Global warming is ruining their way of life. These Colorado ranchers demand accountability

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred In the Rocky Mountains, years of extreme heat and drought have baked the landscape, drying up streams that feed the Colorado River and desiccating pastures where cattle graze.The unrelenting dryness has brought hardship upon cattle ranchers, who say their livelihoods increasingly are under threat.As the U.S.Supreme Court considers a case in which major oil companies are being sued for the effects of global warming, a group of Colorado ranchers is voicing support for the the idea that the fossil fuel industry should be held to account.

“It’s affecting us directly,” rancher Caleb Valdez said.“I hope the lawsuit holds the largest contributors accountable for the consequences.”The Supreme Court case stems from a lawsuit the city and county of Boulder, Colo., filed against Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil in 2018.

It argues that the oil companies have for decades concealed and misrepresented the dangers of fossil fuels and that they should help pay the rising costs of more intense wildfires, drought and heat waves, among other problems linked to climate change.The defendants have appealed to the Supreme Court in hopes of blocking the lawsuit, which they say threatens to create financial chaos for their industry, among other issues.The group of seven ranchers filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the city and county, saying they are “living through the impacts of anthropogenic climate change that scientists have warned about for years,” and that rising temperatures driven by the use of fossil fuels threaten “the economic viability of a way of life that has been central to communities for generations.”Their public stand is unusual.

Many western ranchers are skeptical about climate science and remain unconvinced that global warming is a major driver of drought and shifting weather patterns.But for Valdez, who owns about 200 cattle in southwestern Colorado, the connection is c...