The Washington Department of Ecology has publicly challenged a draft report by the U.S. Department of Energy, dismissing it as a flawed document that dismisses climate change and its wide-ranging effects. In a bold move to underline the urgency of the issue, Ecology also released a comprehensive analysis highlighting the local impacts and projections due to increasing global emissions, as reported on September 5 by the Washington Department of Ecology's official website.
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson did not mince words when he emphasized the real threat climate change poses to his state's residents. "Climate change is real. The continued assault on science by the Trump Administration is putting the lives of Washingtonians at risk," Ferguson said. Casey Sixkiller, the director of the Washington Department of Ecology, supported these claims, highlighting that the climate crisis isn't a speculative concern but a current reality. "This is not a game – wildfire smoke, heat waves and drought are putting lives and livelihoods at risk here in Washington," Sixkiller told the Washington Department of Ecology.
In a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Sixkiller contended the draft report's failure to include decades of peer-reviewed research and suggested it underscores a broader denial of human-caused climate change being a serious environmental, health, and economic threat. Ecology partnered with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group to accurately depict the distressing future scenarios for Washington if the current trajectory of global emissions remains unaltered. They predict a worrying increase in extreme weather events that could severely test both the state's infrastructure and the well-being of its citizens.
Expounding on the mistakes found within the Energy draft report, Ecology's review brought to light a number of factual discrepancies, including significant understatements of climate change impacts. Contrary to Energy’s findings, the real science indicates a stark rise in temperature, an exponential increase in extreme hot days, and economic losses in vital industries due to climate phenomena. For example, "Washington has already warmed nearly 2°F since 1900, and our extreme heat days are projected to increase 6-9 times by the 2050s," according to the Washington Department of Ecology. The analysis flags the detrimental effects of short-lived climate pollutants like methane, which deal a greater amount of damage in significantly less time than carbon dioxide.
The State of Washington, according to the same department, has been working towards curbing its greenhouse gas emissions, meeting its 2020 mandate to reduce emissions to 1990 levels and implementing climate policies for further reduction. However, the report underscores an urgent need to accelerate emissions reductions by 2030 to meet the 45% reduction required by law.
