{"id":670778,"date":"2019-01-23T04:57:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T11:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=670778"},"modified":"2019-01-23T07:59:38","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T14:59:38","slug":"for-haaland-climate-change-is-worth-losing-sleep-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2019\/01\/for-haaland-climate-change-is-worth-losing-sleep-over\/","title":{"rendered":"For Haaland, climate change is \u2018worth losing sleep over\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_590006\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-590006\" src=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Haaland-Deb-771x558.jpg\" alt=\"Deb Haaland\" width=\"771\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Haaland-Deb-771x558.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Haaland-Deb-336x243.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Haaland-Deb-768x556.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Haaland-Deb.jpg 1040w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deb Haaland<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Elected in November to represent New Mexico\u2019s First Congressional District, Rep. Deb Haaland is among the first of two Native women to join the U.S. Congress. Focusing on her background, national magazines and television programs profiled her even before she swooped to victory on Election Day, outpacing her nearest opponent by more than 20 points.<\/p>\n<p>After her first week in Congress, we\u2019d agreed to meet at the Albuquerque BioPark\u2019s Botanic Garden to talk about climate change. And on a cold, cloudy morning, we ducked inside the garden\u2019s faux-cave, complete with giant toadstools and plaster footprints of prehistoric creatures. Neither warm, nor particularly quiet, the cave is a uniquely terrible place to conduct an interview. Instead of being ruffled, or appearing put-out, Haaland laughs.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the kind of laugh that eliminates any speculation: what Haaland represents to the public has not eclipsed the person she is.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/2019\/01\/22\/for-haaland-climate-change-is-worth-losing-sleep-over\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit news organization\u00a0focused on promoting a greater public understanding of politics and policy in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>If you talk to people in the district, many were excited to cast their votes for a Native woman. A member of the Pueblo of Laguna, Haaland explains that tribes are \u201calways the most underrepresented at any table.\u201d When asked how those proud to support a Native candidate can better support all tribal communities in New Mexico, she says Native people want what everyone wants \u2014 \u201ca clean environment, a quality public education for their children, their elderly folks taken care of, health care for every citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose are all the same things I am fighting for, for every single New Mexican,\u201d she says. \u201cI think if we can just join forces, and we\u2019re strong allies together, we can always make sure that those things are possible for every single person in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Throughout her campaign, Haaland was a vocal proponent of action on climate change. And when U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last year that the newly Democratic-led House of Representatives would convene a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, Haaland requested that committee assignment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI realize that places like Florida, Louisiana, Houston, they will suffer because of the rising sea,\u201d she says. \u201cBut climate change is going to affect the Southwest far more than so many other parts of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the past few years, increasingly urgent reports and models have shown how human-caused climate change is affecting the Earth and will continue to exacerbate everything from sea level rise and aridification, harming the environment, public health and the economy.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists have issued reports and warnings for decades. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson\u2019s science advisory committee warned that by burning fossil fuels, humans were \u201cunwittingly conducting a vast geophysical experiment.\u201d In 1989, NASA scientist James Hansen testified before Congress about the dangers of climate change. And yet, repeatedly over the years, when Democrats have held control over Congress they have failed to act on climate change.<\/p>\n<p>When asked what will be different this time, Haaland notes that a large number of the newly elected House Democrats campaigned specifically on climate change, and they are passionate about it.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe sheer number of us who are going to move the issue forward are present,\u201d she says, careful to note that action on climate change doesn\u2019t mean leaving behind workers in the fossil fuel industry. \u201cI know there are folks who have left the fossil fuel industry to pursue other professions, and it works,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat separates us from the animals is our ability to reason: Human beings always have opportunities to change gears and do something different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s clear that humans need to do things differently. An\u00a0<a style=\"font-size: 19.552px;\" href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/2018\/10\/10\/international-climate-report-warns-of-drastic-irreversible-changes-en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">international report released in October<\/a> revealed that if greenhouse gas emissions aren\u2019t drastically reduced within the next decade, we will not stop warming that\u2019s expected to have widespread and catastrophic impacts on the Earth\u2019s ecosystems. In November, the Trump administration released the<a style=\"font-size: 19.552px;\" href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/2018\/11\/26\/black-fridays-climate-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0U.S. Global Change Program assessment<\/a>\u00a0showing that climate change is already having economic impacts on the U.S. \u2014 and left unaddressed, climate change will deliver a blow to American prosperity.<\/p>\n<p>In that peer-reviewed report, which was compiled by 13 federal agencies and more than 300 contributors, the authors noted that, \u201cthe assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the past is no longer valid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to stay on top of this,\u201d says Haaland. Many voices will continue advocating for fossil fuel extraction, especially in a state like New Mexico that has been dependent upon oil and gas revenues for decades. But the signs of that dependency are everywhere, even in the sky \u2014 the largest methane anomaly, or \u201chotspot,\u201d in the northern hemisphere is above the Four Corners, she notes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we need to put people\u2019s lives first, I think we need to put our environment first,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything we have comes from our Earth, and if we don\u2019t take care of it, we can expect to start losing things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Relocating from the dim cave to one of the BioPark domes housing native plants, Haaland explains why climate change and water are important issues to her. Pueblo people have grown food and nurtured crops in the high desert for centuries: \u201cIt\u2019s always been hard, but we\u2019ve done it,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n<p>She relates a story about the Hopi Tribe, in Arizona\u2019s high desert. \u201cThey would have people who looked out \u2014 24 hours a day, they would take shifts \u2014 and they would watch for when the water came down from the snowmelt,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause every year, after the snow finally melted and the water would come to their land, every member of the pueblo would come out and with their implements, make sure that the water went down to their fields.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was a community effort, she says, their \u201cone shot\u201d at collecting water and ensuring it nourished their fields and crops. For pueblo people, water has always been treated as precious.<\/p>\n<p>Her ancestors ensured she would have a future here today, she says, and she must have the same diligence, protecting land and water, and keeping traditions alive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s worth losing sleep over, it\u2019s worth getting up in the middle of the night to nurture it so that life can be continued,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m afraid that too many of us don\u2019t feel that way. \u2026 I feel like here in the Southwest, with water being such a precious commodity, we all need to think about, \u2018Where does it come from? and, How can we ensure that it continues to flow?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout her campaign, the new Democratic U.S. House member from New Mexico was a vocal proponent of action on climate change. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":590006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[284,3662,147,116],"class_list":["post-670778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-climate-change","tag-deb-haaland","tag-environment","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670778"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670783,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670778\/revisions\/670783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}