In the Rocky Mountains, years of extreme heat and drought have baked the landscape, drying up streams that feed the Colorado River and desiccating pastures where cattle graze.<\/p>\n
The unrelenting dryness has brought hardship upon cattle ranchers, who say their livelihoods increasingly are under threat.<\/p>\n
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers a case in which major oil companies are being sued for the effects of global warming, a group of Colorado ranchers is voicing support for the the idea that the fossil fuel industry should be held to account. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s affecting us directly,\u201d rancher Caleb Valdez said. \u201cI hope the lawsuit holds the largest contributors accountable for the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/picture>\nColorado rancher Caleb Valdez with his horse, Streak.<\/p>\n
(Sue Dukeminier\/For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
The Supreme Court case stems from a lawsuit the city and county of Boulder, Colo., filed against Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil in 2018. It argues that the oil companies have for decades concealed and misrepresented the dangers of fossil fuels and that they should help pay the rising costs of more intense wildfires, drought and heat waves, among other problems linked to climate change.<\/p>\n
The defendants have appealed to the Supreme Court in hopes of blocking the lawsuit, which they say threatens to create financial chaos for their industry, among other issues. <\/p>\n
The group of seven ranchers filed a friend-of-the-court brief<\/u><\/a> supporting the city and county, saying they are \u201cliving through the impacts of anthropogenic climate change that scientists have warned about for years,\u201d and that rising temperatures driven by the use of fossil fuels threaten \u201cthe economic viability of a way of life that has been central to communities for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n Their public stand is unusual. Many western ranchers are skeptical<\/a> about climate science and remain unconvinced that global warming is a major driver of drought and shifting weather patterns<\/a>. <\/p>\n But for Valdez, who owns about 200 cattle in southwestern Colorado, the connection is clear. <\/p>\n Cattle roam in a pasture on Caleb Valdez\u2019s ranch in Cortez, Colo. <\/p>\n (Sue Dukeminier\/For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n The ranchers depend on snowmelt that feeds the Colorado River and its tributaries to nourish grasses and hay pastures for their herds. But this year the Rockies had the least snow on record<\/a>, and they\u2019ve watched springs dry up and creeks dwindle.<\/p>\n The lack of water has ravaged grasslands and left ranchers unable to grow enough hay, forcing them to buy feed for their cows at high prices.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been so dry that Valdez no longer can get water in his irrigation system for his animals to drink. He has turned to buying water and hauling it with a tanker truck to fill troughs for the cows.<\/p>\n \u201cMy livelihood is directly dependent on the environment,\u201d he said. \u201cIncreasingly inconsistent weather patterns \u2014 including hotter summers, mild winters and a lack of summer moisture \u2014 make an already dynamic and complex job more unpredictable and difficult to navigate.\u201d<\/p>\n The stakes are high not only for small ranchers like him but also for the nation, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cIf we end up going out of business,\u201d he said, \u201cthat\u2019s not good for the country. \u2026 It\u2019s not good for food security.\u201d <\/p>\n A water sprinkler sprays a cattle pasture near Carbondale, Colo. The ranch gets water from the Crystal River, a tributary of the Colorado River.<\/p>\n (Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n In their lawsuit, the city and county say the financial damage caused by climate change is immense. <\/p>\n \u201cColorado\u2019s economy depends on snow, water and cool weather,\u201d the plaintiffs said in their complaint. \u201cFor example, the state\u2019s $41-billion agriculture industry is imperiled by rising temperatures and drought, while the $5-billion ski industry is in jeopardy as a result of \u2018low-snow\u2019 winters and shorter seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n They said local taxpayers should not have to \u201cpay the full costs of all that is needed to attempt to mitigate the harm.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Colorado\u2019s Supreme Court ruled in Boulder\u2019s favor<\/u><\/a>, finding the case can proceed under state law.<\/p>\n Then Suncor and Exxon Mobil appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that federal law precludes such claims in state courts \u201cfor injuries allegedly caused by the effects of interstate greenhouse-gas emissions on the global climate.\u201d<\/p>\n The companies said in a recent brief<\/u><\/a> that nearly 60 other local governments and states have brought similar suits, and that damages in any single case \u201ccould reach into the billions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGiving even a single jury the power to impose ruinous liability on selected members of the energy industry is a recipe for chaos,\u201d the companies said in the document. \u201cUnleashing juries nationwide is a recipe for disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in Suncor Energy vs. County Commissioners of Boulder County<\/u><\/a> on Oct. 5. Its ruling could affect dozens of other pending lawsuits<\/u><\/a> by cities and states against oil and gas companies.