We have waited long enough to take action on climate change
When we call for help because of a house fire, we don’t expect the fire department to say that we should wait until it has that great new fire truck with better hoses. We don’t expect the firemen to tell us their jackets aren’t quite fireproof so they can’t help.
The emergency rooms don’t tell us that they don’t have first degree burn experience, so they can’t act now. The police don’t say they are really busy with more important issues.
We expect action now. Despite not having a perfectly designed response, people show up to put out our fire, to rescue people and to keep us safe.
But recent guest columnist Mark van Soestbergen, front-page center in the Issues section, says that’s what we should do for our climate crisis. Wait. Let’s think about it. Let everyone confer, make a decision that will really solve the problem.
“Our planet is burning!” has been the cry for decades. In 1999, the hockey stick graph showed us the exponential growth of greenhouse gases causing pollution that has been changing our climate.
Since then, climatologist Michael Mann has continually called us to action. In 2006, former vice president Al Gore made even more of us think about the ramifications of that hockey stick graph in “An Inconvenient Truth.” Even the fossil fuel industry finally admits to knowing what has been happening since the 1960s.
We have waited. As we continue to wait, companies continue to use obsolete 20th century technology that furthers our climate crisis. Every outdated decision they make now will need to be replaced.
More from Susan Nugent:
High hopes for United Nations Conference on Climate Change
GRU must stop providing natural gas rebates, commit to clean energy
From UN to Gainesville, greater action on climate change is needed
Gainesville Regional Utilities wants a gas plant. Wait! It now wants a pipeline running through the property of 35 landowners. GRU proposes eminent domain to take the necessary land for its retro project.
What has GRU been doing since scientists told us that greenhouse gases are heating up our planet? Will waiting another two years, three years, 10 years make GRU change its behavior? No evidence suggests it will ever change unless city commissioners demand action now.
University of Florida is right beside GRU. It, too, wants to replace a failing energy system with another outdated gas plant. Our No. 5 ranked “academic center of scientific research” wantonly chooses 20th century technology. Will students graduating from such a top-five institution also perpetuate the outdated 20th century knowledge they apparently are taught?
As we wait, developers build more and more homes designed to be gas guzzlers. Those homes could have solar power on their roofs. Those homes could be models of 21st century technology and design.
So while these community businesses dig in their heels and thumb their noses at modern science, smaller businesses have moved into this century. A quick search shows 19 solar energy businesses in Gainesville. Green buildings are also increasing with more builders using environmentally responsible materials and practices.
The direction is clear. At COP26, governments again agreed upon the need for action and what direction that action must take. This time around, scientists added one word to their findings: “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.” We are responsible and we must act.
Countries have revised their pledges to include methane, coal and deforestation. Policy makers indicate that every year pledges need to become more and more ambitious. If pledges are to mean anything, actions must reflect deep concern for our climate crisis.
COP26 recommends phasing out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies. When that happens, perpetuating the use of greenhouse gases will become more and more expensive.
Having just installed new gas plants and gas pipelines, GRU’s prices will continue to rise. We’ll be the ones paying, both in inflated bills and costly global disasters, for their outdated decisions.
Clean energy must take precedence today. Our temperatures continue to rise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report suggests that by 2030 we will have reached 1.5° Centigrade unless we act immediately. If we don’t, if we continue as we are (or in the case of Gainesville, increase our greenhouse gases), we will most probably reach 2° C. by 2040.
We’ll see not only an increase in temperatures, but also an increase in hurricane force, in flooding, in droughts, in wildfires, in all extreme weather events. The money we must spend on each of these disasters far surpasses the expense of making and acting upon good choices now.
Susan Nugent is a Climate Reality Project leader from Gainesville.
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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Susan Nugent: Don't delay action on climate change, Gainesville
