Vox Pop - Northern Wisconsin feeling the impacts of climate change

Vox Pop

In our country, climate change has been turned into a political argument - at this point, it seems like most people have already figured out whose camp they are in and have made a nice comfortable setup there.

What is becoming harder to debate is the impact that warmer temperatures are having on economies. On the nationwide perspective, taxpayer costs to pay for storm clean up has skyrocketed in the last 20 years as the frequency and intensity of hurricanes and forest fires has increased. Private insurance has pulled out of housing markets, like Florida, as their internal analyses recognize that payouts are coming more frequently and they cannot make money in certain high risk parts of the country impacted by these changes. Farmers have also seen rising crop insurance rates due to changes in rainfall and increased variability on when and how intense rains will come.

Closer to home, our Northwoods economies are seeing the impacts with winter tourism. Last year had the added impact of El Nino, but with warming temperatures, we have been seeing a trend of more rain in winter months, and when snow falls, it has been more likely to melt. A degree or two change in temperature can be the difference between snow and rain...

Limited snowpack, thinner ice cover of lakes and for less days - these are huge impacts for Northern Wisconsin. Snowmobiling, skiing, ice fishing all depend on cold weather and snow. Many taverns, restaurants, sporting goods stores, gas stations rely on this tourism to fuel their winter economy. Last year, there was a declaration of a natural disaster and federal assistance to support these businesses and help them stay afloat. But as the changes becomes normal, can we expect every year be declared a disaster?

Economics does not particularly care about whether people understand the science of climate change. Large corporations have been changing their practices for years. Our small businesses are already hurting as we have attempted to turn a blind eye to the changes that have been coming for years. It is time to ignore the politicians arguments that want to pretend that nothing is changing and start adapting our communities and responding to what is happening as we end another December with more green than white.

— Ben Koch, Medford