Scientists agree: “Climate change is an existential threat.” We’ve heard these words so often in recent years that it’s easy to become almost numb to the meaning. UN Secretary General António Guterres’ put it another way, calling the 2021 consensus report of the world’s climate scientists a “Code Red for Humanity.” That report was issued almost exactly a year ago.
On this anniversary, it’s important to reflect on the deep political divide that hampers this country’s role in tackling climate change.
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Meaningful climate legislation has been pondered repeatedly by Congress during successive Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, from carbon cap-and-trade, to a Green New Deal, to Build Back Better, to the current Inflation Reduction Act.
Only by the barest of margins — a 50-50 split in the Senate with the tie-breaking vote cast by the vice president — will any movement forward be possible this time around. And even now, this can only happen with considerable concessions that cater to continued reliance on fossil fuels.
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Why? We have to do better than this. Climate change is not a partisan issue, yet it has been senselessly politicized. And to what end?
Last I checked, Americans of every political persuasion, or with no political preferences, were being impacted by the increasing impacts of drought, firestorms, floods, mudslides, and violent storm activity. Climate-related disasters continue to strike with ferocity, such as the torrential rains that caused massive flooding in Kentucky, and the latest fast-moving wildfires in Yosemite and near Yreka. Nor does wealth protect a person from climate change, though vulnerable front-line communities are clearly feeling the effects hardest. Health, housing, jobs, immigration — you name it — are all being affected.
A U.S. Office of Management and Budget analysis in April estimated that climate change-related costs could reach $2 trillion dollars per year by 2100. And even that analysis is suspect because we are now in unchartered territory, crossing climate system thresholds that are setting off dangerous feedback loops, from changes in our jet stream to rising seas to mass extinctions. And how does one put a cost on human lives that will be upended or lost?
Saying that politics should not trump facts sounds naïve in this highly polarized time. But it needs to be said anyway. It’s time for our elected leaders — all of them — to wake up to reality. We owe it to our ancestors, each other, and our children, who deserve better. I am grateful every day for Congressman Mike Thompson, who does get it, and so many others.
Staying engaged
Grassroots efforts around the country are leading an increasing number of cities and counties to declare climate emergencies and to take unprecedented local action.
The Sierra Club’s Climate Emergency Mobilization Grassroots Team, a national group focused on spurring local climate action, has compiled a handy website, localclimateactions.org, where local elected officials, city and county planners, and citizens can find examples of ordinances, codes, regulations and programs that are already working and can be adapted.
Regular readers of this column know that all five cities and towns in Napa County, and the county itself, have passed climate emergency resolutions. Every one of these resolutions dares to say what our national elected officials have not yet acknowledged: that we need to set our sights on 2030, not 2040 or 2050, aiming for zero net climate pollution, and commit to doing no further harm.
By acting now, we can move the dial. Let’s be the leaders we need to be.
Actions you can take
— Subscribe to the Napa Climate NOW! newsletter, napaclimatenow.org, and to our regional umbrella affiliate, 350 Bay Area https://350bayarea.org/, and volunteer for any of our campaigns!
— Express your views during city council and county supervisor meetings.
— Learn more. Check out the IPCC Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, Summary for Policy Makers, at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
Calling climate change "a clear and present danger" to the nation, President Joe Biden said Wednesday he will take actions in the coming weeks on his own to address the climate "emergency," just days after an influential Democratic senator quashed hopes for a sweeping legislative package of new environmental programs. "As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger. And that's what climate change is about," Biden said. "The health of our citizens and our communities is literally at stake." Biden made the announcement during a visit to a former coal-fired power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, that is shifting to offshore wind manufacturing. It's the embodiment of the transition to clean energy that Biden is seeking but has struggled to realize in the first 18 months of his presidency. The executive actions Biden will take include new initiatives to bolster the domestic offshore wind industry as well as a continuation of efforts to help communities cope with soaring temperatures through programs administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies.
