Heat and degraded air quality harming New Mexicans is projected to worsen in the coming years, as climate change fueled by burning and extracting fossil fuels cranks up the planet’s temperature.

State lawmakers heard that message from panels of experts from government and outside groups in an interim Water and Natural Resources Committee meeting Monday held in Albuquerque.

Extreme heat is the deadliest natural disaster, killing more people in the U.S. than flooding and hurricanes combined. Hotter, drier conditions also increase and intensify wildfires. It leads to arid conditions causing dust storms and increases air pollution.

The data shows the Southwestern U.S. is the fastest warming area in the lower 48 states, and New Mexicans are feeling the consequences, with 50 people going to emergency rooms between April and May.

With extreme heat growing more frequent and intense, New Mexico has to transform its approach, said heat public health expert Nathaniel Matthews-Trigg, a co-founder of advocacy group Healthy Climate New Mexico.

“The stark reality is this: every summer, New Mexicans are dying preventable deaths,” Matthews-Trigg told lawmakers. “It’s time we shift our focus from individual actions to collective community efforts.”

Extreme heat is killing more people crossing the border

He said New Mexico’s current model treats extreme heat as a matter of personal responsibility, which ignores both science and experience from people who shoulder the brunt of heat exposure.

And while New Mexico has made more efforts to track data on heath injuries and deaths – which are difficult numbers to pin down – members of state agencies said they still required more funding and staffing.

Requests for money by agencies and policy experts included adding six more staff to collect heat injury and death data for the New Mexico Department of Health.

Mann-Lev said that New Mexico’s application for federal funds for $2.5 million to track public health and environment was rejected because of a lack of staff at state agencies to spend it down.

Shelley Mann-Lev, the Executive Director of Healthy Climate New Mexico said the group has been working to establish a statewide public health and climate program.

Supporters said the program would deal with heat, wildfire smoke, drought, flooding, dust and severe storms.

Mann-Lev also supports establishing a $10 million fund to help towns and cities address climate needs.

“That fund would be dedicated at least 50% to communities with populations of less than 100,000 (people),” Mann-Lev said. The proposal has failed the past three sessions.

Deadly heat

Emergency room visits due to heat stress have nearly doubled since 2010 in New Mexico, said Lauren Reichelt, New Mexico Environment Department’s director at the Environmental Health Division.

When temperatures rise above 90 degrees, so do visits in southern and northwestern NM, many of them outdoor workers, men between 18- and 44-years-old, Reichelt said.

Heat stroke and heat exhaustion in New Mexico emergency rooms rose from 200 visits to over 400 visits. Those are only for those specific conditions, Reichelt said, the real impacts are much larger since heat exacerbates heart and kidney conditions.

“If you wanted the real number, you’d have to add a zero at the end and either double or even quintuple it,” she said about estimates on heat-related injuries.

The New Mexico Environment Department ascribed 900 emergency room visits to heat in 2023. This year, there have already been 600 visits due to heat, Reichelt said.

Matthews-Trigg said most existing interventions on extreme heat are ineffective and a waste of money.

“Telling someone to get somewhere cooler, if they don’t have access to transportation is pointless,” he said. “Setting up cooling centers that are not welcoming, that don’t allow pets or in inaccessible locations will mean the people that need them are unable to go to them.”

Another recommendation is to offer people help with energy bills, since some research shows people don’t use air conditioning or swamp coolers out of financial hardship.

“People literally cook inside their homes because they can’t pay a few dollars to stay cool. This is an incredible injustice,” Matthews-Trigg said.

Gerilyn Antonio, the tribal liaison for the New Mexico Alliance of Health Councils, requested that the state work to consult with tribes, provide tribal-level data, rather than just county-specific data.

“There’s not a comprehensive picture of how tribal communities in our state are affected,” Antonio said about heat.

She said the legislature needs to increase funding for state agencies and work to improve communications to Pueblos.

Sen. Liz Stefanics (D-Cerillos) said the legislature might consider combining the state agencies with climate bureaus or divisions under one office.

“If we could bring together the entities that are working in this, we might be able to better fund something as a whole, rather than piecemeal,” Stefanics said.

