Lake Mead. PC: Pixabay
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a stark warning: societies have not done enough to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, endangering millions of lives, and must take urgent, “transformational” action to avert the worst outcomes of human-caused climate change.
Nevada is already feeling a range of climate change impacts – from Lake Mead’s falling water levels and declining spring snowpacks threatening critical water supplies to rising summer temperatures in Las Vegas and Reno threatening public health. In fact, without strong action to curb climate change, the state could see more than triple the number of heat wave days, which are projected to rise from 15 days to nearly 55 annually by 2050. All of these impacts have a disproportionate effect on the health of low-income communities, communities of color and tribal communities because they often lack the community infrastructure, such as quality health care and housing, to cope with these impacts as a result of decades of disinvestment.
Governor Sisolak directly addressed the climate threats bearing down on communities across the state in his 2022 State of the State speech, highlighting strategic climate investments, clean energy development and heat mitigation as priorities. While these are crucial actions that signal Gov Sisolak’s continued commitment to climate action, they will not be enough to meet the accelerating climate challenge head-on. Nevada will have to go further and faster with strong policy that directly targets – and limits – climate pollution.