2020-10-27_PERMIT FILE - C1981035 (22)

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United States, such as chikungunya, Chagas disease, and Rift Valley fever viruses, are also potential threats. Mental illness is one of the major causes of suffering in the United States, and extreme weather events can affect mental health in several ways. For example, research demonstrated high levels of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder among people affected by Hurricane Katrina,and similar observations have followed floods and heat waves. Some evidence suggests wildfires have similar effects.All of these events are increasingly fueled by climate change. Additional potential mental health impacts, less well understood, include the possible distress associated with environmental degradation and displacement, and the anxiety and despair that knowledge of climate change might elicit in some people. Climate Change Mitigation The projections outlined above are based on the best available data and are reasonable given present regulations and public policy. The current and projected pace of global energy demand, and the mix of supply resources that are estimated to meet that demand under a variety of scenarios, make it likely that the entirety of the carbon budget will be consumed at some point in the future. Recall that the area under the curve(integral of emissions)is more important than the timing of emissions,and that at present global emissions rates the budget will be exhausted in less than 14 years.Anticipated growth in domestic energy demand is likely to contribute to budget pressure even as growth in the renewable energy sector is forecast to continue at the fastest rate on a percentage basis(3.1 percent).Continued demand for cement is also highly likely. It is unclear how or if public policy advancements, technological advancements, free energy market shifts, governmental energy investments and tax strategies (credits), and global collaboration on these issues will take shape to provide for the changes necessary to transform the make- up of our modern infrastructure to one with a lower carbon state.The tight timeline of the carbon budget makes interim overshoot likely, as well as the need to deploy CDR measures at scale in the future to correct for any overshoot if the global consensus still centers on maintaining warming to 1.5°C. Implementing these types of measures and policy changes are beyond BLM's decision authority. There are currently no established significance thresholds for GHG emissions to reference in NEPA analyses, however the BLM acknowledges that all GHGs contribute incrementally to the climate change phenomenon. When determining NEPA significance for an action, BLM Colorado is constrained to the extent that cumulative effects (such as climate change) are only considered in the determination of significance when such effects can be prevented or modified by decision-making (see BLM NEPA Handbook, pg.72). While individual decision scope emissions of GHGs can certainly be modified or potentially prevented by analyzing and selecting reasonable alternatives that appropriately respond to the actions purpose and need, BLM Colorado has limited decision authority to provide for meaningful or measurable affects to prevent the cumulative climate change impacts that would result from the global scope emissions. This assertion is supported by the data presented above showing how BLM Colorado's potential projections could contribute to the global emissions context relative to the latest iteration of the carbon budget. The data also suggests that as global emissions decline the Federal decision scope becomes more relevant to address the issue, and as such we assume that laws, regulations, and policy guidelines will evolve to provide side rails for Federal agencies to follow as an appropriate response. Dunn Ranch Area LBA and Mining Plan Modification 51 Technical Resources Report