According to UW-Madison professors and members of the Wisconsin Senate, the state’s climate is starting to experience beginning signs of global warming, and if action is not taken soon, it could spiral out of control.

Following an informational session at the Capitol, panelists met Tuesday afternoon to discuss, “Climate Change and Wisconsin’s Future,” an event presented by the Nelson Institute at Science Hall.

Steve Born, UW-Madison professor of urban and regional planning and environmental studies, facilitated the discussion.

“[The fossil fuel] we’re emitting today is something where the consequences won’t be felt until decades from now,” Born said. “The consequences are already in the pipeline.”

UW-Madison assistant professor of geography Jack Williams agreed, saying too much attention has been focused on whether the climate is changing—a battle that, according to Williams, is finally over.

“People keep speaking of climate change in the future tense, but we’re seeing the effects right now,” he said.

Williams said Wisconsin has experienced an increase of 6-11 degrees in winter warming and an 18-degree increase in summer warming, which is causing a permanent change in Wisconsin’s ecological systems.

Keith Reopelle, program director of Clean Wisconsin, said in order to avoid the worst possible global warming consequences, the nation needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent by the year 2050.

“The task ahead is huge,” Reopelle said. “And as a state, we are heading in the wrong direction.”

The audience broke into applause after state Senator Robert Jauch, D-Poplar, said when it comes to the issue of global warming, he thinks the people are ahead of the legislature.

“It’s time that legislatures start harboring respect toward climate change, rather than resentment,” Jauch said. “We need to put more dollars into the university for more research and development.”

Jauch said he has seen dozens of businesses across the state be forced to close because of the minimal snowfall in the last five years.

“There is no single solution that will be able cap or stabilize the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” said Williams, saying Wisconsin needs “a portfolio of options.”

Johnson agreed, adding that not only does the state need new ideas and new technologies, it also needs to develop these new technologies into solutions.

“We didn’t leave the Stone Age because we ran out of rocks,” Jauch said, explaining that new, innovative technologies replaced original, now-defunct ones.

“The dinosaurs are extinct because they didn’t adjust their behavior—we can’t be dinosaurs,” Jauch said. “People can’t be in denial any longer that what we’re doing now has extraordinary consequences. We’re leaving a legacy behind us.”