Blog Series: Are Public Lands a Part of the Climate Solution or Climate Problem?

The Pressure is On

Photo: Marcus Spiske

As the world battles a pandemic and demands justice for Black lives taken too early and too often from this world by the hands of police officers, many facets of our livelihoods are being exposed for the injustices that they uphold and represent. The effects of a changing climate; including increased heat, flooding, drought, and wildfires has long been obvious to communities, particularly communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), around the country and decision-makers are beginning to feel the pressure to take action. 

Since 2016, the current administration’s prioritization is on an energy dominant United States and the consistent and growing number of rollbacks on environmental safeguards is proof of that. By May of this year, the Trump administration had done away with 64 environmental rules and regulations, while 34 are in progress of being reversed. On July 15th, the current administration announced harmful revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), such as limiting the scope of environmental review and impeding the public’s right for input. 

A 2018 study shows that the emissions from our public lands account for nearly a quarter of the total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Rather than addressing this issue and looking to our public lands as a part of the solution, the Administration has left our communities in the lurch while they continue to prioritize the economic interests of large energy corporations over the people they are elected to serve. The impact of these decisions further feeds into the climate emergency, and the victims of these decisions will be the already vulnerable communities and our public lands.

There is a growing need for federal legislation to reflect the actions that state and local decision-makers have taken to protect their communities from climate change. From the American Public Lands and Waters Solution Act of 2019, the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) in the Senate and the House, to the recently released Solving the Climate Crisis Report of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, it is clear that our public lands are going to have to play a major part in the nation’s solution to greenhouse gas emissions and increasingly volatile weather events. From these three key pieces of federal legislation, there is a call for net-zero emissions on public lands by 2040, an enhanced effort to fund and maintain public green spaces, and environmental justice legislation guided and led by those most affected. 

In this series, HECHO will explore the case of public lands as a climate crisis solution by looking to the communities that have built and sustained the momentum for change. We look to the West and Southwest regions of the United States, where the majority of public lands are and where heat, drought, and wildfires have been raging. Lowering of greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning from fossil fuel based energy to renewable energy cannot exist in a vacuum. The process of lowering emissions needs to take into account the full picture — economic, environmental, health and social resiliency.

This blog is part of a series:
The Pressure is On
Making the Switch
Investing in Natural Spaces
Re-Connecting Landscapes