Get Out of Town
My Wife the English Teacher and I got out of town recently for a week in Colorado and New Mexico. We had a good time, learned a lot, and reached the conclusion that government officials, especially federal, need to get out of town and see for themselves what climate change is doing to our world.
After driving to Colorado nearly every summer for 30 years, we quit in 2018 after three episodes of hail damage made more common by climate change. This year, we flew to Denver, took a fuel-efficient commuter train to Union Station’s excellent hotel, and walked to the nearby Rockies stadium to watch the Royals lose.
In the morning, we boarded a fuel-efficient Amtrak for the comfortable ride to Glenwood Springs through some of America’s most spectacular mountain scenery. The high country was abnormally hot and snowpack was 27 percent of normal. Snow matters because the Colorado River is a major water source for seven states including Arizona, Nevada, and California. The Lake Mead and Lake Powell reservoirs are at the lowest levels since they were dammed and filled in the mid-20th century.
We took a rental car 370 miles south to Santa Fe, New Mexico. This was my first time driving a hybrid, which drove like a traditional car but with an impressive 55 miles per gallon, not as good as an EV, but double most cars. There were 12 active wildfires in Colorado that had burned 200.000+ acres and nearly a thousand buildings. Smoke was in the air nearly everywhere. We passed a highway department sign saying, “Smoky skies. Do not call 911.”
On the bright side, we saw a large solar farm (pictured: farm on a Massachusetts landfill) and numerous wind turbines that were new since we last passed that way. We also saw two small turbines that powered a hotel and possibly nearby shops. Arriving in Santa Fe, we were surprised at the lack of the usual crowd of tourists. Apparently, high gas prices and other rising expenses are keeping people home.
News reports showed large parts of Spokane, Washington, the state’s second-largest city, burning, with 67,000 residents evacuated and more than 800 homes destroyed. Arson is suspected, but bone-dry conditions and high winds quickly spread the flames. Fire was also threatening Reno, Nevada. Climate change may not start a fire, but it creates the conditions for rapid spread.
The June-July 2026 average temperature in the continental U.S. was the highest since reliable records began. In North Carolina, beachfront homes are being destroyed or moved to higher ground because of rising sea levels due to ice melting near the poles. Overseas, Europe is having its fifth heat wave with temperatures nearing 110 F, widespread drought, and huge fires in France, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Europe has long led the transition to sustainable energy sources, now joined by China.
China produced half as much electricity as the U.S. in 2005; it now produces twice as much and at lower cost. It installed more solar power in one year, 2023, than the U.S. has ever installed. Chinese car company BYD now makes more EVs than Tesla, and China makes at least 70 percent of all EVs, lithium-ion batteries, and solar cells.
In mid-July, Mr. Trump complained to reporters about smoke from Canadian fires, saying, “We gotta stop the fires up there. I never remember this happening over the last four or five years they’ve started to take place.” He spoke over the noise of an idling jet, but his limited intellect didn’t make the connection between the engines emitting CO2 and the climate change he still calls “a hoax.” Trump promotes fossil fuels, which historian Timothy Snyder has called “superpower suicide.”