Pollution, wildfire smoke and dust

Extreme heat and drought are worsening New Mexico’s air quality said JoAnna Strother, who directs advocacy for the American Lung Association in the Southwest.

Ozone, also known as smog, worsens in high heat, causing a “sunburn” effect on the lungs and worsening or causing lung diseases.

Particle pollution means very tiny amounts of solids and liquids inhaled into the lungs. The pollution is sometimes due to wildfire, but also just emissions from gasoline, diesel or wood fuels.

“Particle pollution can be very dangerous to breathe, especially at higher concentrations. It can trigger illness, hospitalization, and premature death and can even cause lung cancer,” Strother said.

Just over half of New Mexicans live in a county with at least one failing air grade and 32% of New Mexicans live in counties with three failing grades for air quality, she said.

Las Cruces is the 15th most polluted city for ozone, and Albuquerque the 21st in national rankings. But it isn’t just urban areas affected, Eddy County ranked as the 17th most polluted county for ozone in the U.S.

Particle pollution has also worsened in both Albuquerque and Las Cruces, she said.

Maxine Paul, the former chair of the Albuquerque Air Quality Control Board said the legislature’s passage of a bill to reduce pollution from cars and trucks is still being implemented, but that it will work to reduce pollution.

The New Mexico Environment Department only has seven staff to travel around the state, measure, and collect data on air pollution, said Dana Bahar, the deputy director of the Environmental Protection Division.

‘There’s no future where our landscapes are not flammable’

Wildfires and smoke are inevitable in New Mexico, said Matthew Hurteau, a professor studying fire ecology at the University of New Mexico, but the state can do more to limit smoke exposure.

Climate change’s drying effect has made New Mexico’s forests more flammable, meaning the devastating 2022 fire season is projected to become “fairly normal,” as the atmosphere warms and dries, he said.

His research shows forest management is key to reducing pollution from these fires.

“If we restore frequent fire to these forests, through mechanical thinning, and prescribed burning, we can significantly reduce the amount of emissions that are happening, particularly in large doses,” he said.

Elimination of wildfire isn’t an option.

“There’s no future where our landscapes are not flammable in New Mexico,” Hurteau said. “Anyone who tells you that we can manage smoke impacts by putting out wildfire is delusional.”

He said the state needs to do more to clean people’s air, such as offering air purifiers in rural communities.

In addition to air purifiers, wearing properly fitted N95 masks filters out harmful particles and works to protect peoples’ lungs from wildfire smoke and other pollution, said Strother.

How you can protect your community from wildfire smoke

‘Albatross around our neck’

One top lawmaker expressed frustrations at New Mexico Environment Department Secretary James Kenney, saying the administration and agency is failing to display a sense of urgency.

Senate Pro Tem Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) invoked 18th century poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” saying New Mexico had an inescapable burden in relying on fossil fuels.

“We all have this albatross around our neck, thanking oil and gas for giving us funding, at the same time trying desperately to keep them from destroying the Earth.”

She asked Kenney what is preventing the environment department from being at full staffing, asking if the governor requested the agency to keep its budget flat, if it can’t pay enough for staff, or a combination of issues.

Kenney said he feels Stewart’s sense of urgency, but the environment department lacks an office for 167 of its staff, and said state hiring remains slow.

“We have no shortage of people wanting to work there. We just need quicker processing to get them in the door,” Kenney said.

Stewart said she wants New Mexico to be seen by the rest of the country as a model for addressing climate change, boldly addressing public health and economic impacts.

“You can’t say that about us right now. Little tiny steps,” she said pantomiming footprints with her hands. “Little tiny steps while the Earth is burning.”

‘She will get the job done,’ congresswoman says

President Joe Biden handily won New Mexico’s primary election earlier this year, and most of the state’s delegates who were pledged to him are starting to coalesce around Vice President Kamala Harris to take the top of the ticket.

New Mexico’s presidential delegates will represent the state at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.

They will elect the next Democratic nominee for U.S. president and vice president, and determine the national party’s platform when the DNC takes place Aug. 19 through 22.

