By Mark Esper

Henry Diaz, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Systems Laboratory in Boulder, says don’t be surprised if the climate scientists in town this week may seem a bit worried.
He said an irresistible force is meeting an immovable object. In this case, the immovable object is the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, and the irresistible force is the knowledge of the consequences in terms of global warming.
Diaz is co-chair of the Mountain Climate Conference this week that brought some 120 researchers of various disciplines and land managers to Silverton to discuss the warming West and how to respond to it.
The conference was hosted by Mountain Studies Institute.
Diaz said that a U.N. conference on climate change earlier this month found that carbon emissions must peak in the next 10 to 15 years, and then fall in half by the middle of  the century to avoid “catastrophic” climate change.
Currently, the Earth’s atmosphere contains about 390 parts per million of carbon dioxide, up about 100 since the 1800s, Diaz said. Climatologists fear “irreversible damage” once CO2 hits 450 ppm, a prospect Diaz said seems “almost certain” by 2030.
Diaz said temperatures in the West from 2000 to 2007 were about 2 degrees higher than the average since the 1890s.
The changes are undermining efforts to manage natural resources, Diaz said.
“It’s the end of stationarity,” Diaz said, saying that a stable climate can no longer be taken for granted.
“We are driving into a fog with unknown perils but with vastly different alternative outcomes,” Diaz said. “We could just hit a humungous pothole, or we could drive off a steep cliff.”
He said the knowledge of what fossil fuels is doing to the climate brings with it responsibility that may involve “profound changes in the way we live.”
“There is no easy way out,” Diaz said. “We are all sinners and we basically need to find a way to redeem ourselves.”
Lisa Graumlich, professor and director of the School of Natural Resources at the University of Arizona, said that “with climate change, everything we think about on protecting land and resources is called into question. Our most pristine lands now have a human footprint on them.”
She said snowmelt in the Rockies is occurring about three weeks earlier than in the past, with profound impacts.
“Warming is now the leading explanation for the larger and more frequent fires in the Rocky Mountain West,” Graumlich said.
And she said wildlife in many cases is not able to adapt to the changes. Snowshoe hares for instance change color from brown to white and back again based on how much daylight there is. Now, the hare may be white, but the snow is long gone, leaving it vulnerable.
“We’re seeing high predation rates on the main food source for lynx,” Graumlich said.
And she said efforts to maintain biological diversity in the face of climate change may require difficult political decisions including implementation of more aggressive conservation strategies on private lands.
Connie Millar, a Forest Service researcher from Albany, Calif., who also co-chaired this week’s conference, said Silverton was a “wonderful place for us to be.”
She said the town is gaining a reputation as a “science community” with Mountain Studies Institute and the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies research facilities in the area.
“But to be honest, we were a bit concerned about Silverton being able to handle us,” Millar said. “We were thinking maybe Durango.”
Then last Memorial Day Millar decided to check Silverton out for herself.
“Coming over the passes and coming into Silverton, it was sold. The deal was sold,” Millar said. “I went back to my colleagues and told them ‘We’re going to Silverton.’ ”