Idaho’s new governor: ‘Climate change is real’

Less than two weeks after being sworn in as the 33rd governor of Idaho, Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, has broken with national party leaders on climate change, declaring unequivocally that the phenomenon is real.In an address Jan. 16 at an event organized by the Idaho Environmental Forum, an association focused on discussing environmental policy in the state, Little bluntly told the gathered crowd, “Climate change is real.” In the stunned silence that followed his unexpected pronouncement, he went on to discuss how he’d seen Idaho’s seasons shift over his lifetime: “I mean, I’m old enough that I remember feeding cows all winter long in deep snow … boy, back in the old days when I was a kid, we had winters.”