My name is Elaine Joyal, I’m a botanist and an ethnoecologist who’s lived in Tempe since 1989.

As such, I spend more time than most people outdoors here in the Sonoran Desert, a place known as much for its extreme climate as its biodiversity. Between global climate change and the urban heat island effect, and the population of Maricopa County more than doubling, it’s changed a lot since I arrived. Monsoon rains are less predictable. Daytime high temperatures are climbing; overnight low temperatures keep climbing even higher. Ask a saguaro what that feels like.

Although we need to reduce impervious areas and increase shade tree cover, walking my neighborhood, I’m seeing more structures going up, existing ones being enlarged, and more gravel, pavers and fake grass going down. This, while tree species such as African sumac that once thrived here are dying from heat and drought. Yet homeowners, “investors,” and even one university president are ripping out other trees for bogus reasons. The air is dirtier. The traffic noise from U.S. 60 a mile away is louder. But it’s the increasing heat that’s the hardest for both plants and people to adapt too. Although I long ago learned to live and work in this environment, my body is getting older and it’s letting me know that it’s feeling the heat more too.

Meanwhile, the Republicans have had a stranglehold on our state Legislature for years, effectively hobbling municipalities from enacting legislation to mitigate the effects of global climate change. The Trump administration is likewise in denial, putting profits in front of protecting people and the Earth, rolling back protections and making us less safe from extreme heat and weather. I can not condone their plans to roll back climate safeguards. As the Lorax says, “I speak for the trees.”

Editor's note: This was presented as testimony to the Extreme Weather People’s Hearing, June 26 at South Mountain Community College. Organized by Climate Action Coalition, with my invitation from the Union of Concerned Scientists.