Pawlenty and Steger kick off climate talks in Ely

ELY, MINN. - The boreal forest surrounding this town, defining its rugged character and sustaining its wilderness economy, is one of the precious assets Minnesota stands to lose if humans fail to reduce emissions contributing to global warming, a scientist warned Friday at a forum hosted by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and explorer Will Steger.

"With a doubling of [carbon dioxide], our forests will shift 200 to 400 miles northward," University of Minnesota forest ecologist Lee Frelich told about 250 people who crowded into the auditorium at Vermilion Community College. "There would be a tsunami of grass from the west. Minnesota would end up without much forest at all."

The gathering was the first of several Pawlenty and Steger have agreed to host statewide, focusing mostly on the potential local effects of climate change. The Republican governor and the dog-sledding adventurer joined forces last fall on the issue, with Pawlenty declaring it "one of the most important issues of our time."

Minnesota should seize the chance to benefit economically from solutions, Pawlenty said, creating "green collar" jobs.

These could involve clean-energy technologies such as wind, solar, and bio-mass.

"Finally we're waking up to the fact that global warming is real, as evidenced by the audience here today," Steger told the gathering in his hometown of 3,500 people, where "eco-tourism" is a pillar of the economy.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, whose grandparents lived in Ely, agreed that Minnesota should seize the opportunity to become a leader in combating climate change.

"We've brought the world everything from the Post-it note to the pacemaker," Klobuchar said. "I see this as our next major challenge."

Ely wilderness outfitter Steve Piragis, citing the wind storm that mowed downed millions of trees in the nearby Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness a few years ago and has contributed to major forest fires, said the potential problems from climate change outweigh any potential advantages, such as longer summers.

"Can we afford to say the blowdown wasn't related to climate change?" Piragis said. "I don't think so."

Can states work together?

Noting that citizens don't need to wait for their government to lead, Piragis posed another question: "Wouldn't it be great if Ely could become the first town in America to have every lightbulb in town be fluorescent?"

Pawlenty said that in the absence of strong national leadership, action by individual states, combined with multistate compacts, have the potential to become "de facto national policy."

J. Drake Hamilton, science and policy director for a nonprofit group called Fresh Energy and the conference moderator, challenged citizens to take action that they'll be able to defend 20 years from now.

"Our children will ask, 'What did you do?' " she said, adding that the best answer would be: "We did everything we could -- and it worked."

Pawlenty said he still hopes, schedule permitting, to rendezvous with Steger during the explorer's planned trip to the Canadian Arctic this spring to see the shrinking ice floes that demonstrate the effects of climate change in that region.

He said that a lack of 100 percent certainty about climate change and its causes should no longer be an excuse to do nothing.

"Suppose the whole thing is a hoax," Pawlenty said. "The worst thing we'll do in the process is clean up the world and leave a better planet for our children and grandchildren."

Larry Oakes • 218-727-7344