Act decisively on human-caused greenhouse gas emissions that threaten public health and forest health, Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark told a packed meeting hall this morning in Seattle. Goldmark presented his testimony at an event sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to hear reaction to its plans to designate global warming as a public danger.
Goldmark praised President Obama and the EPA for acknowledging human-caused climate change, which Goldmark said is having a negative impact on everyday life in Washington state and across the globe.
Goldmark said a recent University of Washington report concluded that rising temperatures and lower precipitation will greatly increase the annual probability of wildfires in Washington.
“These wildfire projections are alarming. Let me emphasize—there is a 33 percent chance that we will see 2 million acres burn in one year by 2080. That is about 5 percent of the entire state,” Goldmark said (DNR protects 12.7 million acres of state and private land from wildfire, plus assists firefighters on federal lands). “We’ve all watched these fires first hand or on TV and we know they threaten the health and safety of our citizens.”
Goldmark added that forestlands providing clean water, wildlife habitat and recreation opportunities for citizens also sequester the very carbon emissions that are causing climate change.
“We must do everything we can to protect the health of our forests—for the health of the planet that our children and grandchildren will inherit,” Goldmark said.
Read Commissioner Goldmark’s complete remarks to the EPA meeting today.
