News & Articles

On June 11, The Guardian’s website posted a piece by Eric Holthaus titled “Major U.S. climate website likely to be shut down after almost all staff fired.” Holthaus reported that Climate.gov, the website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), would no longer be publishing new content. 

This website was receiving hundreds of thousands of visits per month and was considered one of the most popular resources for climate science on the internet. There was concern by many scientists that the Trump administration would begin publishing its own anti-science content.

Also, on June 11, the Associated Press carried a story on its website that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that plant carbon emissions aren’t dangerous. 

Although 19 scientists who were interviewed for the article stated that the EPA was “scientifically wrong,” the Trump administration proposed that carbon emissions from fossil-fuel power plants do not significantly contribute to dangerous air pollution. 

And, as reported by the Duluth News Tribune and Star Tribune, the administration is laying off staff in preparation for closing the EPA lab in Duluth. 

Since the presidential inauguration on January 20, the Trump administration has targeted all federal programs and policies that address climate change. It has announced that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, removing any mention of climate change from all federal government websites, fired more than 600 employees from the NOAA, issued an executive order aimed at blocking the enforcement of state laws passed to reduce the use of fossil fuels, and announced that the federal government will not produce the Sixth National Climate Assessment. 

It’s beginning to feel like we’re a city in the dark. 

Here in Duluth, we’re going to have fewer reliable sources for information and news about climate change at the same time that the Trump administration and many elected officials are downplaying if not denying the climate reality of this moment. 

Given the increasingly unpredictability of climate change, and the growing number of extreme weather events around the country, our city could find itself in a very precarious and vulnerable position for years to come.

There is climate change in Duluth. Lake Superior is warming up and showing signs of microplastics and algae blooms. The region has experienced more droughts. And we’re into our fourth week of air quality alerts due to the wildfires in northern Minnesota and Canada. 

During the past five months, the global news has been filled with major climate events from around the world. The Center for American website states that the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to increase by up to 36%. The Guardian reported that scientist James Hansen is arguing that the climate change target of 2 degrees is dead. 

Researchers at Utrecht University published a new study which indicates a dramatic change in the global freshwater oxygen cycle, with oxygen levels dropping due to nutrient pollution, damming and warmer temperatures. And just today, I read that Alaska issued its first-ever heat advisory, with highs near 90 degrees. 

To be in the dark can be disorienting and disabling. It can foster apathy and withdrawal. And given so many people’s refusal to acknowledge or accept this existential challenge, being in the dark could prevent us from seeing the dramatic impacts of climate change upon the environment and our public health. 

Where do we go from here? 

Rebecca Solnit, in her book Hope in the Dark, talks about embracing hope even when it seems like the present and future seem dark. 

“To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future makes the present inhabitable,” stated Solnit.

How does Duluth give itself to the future? What kind of commitments can we make to ourselves and each other to help our city move through this dark period? 

We must use all our local resources with local environmental and climate groups, as well as the media, faculty at St. Scholastica and UMD, and the health care community, to collectively gather and present the latest news and information on climate change to the general public. 

Also, we need to offer more community education programs on climate change as well as support groups and workshops on climate anxiety. 

And we need to establish regularly scheduled climate briefings for the elected officials and community leaders. 

Maybe, at this dark moment, we can not only dream about Duluth becoming a more resilient and sustainable city but undertake specific actions today to guide us to a more promising tomorrow.