Photos: Massive methane leaks venting into atmosphere
A flare burns off methane and other hydrocarbons as oil pumpjacks operate in the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021. Massive amounts of methane are venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian Basin, new aerial surveys show. The emission endanger U.S. targets for curbing climate change. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Patches of land housing oil pumpjacks dot the landscape of the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. Carbon Mapper, a partnership of university researchers and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, documented massive amounts of methane venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian, a 250-mile-wide bone-dry expanse along the Texas-New Mexico border that a billion years ago was the bottom of a shallow sea. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Well site supervisor Jason Brown looks out toward the Permian Basin from the control room of Latshaw oil drilling rig #43 in Odessa, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The constant need for skilled workers drives blue-collar incomes that can easily reach six figures a year, supporting spouses and children who often live hundreds of miles away. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Forehand Kory Mercantel works on Latshaw drilling rig #43 in the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The Permian is the top oil and gas producing region in the United States. On any given day, about 500 rigs are drilling new wells within the basin to boost production. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
The Texas state flag flies above workers at Latshaw oil drilling rig #43 in the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. More than 5,000 new well-drilling permits were issued in the Texas portion of the Permian in 2021, as demand for fossil fuels rebounded after a COVID-era slump in demand. Numbers from the first quarter of 2022 show the industry on pace to eclipse that figure. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A lone plant grows from the dry soil next to a flare burning off methane and other hydrocarbons in the Permian Basin in Pecos, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The accumulation of carbon dioxide and methane in the blanket of gases encircling the Earth is holding more heat in. And there is now nearly three times as much methane in the air than there was before industrial times. The year 2021 saw the worst single increase ever. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A cow walks through a field as an oil pumpjack and a flare burning off methane and other hydrocarbons stand in the background in the Permian Basin in Jal, N.M., Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Pipes sit in a cotton field waiting to be installed for new oil pipelines in Lenorah, Texas, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. The frenetic search for more gas and oil is happening just as President Biden and world leaders are promising to cut methane emissions across the world. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A crop dusting plane flies over a field next to an oil well in the Permian Basin in Lenorah, Texas, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Methane emissions are notoriously hard to track because they are intermittent. An old well may be wafting methane one day, but not the next. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
In this photo made with an Optical Gas Imaging thermal camera, a plume of heat from a flare burning off methane and other hydrocarbons is detected in the background next to an oil pumpjack as a cow walks through a field in the Permian Basin in Jal, N.M., Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Motorman Danny Perez, right, and forehand Kory Mercantel, work on Latshaw oil drilling rig #43 in Odessa, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. Most rigs run day and night, with crews of roughnecks rotating in 12-hour shifts. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A resident sits by the pool at the Ocean Front RV Resort in Kermit, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The oil and gas boom has led to the creation of "man camps," where workers and sometimes their families live in sprawling tracts of temporary housing in the middle of the desert. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Tristan Yperman, 37, holds her son, Grant, 1, in the makeshift yard outside their RV at the Ocean Front RV Resort in Kermit, Texas, Oct. 13, 2021. Yperman’s husband is an engineer with a construction contractor widening the highway into Kermit, a sleepy desert crossroads that has seen its population grow with the oil boom. They have been living in their RV they’ve named Freya for about a year and move around as his job dictates. Spots in the 291 space RV park go for $780 a month, $1,200 for a small one-room cabin. “We never really know where we go next,” said Yperman who is expecting their second child in March. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Flares burn off methane and other hydrocarbons at an oil and gas facility in Lenorah, Texas, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Massive amounts of methane are venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian Basin, new aerial surveys show. The emission endanger U.S. targets for curbing climate change. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Utility poles line a road through the Permian Basin in Mentone, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. The Permian, a 250-mile-wide bone-dry expanse along the Texas-New Mexico border, was the bottom of a shallow sea a billion years ago. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Cowboy hats hang on a deer head next to a portrait of John Wayne at Big John’s Feed Lot in Big Spring, Texas, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. At the burger and barbecue restaurant the parking lot was filled at lunchtime with gas-guzzling American-made pickup trucks. “Can you imagine anyone in here driving an electric car?” asked Brenda Stansel, the owner, who insisted Trump was still the rightful commander-in-chief. Asked if she believed in climate change, Stansel responded: “I believe in God.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A statue of Jesus stands next to graves in a cemetery beside an oil and gas facility in Pecos, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. Oil was discovered here in 1921, and in the intervening century wildcatters have drilled more than a quarter million wells into the layer cake of shale rock under the desert, many more than a mile deep. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A sign warns passing motorists that hitchhikers may be escaping inmates in Midland, Texas, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. Centered around the boomtowns of Midland and Odessa, the Permian Basin is now the top oil and gas producing region in the United States, which in turn is the world’s No. 1 producer. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Raylee Bothwell, 8, holds up her Minnie Mouse blanket in the wind while watching her first drive-in movie from the back of her family’s pickup truck in Midland, Texas., Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021. Centered around the boomtowns of Midland and Odessa, the Permian is now the top oil and gas producing region in the United States, which in turn is the world’s No. 1 producer. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
An oil pumpjack operates under a partial moon in the Permian Basin in Stanton, Texas, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. Massive amounts of methane are venting into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations across the Permian Basin, new aerial surveys show. The emission endanger U.S. targets for curbing climate change. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
These recent heat waves have wreaked havoc on all. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.
Napa Climate NOW! is a local non-profit citizens’ group advocating for smart climate solutions based on the latest climate science, part of 350 Bay Area. Visit napa.350bayarea.org for more information.
Writer Linda Brown is co-founder of Napa Climate NOW!, and co-founder and senior vice president of SCS Global Solutions.
