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Aug. 1, 2019Des Moines, IA |  By: Whitnee Ice

Iowa voters want climate change addressed

Presidential candidates campaigning in Iowa are facing many questions about how they plan to address climate change.

Climate scientists attribute the use of fossil fuels to extreme weather, like the spring floods in the area. Environmental Science Professor at Drake University David Courard-Hauri is an advocate of adding more renewables to the Iowa's grid.

"We're at the point that buying renewable energy costs less than just buying the coal to run a coal plant, let alone building new coal, and those prices continue to go down."

Courard-Hauri says starting last summer, Iowa has experienced its wettest 12-month period since official records began in 1895. He adds the changing weather patterns are hard on people.

"We have so many systems that are dependent on the weather.  Agriculture is dependent upon fertile soils being in the area where you get certain amount of rain.  And it's really hard when the place where you grew up is not the same as it used to be."

A 2016 Iowa State University study showed only 40 percent of Iowa farmers believe that climate change is caused by human activity and two-thirds believe climate change is occurring. That compares to 62 percent of the general population that believe global warming is mostly human-caused.