Lichen can be seen on spatter cones on April 29, 2024, at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve near Arco. Lichen is constantly eroding lava rocks. This is what causes the different colors to form on the spatter cones. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
Under a hot summer sun, I hiked through the astonishing black landscape of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve . Rough lava scoured the soles of my shoes as the dark mass radiated an oven of heat. It was 1986 – I had traveled to this national park in Idaho on my way across the U.S. to start graduate school in California.
Since then, published scientific field research by me and other scientists shows that human-caused climate change has damaged natural ecosystems. Yet, recent progress shows that we can cut climate change pollution and protect our national parks for the future.
What can Idaho’s Craters of the Moon tell us about climate change?
Cars, power plants, deforestation, and other human sources pump twice as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as forests and oceans can naturally absorb. This has increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to its highest level in two million years. Human activities have also increased emissions of methane (from oil and gas drilling and livestock), nitrous oxide (from fertilizers), and other polluting gases.