<\/p>\n The ranchers decided to write an amicus brief after seeing that eight counties were setting aside money to write a brief<\/u><\/a> in support of the oil companies.<\/p>\n A tractor sprays herbicide on a field near Loma, Colo. The field has been left unplanted this year because of lack of water.<\/p>\n (Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Deirdre Macnab, a rancher in northwestern Colorado, was outraged when she read in her local newspaper that leaders of Rio Blanco County would back the oil companies. She enlisted six other ranchers to join the legal brief and tell the court how climate change is affecting them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important for the Supreme Court, and the public, to know that ranchers are extremely concerned and under tremendous pressure,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s pushing many people completely out of ranching, and many people have had to significantly reduce their herd sizes.\u201d<\/p>\n Rancher Jay Fetcher said that with climate change, the snow is melting much earlier in the spring on his high-elevation pastures. He worries about what will happen as global temperatures continue to rise.<\/p>\n \u201cAre those little streams that we\u2019ve relied on all these years going to change so that there\u2019s no water for the cows?\u201d he said. \u201cThen what do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n The ranchers point out in their legal brief that average temperatures have climbed 2.3 degrees since 1980 in Colorado, and that since 2000 the Southwest has been plagued by a megadrought<\/u><\/a> that has dramatically shrunk the flow of the Colorado River.<\/p>\n The river\u2019s reservoirs have declined to their lowest levels on record<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe West is being dewatered in this entire climate crisis,\u201d said Kathleen Kelley, whose ranch burned last year in one of the largest wildfires in Colorado history<\/u><\/a>. \u201cWe are all vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n The flames also came close to Macnab\u2019s ranch. She said fossil fuel companies need to help mitigate the disasters and pay for the harm to communities.<\/p>\n Macnab likened this climate case to the successful series of lawsuits against big tobacco companies<\/u><\/a> in the 1990s.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in an urgent crisis,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the fossil fuel companies have got to come to the table and be part of the solution, and they have to be held responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n To deal with the water shortages along the Colorado River, others have suggested policies that encourage farmers to grow less hay \u2014 which consumes nearly half<\/u><\/a> of the water diverted from the river. At the same time, the drought has driven hay prices higher.<\/p>\n Cattle and other ruminant livestock contribute to climate change by releasing methane<\/u><\/a> as they digest plants. Researchers and climate advocates have suggested<\/u><\/a> that eating less meat is one way to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and benefit the environment<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n But the Colorado ranchers insist that with their land-management practices, they are benefiting the ecosystem, nourishing the soil and capturing carbon in their grazing lands.<\/p>\n Colorado rancher Caleb Valdez with his horse, Streak, and dog, Sam. <\/p>\n (Sue Dukeminier\/For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n \u201cI hope ranchers will be recognized as part of the solution to climate change,\u201d Valdez said.<\/p>\n They also say consumers can help reduce transportation emissions by buying beef from local producers.<\/p>\n Kathryn Bedell, a veterinarian who owns a small ranch near Grand Junction, sells her beef directly to customers. But with the water shortage leaving a dearth of forage grass and hay, she said it\u2019s getting much harder to earn a living. Buying hay for the animals to last through the winter would be expensive. So around the end of October, she plans to sell most of her herd, about 70 animals.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen climate change with my own eyes,\u201d she said. \u201cClimate change is bankrupting ranchers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the Rocky Mountains, years of extreme heat and drought have baked the landscape, drying up streams that feed the Colorado River and desiccating pastures where cattle graze. The unrelenting dryness has brought hardship upon cattle ranchers, who say their livelihoods increasingly are under threat. As the U.S. Supreme Court considers a case in which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7057933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[415,12647,14863,410,11278,17201,7288,2835],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7057932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-case","tag-climate","tag-colorado","tag-court","tag-major","tag-ranchers","tag-speak","tag-supreme"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Cattle](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/1734021\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/9504x6336+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Feb%2Fd1%2F6217df0540ff99ad9c9732664891%2F1568544-enviro-ranchers-climate-change-sd-14.jpg)
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