PRESS EDITORIAL: On the environment, the people lead

It turns out that the real hoax is the claim that climate change is a hoax.
    The consequences of the unrestrained pumping of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere have arrived as both a rolling disaster and a rebuke to those who mocked the warnings of scientists as environmental hysteria or progressive propaganda.
    The overheated atmosphere has already caused relentless drought that fuels West Coast forest fires so widespread their smoke reaches Wisconsin and even the East Coast and tropical storms that assault the continent in unprecedented in numbers and ferocity, while the scientific consensus is that much worse is yet to come.
    Global-warming deniers aren’t saying much these days. Maybe they are holed up in bunkers a safe distance from the wildfire and hurricane zones. Still, their actions speak of feckless disregard for the reality of climate change. The Trump administration continues to drive an agenda that eliminates or weakens regulations enacted by past administrations and Congress to control carbon emissions.
    This is not what the American people want. The polling is consistent. Majorities of more than two-thirds believe: human-caused climate change is happening; the federal government is not doing enough to counteract it; the president and Congress should make protecting the environment and dealing with global warming a priority.
    On matters of the environment, citizens have always been ahead of their political representatives. In Wisconsin, polling shows that three-fourths of residents support government-funded protection of land and water. No surprise there—this state is uncommonly blessed with natural treasures and its people want them kept safe from man-made predations. Yet in the past decade the Legislature has been complicit in a methodical weakening of environmental regulations.
    Politicians who act to roll back land and water protection measures appear to regard those who disapprove of their efforts as tree-huggers and nature-loving dreamers unable to understand the real-world need of economic growth to be unfettered by inconvenient regulations. A more accurate picture of the supporters of protection is provided by one of the most important environmental issues facing Wisconsin.
    That issue is the future of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, which will be crippled if it is not reauthorized in the 2021-22 state budget. A group of Republican legislators, including State Sen. Duey Stroebel of Cedarburg in a leadership role, is working to deny or limit new funding for the program. The array of organizations that opposes the attempt to starve the Stewardship Program is a telling indication of the breadth and depth of support for environmental protection.
    Fifty-eight organizations have signed a letter supporting reauthorization of the Stewardship Program. Among them are groups representing local government, industry, hunters, anglers, farmland owners, bikers and birdwatchers, in addition to dozens of conservation organizations and land trusts.
    The Knowles Nelson program is being supported by this eclectic corps of defenders of the environment because it has been so effective at protecting the vulnerable land and water that is nature’s gift to Wisconsin.
    The people of Ozaukee County have benefitted directly from Stewardship Program grants that, with additional funding from the county and the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, have provided nature preserves such as the Lion’s Den Gorge in the Town of Grafton and may soon make the creation of the adjacent 132-acre Clay Bluffs preserve possible.
    Drawn by its rugged terrain, abundant flora and fauna and dramatic bluff views of Lake Michigan, visitors by the thousands experience Lion’s Den. Their presence tells where they stand on environmental protection—far ahead of many of their representatives in government.