2021 has been a year of extreme weather events in Idaho. Among the worst and most unforgettable was an extreme heat wave.

In the Northwest, including British Columbia, a weather pattern known as a heat dome may have caused 1,400 deaths from the excessive warmth.

Aly Bean, climate campaign coordinator with the Idaho Conservation League, said scientists would typically expect an event like this to happen in the region once every thousand years.

"But climate scientists, after looking into the event and doing some modeling," said Bean, "recognized that this type of extreme heat event is 150 times more likely due to climate change."

Bean said there were other extreme events as well, such as a rise in toxic algae blooms. She also noted that extreme weather has effects on economic drivers like salmon, which came back to Idaho in extremely low numbers this year.

Idaho has also been experiencing one of its most severe droughts in history, which has impacted parts of the economy such as agriculture. Bean said the region is supposed to get more precipitation this winter from a weather pattern known as La Niña.

"If we don't get significantly higher snowpack from this La Nina," said Bean, "the drought from last year will continue for multiple years just because of that soil moisture dryness."

Wildfires once again raged in Idaho and across the West this year, too. But Bean said these events may have a silver lining.

"The really poor air quality index for such a sustained period of time and the huge number of wildfires," said Bean, "really brought attention to what we need to do to adapt for and take care of the health of those that are most vulnerable."

Bean said the state needs to decrease its carbon pollution, including through greater electrification of the transportation system. She also noted the need for changes to the agriculture sector, which is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Idaho.

"Finding ways that we can work with farmers and ranchers and dairies to decrease methane emissions is really huge," said Bean. "Also finding ways within the agricultural sector that we can sequester carbon and remove it from the atmosphere will be helpful."

A bill to require big corporations to be transparent about their own carbon footprint needs a vote in the California Senate by the legislative deadline on Monday, or it will die.

Senate Bill 260 would require U.S.-based corporations that do business in California and make more than $1 billion a year in revenue to disclose their full greenhouse-gas emissions to the state.

Melissa Romero, legislative affairs manager at California Environmental Voters, said the data is necessary to fight global warming "because we can't really have a serious conversation about reducing carbon emissions without addressing the corporate sector's contributions to pollution - when just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global industrial emissions."

Senate Bill 260 has long lists of supporters and opponents. The bill doesn't include details of how it would be enforced, and opponents say it would increase the costs for companies that have to comply.

The bill also would require the California Air Resources Board to produce a report that estimates how much these companies would have to reduce their emissions in order to avoid overall global temperature increases over 1.5 degrees Celsius. That's considered the limit to avoid climate catastrophe.

Romero noted that companies would have to release data not only on their energy usage, but about their carbon footprint, up and down the supply chain.

"That is really where the biggest information gap exists," she said, "and also, where a lot of the emissions from large corporations are coming from."

Critics of the bill claim it would discourage big companies from doing business with smaller ones that are unable to meet the greenhouse-gas reporting requirements. California has set a goal to lower greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

A new report analyzes the economic effects of a changing climate on Idaho. It's the first to look at state-specific circumstances.

Katherine Himes is director of the University of Idaho's James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research, which compiled the research. Himes said the goal was to create a nonpartisan, evidence-based resource for industries and policymakers.

"The big key here is those changes - temperature, precipitation and snowpack," said Himes, "because that then influences what happens to agriculture, energy, forests, human health, infrastructure, rangelands, recreation and tourism."

On the current climate-warming trajectory, increasing temperature, changing patterns of precipitation across the state and lower snowpack are expected in the coming decades for Idaho.

An advisory board for the report included businesses, nonprofits and government officials, including Native American tribal leaders.

Kelly Olson is a retired administrator for the Idaho Barley Commission. She said the report allows sectors of the economy such as agriculture to prepare for the future.

"It's a call to arms, I think," said Olson, "as a state to look at that changing water situation and what we can do about that, which we just can't turn on a spigot and change the flow of water overnight."

Himes said it's important that this resource is accessible. She said there's technical information but it also includes one-page summaries with high-level looks at the data.

"There are ways to visualize the information, a lot of tools and resources on the website as well," said Himes. "We wanted it to be as interactive as possible so that policymakers could use it, decision makers could use it, and so forth."

New Mexico climate activists commemorate today's Martin Luther King Jr. Day by walking to the State Capitol in Santa Fe from four directions, calling on lawmakers to take bold action to combat climate change.

The Capitol, known as the Roundhouse, was designed to represent the sun's rays, as well as the four directions, four seasons and four phases of life.

Robb Hirsch founded the Climate Change Leadership Institute nearly 20 years ago and is now its executive director. He said it's appropriate for people to rally on MLK Day.

"It's really perfect on Martin Luther King Day to have the community rise up in a nonviolent, peaceful manner," said Hirsch, "but rise up strongly, to demand action on this critical, vital issue for our lives."

Hirsch said the walkers will convene outside the Roundhouse at noon.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - Santa Fe branch, the Green Amendment for the Generations group, 350 New Mexico, the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter and many others will participate.

New Mexico has long relied on oil and gas to fuel its economy, but Hirsch said the event is less about demanding specific policies during this year's short legislative session than ongoing, unequivocal action.

"There's a lot of equivocating going on," said Hirsch, "because a lot of the elected officials, unfortunately, are taking campaign dollars from the very industries that we need to be regulating."

Hirsch said he believes climate change is a civil rights issue of our time - because while it affects everyone, those most likely to be affected are people of color and of lower income.

"Martin Luther King Day is so vital for this," said Hirsch, "because the Civil Rights Movement - the brave citizens who participated in that - showed us a course of action to get things done when people thought there no way to get the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed."

The New Mexico Legislature holds short, 30-day sessions in even-numbered years, typically focused on the next year's state budget.