Former senator says Nebraska needs a climate plan

The warming of the planet isn’t a problem only for coastal cities as the seas rise or for Glacier National Park as the glaciers disappear. It will change things right here in Nebraska, retired state Sen. Ken Haar of Malcolm said at the Earth Day Festival at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Seward on April 23.

Average temperatures in Nebraska are projected to climb by the end of the century to a point that Nebraska could have a climate more like southern Oklahoma.

“They don’t raise much corn and soybeans in southern Oklahoma,” he said.

Scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln also think the state is in for many more 100-plus degree days.

“Imagine raising cattle in the same way with 10-degree hotter days,” he said.

The 2014 UNL report titled “Understanding and Assessing Climate Change – Implications for Nebraska,” also projected:

• Little change in annual precipitation, but severe weather that packs a bigger wallop;

• Lower soil moisture because of higher temperatures; and

• Less water in the Platte and Missouri rivers because of less snow in the Rockies.

Haar acknowledged that projections contain uncertainties and all scientific ideas are open to revision.

“Scientists don’t just go along. They always test,” he said.

Still, he said, there is a strong scientific consensus that global warming is caused by human activity.

That consensus is based on evidence from many lines of inquiry – such as tree rings, ice cores, carbon dioxide levels, etc. – that lead to a single conclusion. Material he handed out to the audience noted that a review of 11,944 climate papers showed 97 percent led to the conclusion that humans were causing climate change. A review of the other 3 percent found they did not lead to any one conclusion.

“There is no cohesive, consistent alternative theory to human-caused global warming,” he wrote in the handout.

There’s hope for the planet, Haar said, “but we’ve got to start now because already we’re seeing the effects of climate change.”

He called for, among other things, finding more drought-resistant crops and weaning ourselves from fossil fuels.

“I wish we could just flip the switch and turn off the coal plants but we can’t,” he said.

Still, he said, the move toward renewable energy is happening. For example, he said, more people now work in solar energy than work in coal mines.

A 2015 UNL poll showed that 61 percent of rural Nebraskans favor the state making a climate action plan.

“Politicians need to not be afraid to talk about climate change,” he said.

He noted that the legislature has agreed to creating such a plan and he hopes it will be in place soon.

During his eight years in the legislature, Haar led efforts to encourage wind and solar energy and address climate change. He said his work is fueled by concern for his children and grandchildren.

“We have to do a better job for them,” he said.