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While I sit here typing this, it’s raining outside the window in downtown Washington, D.C., where I’m doing a yearlong fellowship. In fact, it’s been raining for days. Meanwhile, back home in New Mexico, folks have been suffering through an extreme drought, even with the start of monsoon rains this month.
As of late June, 99 percent of the state was affected. I’ve been closely following coverage of the drought in my home state. Much of it talks about the cyclical nature of the fire season or the lack of moisture in the winter diminishing the mountain snowpack. Climate change, however, is hardly mentioned.
It’s time we sit, talk and learn about it.
“Climate change is altering fundamental weather patterns — affecting temperatures, water availability, and weather extremes — that shape the lives of New Mexicans,” the Union of Concerned Scientists reported in 2016. That means more extreme heat, more water shortages and more droughts. Climate change affects us all, but some more than others.
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