Christian Noyce

Iowa City Climate Advocates

Conversations on how to fix climate change continue to grow as politicians accept climate science and the negative impacts it has and will have on our future. There is hope as fewer and fewer climate deniers exist in Congress, while more and more Americans believe we must confront the climate crisis.

The scientific consensus is clear: Climate change is real. Greenhouse gases cause climate change. Humans have control over our greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, humans can have an impact on our changing climate if we so choose. National politicians are now starting to use science, reason and expert advice to address global and national problems such as nuclear disarmament, climate change and gun violence. Nationally, we are making progress in employing reason; locally, however, we are not.

Iowa’s water quality remains a hot-button issue, causing strife between the left and the right, the Farm Bureau and environmentalists, as well as rural and urban Iowans. Iowa received a warning from the Environmental Protection Agency, urging the state to act on our poor water quality. The Des Moines Water Works continues with its lawsuit against three upstream counties producing such quantities of nitrate runoff that the DMWW can no longer maintain clean water without regularly updating filtration methods. The increasing costs associated with filtering farm runoff out of Des Moines’ drinking water currently rests on the city taxpayers. Unsafe nitrate readings in Iowa’s rivers and lakes occur regularly now, causing algae blooms and toxin production that can produce rashes, birth defects, blue baby syndrome, even cancer.

Instead of accepting the scientific conclusions that fertilizer runoff causes harm, politicians are choosing to ignore the issues. The Farm Bureau takes extreme stances, ignoring the problem, similar to how the NRA ignores the gun violence epidemic or some in congress ignore climate science. Our local politicians continue to listen to corporate interests and deny that a water quality problem exists here in Iowa. Somehow our officials do not see the problem. Gov. Terry Branstad sued the EPA over a rule that would significantly clean up our waters, the Clean Water Rule. The system implemented after the EPA’s warning, a voluntary Nutrient Reduction Strategy with minimal short-term funding, has not decreased nitrates for the past four years of its existence, yet Iowa officials continue to praise it.

Iowa has a problem. When over 50 percent of our water sources are impaired, we have a problem. When the Department of Natural Resources consistently warns Iowans not to let their children or animals play in lakes because of toxin-induced skin issues, we have a problem. When the DMWW, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, the Iowa Policy Project, the EPA, the Iowa Environmental Council, and Iowa university scientists and economists say we have a problem, we have a problem.

We know our current Nutrient Reduction Strategy needs to be replaced or at a minimum strengthened. Scientists and economists here in Iowa have the solutions. Our officials just need to confront the problem and listen to our greatest Iowan minds instead of moneyed interests. If they listen to these minds, our politicians — and by extension our community — can employ science for a healthier, safer Iowa while still maintaining our farming prosperity.

Christian Noyce​ is a member of Iowa City Climate Advocates.