FORT BENTON, Mont. – In October 2016, Leonard Higgins and four other activists concerned about the imminent impact of climate change took action into their own hands to stop it.
Known collectively as the "valve turners," the five climate activists shut off oil pipeline emergency valves across the country, stopping about 15 percent of the country's oil imports for nearly a day.
Higgins, who turned the valve in Coal Banks Landing, began his trial in Fort Benton this week.
His calm demeanor betrays the fact that he faces up 10 years in prison on felony charges of criminal trespass and mischief.
Above all else, what's clear is Higgins' dedication to stopping climate change.
"For myself, this is an act of desperation,” he states. “I'm not the kind of person that you would have ever thought would take civil disobedient, direct action.
“I'd never had any trouble with the law or courts. I worked for the state of Oregon for 31 years."
Higgins shut off Spectra Energy Express' pipeline importing tar sands, which he calls the dirtiest carbon emitter.
The other activists shut down tar sand pipelines in Minnesota, North Dakota and Washington state.
Spectra Energy says closing the emergency valve on a pipeline is dangerous.
But Higgins says the team planned for months and informed the companies what they were doing, and so no oil was pumping when they shut the lines down.
Higgins stresses the importance of reducing carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.
He wants people to be as active and passionate about this issue as they would be if their "child had cancer," because he wants his children and grandchildren to enjoy this planet. He hopes the valve turners' actions will drive change.
"Like other civil disobedient acts in the past around abolition or around women's suffrage, civil rights, might have some chance to move this issue into the public discussion, change public opinion, and move public policy as quickly as it needs to happen," he states.
Despite his feeling that the public is not directly engaged enough on this issue, Higgins is encouraged by efforts to modernize the power grid and agriculture and thinks the country is ready to move in a new and cleaner direction.
"I'm inspired by all of the work that's being done to make the changes that we need to,” he says. “Obviously, our technology in terms of wind energy and solar energy have moved at the same rate that the advancements in computers did."
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New Mexico's decades-long drought combined with climate change have more farmers and ranchers embracing the six healthy soil principles, tailoring how each parcel of land is managed.
New Mexico's farming practices date back at least 2,500 years but the state's Healthy Soil Working Group said the arid climate and diverse ecology make a one-size-fits-all approach ineffective.
Dave Dubois, climatologist at New Mexico State University, said the recent storm should improve this year's snowpack but farmers and ranchers must plan five or 10 years into the future.
"The scenarios from climate change models are showing warmer temperatures, hotter droughts and then more evaporation," Dubois explained. "How do you manage all that in a system where we still have agriculture as our cultural identity?"
Agriculture is the state's third-largest industry after energy and aerospace. The majority of New Mexico's farmland is heavily dedicated to growing grass, which feeds livestock, provides sod and serves as a cover crop to protect soil health between harvests.
Many factors contribute to soil degradation: intensive farming practices, deforestation, overgrazing, urbanization and erosion.
Ernest Diswood, a Navajo conservation leader, said using regenerative techniques, he has been improving his range soil since 2009.
"We're seeing, despite the drought now, about 21 species of grasses and we're probably between 700 to 1,000 pounds an acre," Diswood outlined. "For the Navajo Indian Reservation, that's usually a pretty good number."
Keeping soil covered is one of the six healthy soil principles.
Ralph Vigil, owner of Molino de la Isla Organics and an eighth-generation acequia farmer, changed his practices nearly 20 years ago. A lack of moisture led him to reduce the East Pecos land where he grows organic vegetables from five acres, to a half-acre. To improve the soil, he now uses drip irrigation and other conservation techniques.
"The acequia sees less water; I've done more cover-cropping to try to help build my soil, keeping my cover present at all seasons because (of) no snowpack, lack of rain and wind," Vigil emphasized. "Wind is beating us up and it doesn't go away. So, just trying to keep that soil covered at all times."
Significant cuts made by the Trump administration to the Natural Resources Conservation Service are expected to reduce climate-friendly programs nationwide.
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Nine in ten people in Colorado and across the globe are worried about climate change and want governments to do something about it, according to a new survey, but they mistakenly assume that others do not share their view.
Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, called this a perception gap.
"The average person believes that other people in their own country tend not to worry about climate change that much when, in fact, the majority of people in most countries do worry about climate change," he said.
That gap in perception has real-world policy implications. In the U.S., almost 80% of congressional staffers underestimated their constituents' support for reducing climate pollution, sometimes by more than 50 percentage points. Leiserowitz said helping more people understand that they are not in the minority could unlock a social tipping point that moves leaders to act.
He pointed to one example where 96% of liberal Democrats and 78% of conservative Republicans supported helping farmers protect and restore soil to absorb more carbon dioxide. But he said progress is stymied by misperceptions.
"If your perception is that Republicans are absolutely against climate policy, then many people might then conclude - especially if you're a policy maker - that we shouldn't be taking action when, in fact there's overwhelming support, even among conservative Republicans," he continued.
Decades of misinformation campaigns, aiming to protect fossil-fuel company profits, play a big role in perception gaps. But Leiserowitz said gaps also persist because any two individuals, not knowing what the other thinks, are likely to avoid topics they believe are controversial, including climate change.
"So, that leads neither of us to talk about it. Well, now expand that to 300 million people, and you can see that we start slipping down this 'spiral of silence.' Nobody talks about it, so nobody talks about it. Which means nobody talks about it," he concluded.
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As Boulder and local governments across the U.S. turn to courts to pay for rebuilding after wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events linked to a changing climate, a new study shows it is now possible to pinpoint specific companies that could be held accountable.
Justin Mankin, associate professor of geography at Dartmouth College and study coauthor, said using advanced modeling, his team calculated a price tag for the impacts of extreme heat, just one climate hazard, linked to carbon dioxide and methane emissions from 111 companies over 30 years.
"The world would be $28 trillion more wealthy had those companies found ways to mitigate the extreme heat impacts of those emissions," Mankin reported.
Researchers found 10 fossil-fuel companies - including Chevron, ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco - were responsible for half of the total losses.
Oil and gas companies have argued in court it was not possible to assign blame to their company's carbon or methane molecules in the atmosphere compared with all the other molecules released. They have also noted oil and gas production has produced numerous public benefits and wealth.
Using emissions data and advanced climate models, Mankin pointed out it is now possible to see what the world would look like if any particular corporation had not produced emissions. He added other industries have not gotten off the hook, including "Big Pharma," just because they produced breakthrough medicines and vaccines.
"That doesn't absolve them for their role in, say, generating the opioid crisis," Mankin contended. "Courts have ruled that they had a role in generating the opioid crisis, and needed to compensate harmed individuals for that."
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed to hold corporations and trade associations accountable for climate damages. Colorado's Supreme Court has heard oral arguments but has not yet ruled on a case brought by San Miguel County and the city and county of Boulder seeking compensation from ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy.
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