Slow-Motion Emergency: Climate Change
Let’s face it. Our current health emergency is bad. Real bad. The economy is wrecked. Millions are unemployed. Worse yet, tens of thousands of people are dying and hundreds of thousands more are getting sick. Everyone is wondering what could possibly be worse than this?
Unlike a pandemic which comes at you fast and worsens exponentially, the specter of climate change is a slow-motion emergency, which manifests itself in the form of extreme weather, an increase in tropical disease, sea level rise, disruptions in food and water supplies and a myriad of other effects. Climate scientist Kate Marvel puts it this way, “Climate change isn’t a cliff we fall off of, but a slope we slide down.”
The planet's average surface temperature has increased by about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit since the late19th century, a change driven largely by increased by the invisible gas carbon dioxide (CO2) and other human-made pollutants in the atmosphere. The planetary climate emergency, which is just now ramping up is the culmination of one-hundred years of exploitation and extraction of the oil, gas and coal used to fuel our modern society. When burned, these materials emit CO2, which for millions of years was locked up in the ground, but now mingles freely with other gasses in the atmosphere. Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists believe that increased C02 and other “greenhouse gases” are extremely likely to be what’s slowly warming up the atmosphere.
Although 1.62 degrees does not seem like much, climate scientists tell us that it will only take an increase of twice that amount to melt all the polar ice sheets on the planet. Should our ice sheets melt completely, sea level would rise 200 feet, inundating coastal cities worldwide and displacing over one billion people. Sadly, we are on the path to reaching this point by 2100. And this is just the beginning. Every degree of warming results in a cascade of adverse effects, including a decrease of 10-15% in grain yields, not good for a burgeoning world population. As the fraction of these gases in our atmosphere continues to increase unabated, the average planetary temperature will rise and rise and rise.
Although many possible solutions have been proposed to address the increasing concentration of greenhouse gasses, the problem akin to a slow moving train wreck that governments and individuals have been slow to recognize and even slower to act upon. Unless there is a greater commitment to recognize the problem and do everything we canto lessen it, we can expect more extreme weather, more disease, more food and water shortages and unfathomable economic devastation for generations to come.
Scientists have studied the problem of climate change since the 1980‘s. As much as I am an advocate of scientists and the work that they do, not every problem can be solved by science. Science alone will not be enough. This is a big, expensive, global problem that will be hard to fix on a planet that is addicted to burning fossil fuels. We simply must reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses we produce.
According to an article by Mary Annaise Heglar in the April 2020 issue of Wired, fixing climate change is not solely about adopting climate actions, but about climate commitment. Climate actions include things like recycling more at home, going vegan and adding meatless meals to your diet. These are all good actions, but climate commitment, according to Heglar is more. It’s asking yourself, “What can I do next?” And next after that. And next after that. It’s a personal framework that defines who we are and what we stand for. In order to solve this massively important problem, we need climate commitment by everyone. That means commitment by you, your neighbors, your town, your government and all citizens of the world.
In a recent survey, nearly half of the respondents said the current pandemic has made them more concerned about the environment. That’s a good thing. We’ve seen how everyone’s commitment to adopt previously unknown measures such as social distancing, hand washing and the use of face masks has resulted in “flattening the curve” during the current health emergency.
After reading this article I want you to feel empowered and to have hope. We need to recognize what’s going on with our planet and commit ourselves to flattening the curve on the current climate emergency ,as well as COVID-19. There are solutions all around us. Now is the time to commit yourself to a climate commitment. Putting the brakes on every fraction of a degree of warming matters and it matters now. You helped save lives during our 2020 health emergency. You can do it again. Your help in committing to the climate change is never too late. Your commitment to the problem never too small to help.