When people ask how this winter's above-average snowfall can happen in the face of climate change. RMCO President Stephen Saunders and others point out that global warming doesn’t preclude some cold, snowy months or even entire winters. But overall in recent years, winters are warmer and ending earlier. Snowy Aspen or global warming?, Aspen Times, January 28, 2008.

Report targets state's environmental goals, Fort Collins Coloradoan, December 19, 2007. Environment Colorado releases its Blueprint for Action , 16 recommendations to reduce Colorado’s greenhouse gases. “ The report comes several months after the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, a statewide collaboration, released its own action plan. Part of that plan has already been picked up in Ritter’s proposal.”

In Fort Collins, RMCO President Stephen Saunders made a presentation on the recommendations of RMCO's Climate Action Panel. Conservationists look to city for ways to become climate wise, Fort Collins Coloradoan, November 8, 2007.

Resorts outline global warming response, Summit Daily News, November 9, 2007. A panel discussion in Summit County about the ski industry and climate change includes RMCO’s observations about warming and snowpack trends in the West.

The blue-ribbon Climate Action Panel convened by RMCO in the first stage of our Colorado Climate Project reached decisions on September 12 on an action agenda of recommendations on how those of us in Colorado can reduce our contribution and vulnerability to climate change. The decisions included 70 wide-ranging recommendations, 55 directed at reducing greenhouse gases and 15 at preparing for the changes that will come with an altered climate.   The final report is on oiur Colorado Climate Project web site, www.coloradoclimate.org .  

Three newspaper articles give a good overview of the panel's recommendations:

• Climate action gets energized, Denver Post, September 13, 2007. RMCO's Climate Action Panel, with 34 representatives from government, industry and environmental organizations, wrapped up 10 months of deliberations with a packet of dozens of proposals aimed at curbing the state's impact on climate change.
• Colorado panel aims high to deflect warming, Rocky Mountain News, September 13, 2007. "Colorado must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, the substances blamed for global warming, by roughly 37 percent in the next 13 years to protect its lands and citizens from the harmful effects of the warming trend, a powerful blue-ribbon panel said Wednesday...The result is an ambitious road map for slashing energy use in homes and businesses, cutting carbon dioxide emissions in power plants, opting to drive clean-burning cars and using more energy generated by wind, plants and solar panels. The recommendations likely will lay the groundwork for action by Gov. Bill Ritter and state lawmakers next year."
• Reducing emissions key to climate fight, Summit Daily, September 22, 2007. The recommended cuts in emissions could also save the state some $3 billion dollars by 2020, said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization.

Views differ on warming's effect on grizzlies, Billings Gazette, April 30, 2007. RMCO President Stephen Saunders calls the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s removal of the Yellowstone area’s grizzly bears from the Endangered Species Act’s protection “highly questionable” because of  climate change’s impacts on the bears’ food sources.

Climate report cites risks for Colorado, Rocky Mountain News, April 7, 2007. Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, called the latest report from the Intergovernmenal Panel on Climate Change ‘the most authoritative statement possible that climate disruption is already showing up in the American West as less snow, less water, more drought and more wildfire.’"

Responding to the February 2, 2007, release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Summary for Policymakers of “Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis,” RMCO President Stephen Saunders commented, "The world's scientists have done their job, and now it's up to the rest of us. With the overwhelming evidence in today's consensus statement, it's time for the remaining holdouts to join those of us who want to solve this problem while we still can."  See Western droughts could become norm, say climate scientists, Rocky Mountain News, and Few surprises, many implications, Boulder Daily Camera, February 3, 2007.

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