Negative
stories often dominate the news so I was heartened on a recent Saturday by two
articles in the Valley Voices section of The Bee. In the first, John Minkler
described his civic education program, in which students are taught to be
participants in our democracy, not just passive observers. These fortunate
students are learning by doing, the best kind of learning there is. Kudos to
those teachers he works with who are willing to put in the extra time and energy
that this kind of program requires.
Then
to my surprise, an article directly below Minkler’s described an inspiring
example of this type of active citizenship. Pauline Torres, fresh out of high
school, described her concern about her future and the future of others in
regard to climate change. Her care and concern took her to Washington, D.C.,
where she advocated for a House bill, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend
Act. Pauline is working toward solutions for this global crisis.
Because of the resources and scientific capabilities of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, penicillin saved the lives of thousands of soldiers during World
War II. The drug had been discovered in Britain in 1928, but it was not until
1942 that a small amount from Britain was nurtured by a division of the USDA
into the thousands of doses needed by the military.
That USDA division,
the Agricultural Research Services (ARS), is still doing great science, but the
Trump administration has stopped promoting any research which shows the negative
effects of climate change on food production. Since January 2017, the ARS has
publicized just two climate-related studies, both favorable to the meat
industry. Dozens of climate-related studies have been ignored, including a major
study showing that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment, a fact that
will affect hundreds of millions of people.
Climate change is a daunting
challenge, but the more we understand how it will affect the planet, the better
we will be able to mitigate the damage. The administration's head-in-the-sand
approach assures an ever more dreadful future.
I’m feeling grateful to three Republican members of
Congress who joined Democrats to vote for the Climate Action Now Act (HR 9),
which would prevent the administration from pulling out of the Paris climate
accord. They are Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of
Pennsylvania and Vern Buchanan of Florida. Having seen the suffering caused by
sea level rise and more dangerous storms, they courageously put the welfare of
their constituents above party politics.
Likewise, I appreciate Reps. Jim Costa and TJ Cox,
who also voted for this resolution. They are paying attention to climate
scientists and constituents who advise that addressing climate change now will
save lives and cost far less than ignoring the problem.
Polls show that voters prefer candidates and
politicians who reach across the aisle to work with members of other parties.
Their ability to collaborate enables them to legislate more effective solutions
than those resulting from the “my way or the highway” approach.
Let’s thank these legislators for working together
for the common good.
George Burman summarized the effects of climate
change quite accurately in his Valley Voice last Saturday. There is an
important information, however, that needs to be added.
A bipartisan solution, the Energy Innovation and
Carbon Dividend Act, (H.R. 763) was introduced into Congress in January
and has been steadily gaining co-sponsors as well as support from major
institutions. This policy will reduce America’s emissions by at least
40% in the first 12 years. The fees collected on carbon emissions will
be allocated to all Americans to spend any way they choose. The
government will not keep any of the fees collected. This bill needs your
support.
George Burman (Valley Voices, April 27)
elucidated frightening consequences of climate change, likening human
civilization to the crew of the Titanic in its denial and inaction.
Bottom line: global warming is real, it’s bad, and we caused it, by
spewing billions of tons of greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere.
Yet we may avoid catastrophe if we take action
immediately. We must insist that our elected representatives support HR
763, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. This revenue-neutral
bill puts a gradually increasing fee on carbon at the source, returning
the proceeds to American families as a dividend while reducing
America’s emissions by 40%.
But that’s not all. Global warming has
been understood since the 1970s, but the fossil fuel industry has waged a
massive, unrelenting campaign of lobbying, donations, and outright
lying to keep Americans from accepting the facts. To counter that, we
must also support HJR 48, the “We the People Amendment,” which will
establish that (1) corporations are not persons entitled to
constitutional rights and (2) money is not speech and can be regulated
in elections. We must take back our democracy from the monied interests
in order to tackle climate change and other problems we face.
Robert Pethoud, Fresno
Read more here: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article229973204.html#storylink=cpy
May 2, 2019 This is a plea to Valley religious leaders and
their faith communities. I believe religious leaders try to be good
stewards to their congregations and good stewards for all of God's
beautiful creation. Air pollution in our Valley worsens conditions for
all of us, but especially for the children and the elderly. Our rates of
asthma, Valley fever and COPD are already high and the worsening
wildfires exacerbated by climate change will make it worse.
Religious leaders are in a position to raise
awareness and encourage steps to improve the situation. Letters and
phone calls to members of Congress can lead to action. People also can
join and help environmental organizations. I belong to Citizens’ Climate
Lobby Fresno, which has chapters all across the United States.
We are excited that we have a
bipartisan-supported bill in Congress, HR 763. If passed it will create
jobs and reduce carbon pollution.
To be good stewards, I hope religious leaders and
faith-based communities will take bold steps to protect our valley,
God’s creation, and all life on earth.
Andrea Boone, Fresno
Read more here: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article229882669.html#storylink=cpy
Earth on collision course with climate change. We must act fast if we are to survive
By George Burman
The phrase in extremis is a nautical term that describes a
situation where two vessels are on a collision course and have reached a
point where no action by either vessel can possibly avoid the
collision. Some maneuvering can reduce the severity of the impact,
possibly saving some lives, but the collision is unavoidable.
