spring, the Missoula City Council and Board of County Commissioners adopted a plan to address the climate crisis — in the midst of the global COVID-19 crisis.

The challenges the crises bring are intertwined, but global warming has been a problem activists with Missoula Elders for a Livable Tomorrow, or MELT, have been watching for a while. MELT formed out of a University of Montana MOLLI course, of the the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute geared to senior citizens. Roughly seven years ago, students of a sustainability class decided they wanted to keep meeting on the topic, and the group established.

The plan, “Climate Ready Missoula: Building Resiliency in Missoula County,” outlines actions based on guiding principles including the idea to value science, natural processes, and cultural traditions, and to focus on prevention and innovation. Goals cover wildfire, smoke and health; building, land use and transportation; water; agriculture; business, recreation and tourism; energy; and other topics.

Harold Hoem, with MELT, said he and his wife, Jan, have been following climate issues closely for 20 years, and back when they started, it was hard to find any information about climate change. Now, it’s a growing issue and regularly at the fore.

“Now, it’s hard to not pick up a paper and not see something about climate change,” Hoem said. “I think for the city to have kept up with that is a feather in their cap. Missoula took a leadership role in this, of course.”

Examples of goals in the plan

include the following:

Improve indoor air quality in homes.

Increase health care system capacity to respond to wildfire smoke, wildfires, floods and other climate impacts.

Balance competing land use needs in the context of population growth by doing things like encouraging urban gardens and small-scale agriculture to preserve the ability to grow food in Missoula County.

Reduce development in the floodplain.

Conserve water and enhance water storage opportunities, and preserve water quality.

Prepare tourism and recreational industries for a changing climate by doing things like enhancing energy efficiency and weatherization workforce and business opportunities.

In the forward to the plan, Missoula County Commissioners Josh Slotnick, David Strohmaier, and Juanita Vero, along with Missoula Mayor John Engen, and Councilors Bryan von Lossberg and Heather Harp, note the hard realities the community is facing in addressing both the pressing impacts of the pandemic as well as the longer-term and long-brewing effects of climate change.

“The climate crisis is daunting, but if this planning process is any indication, our community has the commitment, expertise, and creativity to take it on,” wrote the elected leaders. “Climate Ready Missoula was developed to build our resiliency in the face of climate change, but the need for community resiliency has come into even sharper focus with the arrival of the public health crisis we are currently facing: COVID-19.”

As the community moves forward, Hoem said it’s time for people to turn the plan into action and, for example, take stock of the moves they can make to fortify their own places. A home in the wildland urban interface isn’t just susceptible to a big fire, for instance, but to ember showers traveling for a mile.

Luckily, Hoem said Missoula has experts to guide it through the crisis, people such as climate scientist Steve Running, a retired University of Montana professor who shared in a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; UM forest entomology and pathology professor Diana Six, whose work is regarded internationally; and pulmonologist Paul Smith. Hoem pointed to elected officials as well.

“It’s nice to have a proactive City Council and County Commissioners that are trying to do something about the issue. It’s so complicated,” Hoem said.

He also said elders in particular are invested in outcomes, and he hopes other generations will be dedicated to action too.

“Time seems to move slowly, but in reality, it moves pretty darn fast, and 20 years goes by in a blink,” he said. “Maybe it moves faster the older you get.

“We (elders) have a different perspective because we’ve been

Crews members of Solar Montana install a solar panel array on the roof of the new educational facility at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.

watching this for a long time, and yet young people today, I just hope they get really energized, because that’s what it’s going to take. It’s going to take a massive effort by all generations to mitigate the problems we’re going to have.

“I don’t see a vaccine for climate change. Hopefully there will be one for COVID.” MT55