Here in Lander, as I write on January 4, 2007, there is very little snow on the ground and the temperature is 40 degrees at 10 a.m. That is a far cry from just a few years ago when we would probably have had a foot or more of snow and the temperature could have been 40 degrees below zero.

The national weather service in Riverton says we are into the seventh year of drought and precipitation is 50-60 percent of “normal.” As of mid-November, 50 percent of Wyoming was suffering extreme drought. Unfortunately, what is “normal” is changing.

Great Britain’s leading climate scientists predicted in October 2006, that if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, there will be life-threatening droughts spreading across half the Earth’s land surface by the year 2100. About a third of the planet will be in such extreme drought that agriculture will be impossible.

But there is a chance we can avert some of this devastation if we begin to make changes in the way we do business now. Increasingly, more people are standing up and demanding action. And increasingly, some people are beginning to listen.

The Leaders
Former Vice President Al Gore has been speaking out on global warming for nearly two decades. His award-winning documentary film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” has caught the world’s attention. Mr. Gore serves as a consultant on global warming for a number of world governments.

A number of other international and national leaders also have been speaking out on global warming. They include former President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Sir Nicholas Stern who is the head of Britain’s Government Economic Service, former Secretary of State and advisor to presidents James H. Baker, former news anchor and author Tom Brokaw, and columnist and author Thomas L. Friedman.

A number of U.S. Senators and Congressmen, including Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, have introduced legislation to try to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Their efforts have gone nowhere but with Congress now in the hands of Democrats, hopes are higher for 2007.

Dr. James E, Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has been studying the greenhouse effect on Earth since 1976. Today, he is the world’s most outspoken and eloquent scientist speaking out on global warming. President George W. Bush tried to muzzle him but to no avail.

A number of energy companies are now accepting the science behind global warming and are asking for national legislation. They want to know what to expect in the way of carbon taxes and carbon dioxide removal and disposal to prepare for the future.

In a recent speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., said, “When 90-plus percent of the world’s leading figures believe that greenhouse gases have impacted the climate of Earth, who is Shell to say, ‘Let’s debate the science’?”

And Duke Energy’s vice president for environmental policy, John Stowell, has said, “There’s scientific evidence of climate change. We’d like to know what legislation will be put together so that when we figure out how to increase our load, we know exactly what to expect.”

It isn’t just energy companies that are having a rude awakening. Wall Street investors, insurance companies, state treasurers, and large pension fund managers are looking at the risks now being forced upon them by global warming consequences. Hurricane Katrina’s costs of about $125 billion were a wake-up call. Increased hurricanes and tornadoes, more severe and extreme storms, droughts, and other consequences of climate change are bringing change in the long-term views of risk managers. British economist Sir Nicholas Stern has said, “Climate change presents very serious global risks, and it demands an urgent global response.”

It finally comes down to us. The dilemma we are in is the epitome of Pogo’s famous saying, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” We are the ones who are going to have to make the difficult lifestyle changes and adapt to simpler ways of living. We are going to have to sacrifice and make adjustments we don’t like if we are to save ourselves and the beautiful planet that sustains us. We are about to see the goal posts moved on our comfort zone.

It’s a matter of survival.