Human civilization is in extremis. We are on a
collision course with the past and present actions we have made to fuel
the Industrial Revolution, two world wars (and numerous “limited” wars,)
industrial sized agriculture, and a fast-paced, self-indulgent
lifestyle. Sadly, only a small fraction of the humans living today have
benefited from these actions, but the vast majority, essentially all, of
humans living today, and who will be living in future generations, will
suffer from what is happening.
Just as tragic are the consequences to non-human life: the decimation
of forests and grasslands; extinction of birds, insects and mammals;
the death of the corals and plankton that are the basis for the food
chains in the oceans that feed us and give us oxygen. Virtually all
living things on the planet are helpless passengers trapped in the
steerage holds of the ship headed for destruction.
As was depicted in the movie “Titanic,” the
captain and officers of the ship could see the disaster looming before
them, but they denied that there was a problem. At first, they thought
the lookouts just imagined seeing an iceberg, then the iceberg wasn’t
that big, then it couldn’t damage the ship, then the ship was
unsinkable. And so the denial and delusion went on, even as the stern
was 100 feet in the air and the bow pointed to the bottom. That is what I
think of when I see United States senators on the floor of the capitol
saying that climate change is just a liberal fantasy.
Well, that “liberal fantasy” has already warmed
the Earth by 1 degree Celsius since the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution. Many poo-poo this number; “Just 1°C ? That’s nothing to
worry about!” Well, we can see the effects of 1°C warming by just
looking at what has already occurred: Two “500-year” storms hitting
Houston within months of each other; unprecedented flooding in the
Midwest that recently occurred; historic amounts of snow and ice across
the United States; loss of sea ice in the Arctic to a degree never
before seen; glaciers melting across the globe; hurricanes devastating
Puerto Rico and the Gulf states; flooding from sea level rise in Miami
occurring on an almost daily basis; a tropical cyclone (i.e. hurricane)
striking southeast Africa with a ferocity never before seen; the list
goes on and on.
Read more here: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article229697499.html#storylink=cpy
If the things listed above, resulting from a 1°C rise seem bad, just
wait. The average global temperature is projected to rise by 2°C by
2030, even if we were to stop all burning of fossil fuels by that year.
With the present attitudes of most of the world’s leadership, it is
impossible that we will be able to eliminate use of fossil fuels in 10
years time. More than 190 nations signed on to the Paris Climate Accords
in 2017, yet none of them are on track to reach the goals they agreed
to. One of them, the United States (one of the larger carbon polluters),
has withdrawn from the agreement completely. Our political leaders are
like the officers on the bridge of the Titanic, denying that the iceberg
is a threat. Instead of trying to slow the ship down to minimize the
damage from what looms ahead, we are going full throttle toward
destruction. We seem hell-bent on insuring that the global temperature
will rise by 3-4°C by 2050, maybe by 5-6°C by 2100. Under those
conditions, sea levels will rise by more than 200 feet, and much of
North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and South America will be under
sea water or parched by drought. The regions that provide our food, the
oxygen we breathe, and the water we drink will be unrecognizable. The
human species might not be extinct, but human civilization will no
longer exist.
Even though the collision is inevitable, and is
already occurring, we don’t have to continue at all-ahead flank speed.
We can slow down our use of fossil fuels, we can do some things to
remove carbon from the atmosphere, we can use food sources that aren’t
built on the very top of the food chain, and we can change our
lifestyles. We really don’t have much choice in the matter, since all
those things will inevitably happen once we are trying to survive in a
3°C or 4°C warmer world. But, we can decide to do those things sooner,
rather than later, and hope we can preserve a world that our children
and grandchildren can live in.
It won’t be easy. It won’t be fun. It won’t be
like a class project to see what it would be like to go without meat for
a month, or to walk everywhere for a couple of weeks. It won’t be just a
handful of motivated individuals sacrificing while the rest of the
world goes on with business as usual. It won’t be just the people in one
town, or one state or one country completely changing their of life to
reduce the destruction of a 2°C warmer planet. It will take the whole
planet. The environment will continue to degrade, but just not as fast.
This will have to continue for decades, but, after all, it took decades
for things to get this bad, and the laws of physics don’t go any faster
in reverse. This is not a pretty picture, but all the other pictures I
can imagine are worse.
I am 79 years old. In my remaining years, I
probably will not have to experience the horrors that I have suggested
here. I could easily sit back and say, well, that is going to be tough
for someone to fix. But, I can’t do that. I fear for my children and my
grandchildren, and for all the children and grandchildren of my
community, my state, my country and my world.
So, what can be done? Student demonstrations and
protests are helping to focus attention on the problem, but they don’t
solve the problem. Seeing an elementary school class make posters about
the plight of sea turtles increases the student’s awareness, but doesn’t
directly save any turtles. What is needed is for us to support
political leaders who are not climate deniers and who will actively
promote legislation that will reduce fossil fuel use drastically in the
next decade, and completely by 2050. Support means contributing to their
campaigns and then to show up and vote! These leaders need to have the
courage to stand up to the pressures of the manufacturing, automobile,
oil, and industrial-scale agriculture industries who will cry that
anything limiting their business-as-usual practices will devastate the
economy. Well, the economy is going to be devastated before we get to a
3°C warmer world, and not just here in the United States.
It will be worldwide devastation, so the things
listed above need to be done on a worldwide basis. It will be a
frightening, difficult trip, but what other choice do we have?
George Burman of
Fresno is retired Navy veteran with 30 years of service, a retired high
school teacher and a charter member of the Central Valley chapter of the
U. S. Green Building Council.
