BY KAREN BOSSICK

A “Saturday Night Live”-like parody kicked off the first meeting of the Hailey Climate Action Coalition this past week.

The parody reviewed the problems the world continually faces when addressing global warming and climate change with even the people who believe there’s a problem too often spending their time talking about the problems and solutions without taking necessary actions.

Scott Runkel, environmental science teacher at the Sun Valley Community School, showed what increasing global temperatures mean in Idaho and specifically Hailey. Already, he said, the low temperatures at night are increasing, our snow season has shortened and the number of summer nights with lows exceeding 50 degrees have increased dramatically.

These changes, which are only expected to multiply, justify concern about the length of ski seasons and wildfire seasons, as well as the future of our coldwater trout fishing and clean air, water and land, said Elizabeth Jeffrey.

The 25 people attending the meeting divided into three groups to chart local solutions that can directly impact the greenhouse gases produced by the local community

The group invites anyone interested in joining in to do so. The next two meetings will take place from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 28, and Tuesday, June 4, at the Hailey Public Library.

For more information, contact makeitgreen@me.com.