Color Us Connected: Encountering climate change at home and abroad

This column appears every other week in Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Tuskegee News. Given that this is mostly what the world is focused on right now, Guy Trammell, an African-American man from Tuskegee, Alabama, and Amy Miller, a white woman from South Berwick, Maine, write about the changing climate.

By Guy Trammell Jr.

At the onset of World War II, the Army Air Forces had 62 qualified weather forecasters, all of them white; the AAF needed 10,000 to 20,000 to monitor daily weather conditions by plane. Blacks were admitted to the training program, but only to become support personnel. However, they moved beyond that ceiling by advancing through the upper level mathematical course work to become highly skilled weather officers, though they were paid less than their white counterparts.

Fifteen Blacks earned their commissions, including Capt. Wallace Reed, who became the first Black officer in the Army Air Forces' Weather Service and led the Tuskegee Weathermen stationed at Tuskegee Army Airfield. Another Tuskegee Weatherman, Capt. Charles Edward Anderson, was the first Black to earn a doctorate in meteorology. More than 40 Tuskegee Weathermen served at Tuskegee.

The world’s most intelligent scientist ever, Dr. George W. Carver, established the first weather station in Alabama’s Macon County. Carver also advanced the practices of repurposing products, synthesizing produce, organic agriculture, landscaping to promote health, medicines from nature, nutrition for health and recycling.

Industrialization and the use of fossil fuels by many westernized countries, most notably China and the United States, have increased global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that raise oceanic temperatures. Ninety percent of global warming occurs in oceans, generating more destructive weather patterns.

Also, the ice caps are melting, raising ocean levels. Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Chittagong (Bangladesh), and Manila (Philippines) are all sinking cities. Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, has plans to move from the island of Java to the island of Kalimantan because of the rising Java Sea. In the United States, eight Florida cities are among the 20 most at-risk from sea level rise.

In the first 12 months of the pandemic, the hole in the ozone layer became smaller. If we can put aside corporate greed, industrial corruption and consumer selfishness for just a moment and realize, as the Mvskoke Nation does, that we are Earth’s caretakers, we can halt global warming.

By the way, Capt. Wallace Reed became the U.S. Weather Bureau’s first Black meteorologist.

By Amy Miller

How has climate change affected me? My family? My town?

Whatever the answer, it has not affected me as much as people who live in coastal towns, or in areas with droughts and flooding, wildfires or glaciers. I drive tens of thousands of miles a year and heat my old house in northern New England with fuel. I contribute my share of greenhouse gases, but I do not suffer my share of the consequences.

I live on a tiny ski hill, perhaps the smallest ski “resort” in the country. It is 175 vertical feet, a lift ticket costs $5 and volunteers run the rope tow. It is open 12 hours a week, when there is enough snow. Last year that was 11 days. The year before it was 15. One day it may be not at all. I also have begun planting my garden before the once holy date of Memorial Day. In Maine, most of us don’t even have air-conditioning. Yet.

Maine’s temperature has increased 3.2 degrees since 1895, and experts expect days of extreme heat to at least double in the next 30 years, according to the Maine Climate Council, formed by state lawmakers to create a plan for cutting emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

In Maine, a bit over half the greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, the council said. The next biggest culprit is emissions from homes, making up about a fifth of emissions. Electric power, commercial sources and industrial sources make up the rest.

As it happens, the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, and Maine is expected to see between 1.1 and 1.8 feet of sea level rise by 2050; that means flooding and contamination of freshwater with salt water. The list goes on. Brook trout, moose and puffins, to name a few, are being affected. Our food sources, our economy, our health are affected.

Powderhouse Hill may be the smallest ski slope around. But like every other ski resort from Aspen to the Alps, from Bolivia to Bulgaria, we worry about the lack of snow. The loss of skiing is small potatoes in the scheme of things. But the most severe effects of climate change are harder to feel from my Maine town. Until events bring the story home, and they will, what are we willing to give up?

There are organizations to save birds and protect trees. Organizations look out for indigenous rights and fisheries. But where is the organization fighting climate change? Who is the natural constituency and do they have the power to make change?

Sacrifices are inevitable, compromises necessary. Are we willing to give up some open fields for solar panels? Some trees for a power line? A view for wind power? Maybe not. Maybe we don’t want disruption in our back yard.

But remember, the whole planet is our back yard. And something has to give, for each and every one of us.

Amy and Guy can be reached at colorusconnected@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Color Us Connected: Encountering climate change at home and abroad