Badler did an interview Brian Schweitzer, who dropped this uplifting tidbit:
one of things that I’ve done is appoint a climate change commission here in Montana. Not because we think we can change the world, because Montana’s carbon footprint, compared to the carbon footprint of the entire world, is squat, but because we have to be prepared for the changes that are already occurring. We’re getting less snow in the high country that’s melting sooner. Glaciers that typically lasted all the way through the summer are now melting—in fact, about 80 percent of the glaciers in Glacier National Park are already gone and we’re going to lose the next 20.[…]
Montana is the source of water for our entire country. Seventy percent of the water that flows in the Missouri River drainage system to some 20 states comes from the snow melt in Montana. Fifty percent of the water stored in the Columbia River basin system comes from the snow melt in Montana, and Montana is the only place in the United States where water flows to the Atlantic, the Pacific, and to the Arctic Ocean. We are the headwater state, and when Montana is getting less snow that means less water for you. When Montana has dirtier water, it means less clean water for you. You want to follow what happens in Montana if you are concerned about quality drinking water in this country because we are your supply.
I’ve got bad news for you: We’re getting less snow, it’s melting sooner, we’re getting more fires that are destroying this filtration system, and the future doesn’t look bright unless we can arrest this climate change.
That seems, uh, bad. On a lighter note, hey governor,m what are you wearing?
Well I’m sitting in my office right now, I’ve got my feet up on my desk and I’m looking at a pair of black cowboy boots. Above them I got a pair of half wore-out blue jeans. I got a blue denim shirt and a bolo tie on.
Hott.
And as I look on my desk, there are a couple pieces of paper, but the most obvious thing is a big beaker full of bio-diesel and a half dozen other beakers that have got different seeds from different crops that you can produce bio-diesel from. I’ve got a couple of wind turbines in my window. I’ve got a rifle hanging on the wall. I’ve got a solar powered hydrogen generator sitting on my desk. So that’s what we do everyday in addition to having my border collie sitting right here at my feet.
Alright, enough.