New Mexico has 45 delegates, and three alternates.

In the 24 hours following Biden’s announcement that he won’t seek reelection, high-ranking elected officials in the Democratic Party of New Mexico released statements backing his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president.

New Mexico’s 11 automatic delegates, according to party rules, include DNC members who live in the state, and any Democrats elected to be U.S. president, vice president, governor, members of Congress, and other distinguished party leaders.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham joined every Democratic governor in the U.S. and endorsed Harris on Monday morning, calling her the “party’s most effective voice in the fight to restore reproductive health care rights.”

“A former prosecutor, Vice President Harris is best equipped to make the case against convicted felon Donald Trump,” Lujan Grisham said.

New Mexico’s entire Congressional delegation endorsed Harris on Sunday afternoon.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez said Harris “will bring renewed energy, unity and vibrancy to this race.”

“She will get the job done,” Fernandez said of Harris.

DPNM Chair Jessica Velasquez and Vice Chair Manny Crespin endorsed Harris on Sunday evening.

“From Attorney General of California, U.S. Senator, and Vice President, Kamala Harris’ resume speaks volumes to her qualifications,” they wrote in a news release. “New Mexico Democrats believe our Party’s best days are ahead of us and are thrilled to do our part to make Kamala Harris the first woman and Asian-American President of the United States.”

With Biden watching, Harris on Monday gave a speech from Wilmington, Delaware to staff to kick off the run, setting the tone she will take on against Trump.

“They lead to inequality and economic injustice, we are not going back,” Harris said.

She also said she wants to pass gun safety measures like red-flag laws and mandatory background checks for new gun purchases. Reproductive health measures in her speech offered a stark contrast to Trump.

“The government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said.

“In the next 106 days we have work to do, we have doors to knock on, we have phone calls to make, and we have an election to win,” she said.

Harris’ running mate not yet known

Twenty-three of New Mexico’s delegates were elected at three district-level party conventions in June.

John Dyrcz, of Albuquerque, is a delegate for Congressional District 1. He is supporting Harris. He said he doesn’t have a preference for a vice presidential running mate but said, “we need somebody who can blunt the things that J.D. Vance might bring to the Republican ticket.”

He suggested someone from a Rust Belt or Appalachian state, like North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, for example.

Augustine Montoya, of Torrance County, is a delegate for the same congressional district. He is supporting Harris. He said he has no opinion on a vice presidential nominee, but he trusts Harris to pick one.

Montoya said LGBTQ+ rights are essential to any platform, and he wants to bring that message to the DNC in Chicago and back to rural New Mexico.

CD3 delegate Isaac Dakota Casados, of Santa Fe, is also the New Mexico Democratic Party secretary. He endorsed Harris along with the party’s other executive officers.

New Mexico’s seven at-large delegates, along with the three alternates, are determined by the results of the statewide primary vote and were elected by county-level delegates at the DPNM post-primary state convention in June.

At-large delegate Rayellen Smith, of Albuquerque, is also the state party’s treasurer, and she endorsed Harris along with the party’s other officers.

New Mexico’s four pledged party leaders and elected official delegates, according to party rules, include big city mayors and statewide elected officials, state legislative leaders, state lawmakers, and other elected officials and party leaders at the state and local levels.

One of them is Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, a former state senator.

“I look forward to the opportunity to play a role in this historic and important process,” he said. “With so much on the line for our families, I’m grateful for the opportunity to help shape the direction of our country at this critical moment.”

Editor Shaun Griswold contributed reporting to this story.

Austin Fisher is a journalist based in Santa Fe. He has worked for newspapers in New Mexico and his home state of Kansas, including the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Garden City Telegram, the Rio Grande SUN and the Santa Fe Reporter. Since starting a full-time career in reporting in 2015, he’s aimed to use journalism to lift up voices that typically go unheard in public debates around economic inequality, policing and environmental racism.

After weeks of intense media speculation and sustained pressure from Democratic lawmakers, major donors, and senior advisors, President Joe Biden has announced that he is bowing out of the presidential race. He is the first sitting president to step aside so close to Election Day. “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus entirely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter on Sunday.

He endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to take his place. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” he said in another statement. Not long after, Harris announced via the Biden campaign that she intends to run for president. “I am honored to have the president’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she said.

During his term, President Biden managed to shepherd a surprising number of major policies into law with a razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate. His crowning achievement is signing the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA — the biggest climate spending law in U.S. history, with the potential to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 42 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. In announcing his withdrawal, Biden called it “the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world.”

Despite his legislative successes, the 81-year-old Democrat couldn’t weather widespread blowback following a debate performance in June in which he appeared frail and struck many in his party as ill-equipped to lead the country for another four years. He will leave office with a portion of his proposed climate agenda unpassed and the U.S. still projected to miss his administration’s goal of reducing emissions at least 50 percent by 2030.

Former president Donald Trump has vowed to undo many of the policies Biden accomplished if he becomes president, including parts of the IRA. And scores of his key advisors and former members of his presidential administration contributed to a blueprint that advocates for scrapping the vast majority of the nation’s climate and environmental protections. Whichever Democrat runs against Trump has a weighty mandate: protect America’s already-tenuous climate and environmental legacy from Republican attacks.

With Biden’s endorsement, Vice President Harris, a former U.S. senator from California, is the favored Democratic nominee, but that doesn’t mean she will automatically get the nomination. There are fewer than 30 days until the Democratic National Convention on August 19. The thousands of Democratic delegates who already cast their votes for Biden will either decide on a nominee before the convention, or hold an open convention to find their new candidate — something that hasn’t been done since 1968.

As vice president, Harris argued for the allocation of $20 billion for the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, aimed at aiding disadvantaged communities facing climate impacts, and frequently promoted the IRA at events, touting the bill’s investments in clean energy jobs, including installation of energy-efficient lighting, and replacing gas furnaces with electric heat pumps. She was also the highest-ranking U.S. official to attend the international climate talks at COP28 in Dubai last year, where she announced a U.S. commitment to double energy efficiency and triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. At that same conference, Harris announced a $3 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund to help developing nations adapt to climate challenges, although Politico reported that the sum was “subject to the availability of funds,” according to the Treasury Department.

“Vice President Harris has been integral to the Biden administration’s most important climate accomplishments and has a long track record as an impactful climate champion,” Evergreen Action, the climate-oriented political group, said in a statement.

Harris caught some flak for using a potentially overstated “$1 trillion over 10 years” figure to describe the Biden administration’s climate investments. She got that sum from adding up all of the administration’s major investments over the past four years, some of which are only vaguely connected to climate change.

As a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris proposed a $10 trillion climate plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 on the campaign trail, including 100-percent carbon-neutral electricity by 2030. Under the plan, 50 percent of new vehicles sold would be zero-emission by 2030; and 100 percent of cars by 2035. But that proposal, like similarly ambitious climate change proposals released by other Democrats during that election cycle, was nothing more than a campaign wishlist. A better indicator of what her plans for climate change as president would look like — better, even, than her record as vice president, as much of her agenda was set by the Biden administration — could be buried in her record as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and as California attorney general from 2011 to 2017.

As district attorney, Harris created an environmental justice unit to address environmental crimes affecting San Francisco’s poorest residents and prosecuted several companies including U-Haul for violation of hazardous waste laws. Harris later touted her environmental justice unit as the first such unit in the country. An investigation found the unit only filed a handful of lawsuits, though, and none of them were against the city’s major industrial polluters.

As attorney general, Harris secured an $86 million settlement from Volkswagen for rigging its vehicles with emissions-cheating software and investigated ExxonMobil over its climate change disclosures. She also filed a civil lawsuit against Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips for environmental violations at gas stations, which eventually resulted in a $11.5 million settlement. And she conducted a criminal investigation of an oil company over a 2015 spill in Santa Barbara. The company was found guilty and convicted on nine criminal charges.

“We must do more,” Harris said late last year at the climate summit in Dubai. “Our action collectively, or worse, our inaction will impact billions of people for decades to come.”

Clayton Aldern contributed writing and reporting to this article.