Earth Day: Short Time To Change

By FRANK LINGO

I love basketball and my hometown team, the Kansas Jayhawks, have won the national championship. Afterwards, about 70,000 fans went delirious downtown. I wish some of that passion were dedicated to saving the Earth from the destruction we have wreaked upon it.

Since the first Earth Day 52 years ago, humans have made some progress in plans to protect our planet. In the USA, unfortunately most of that progress was made in the first five years, back in the 1970s.

The Clean Air Act, The Clean Water Act and The Endangered Species Act were all great new environmental laws that were passed through Congress with bi-partisan support and signed by Republican President Richard Nixon.

In the ensuing 45 years, the situation has deteriorated. Now, Earth Day in many communities gets little respect, especially from local businesses. Earth Day has been relegated to kids and committed activists, instead of including wide swaths of the citizenry.

Worldwide greenhouse gas emissions have risen almost every year, causing global warming to continue nearly unabated. The fossil fuel firms have spread disinformation to cast doubt on the facts of climate science, and they’ve bought out Republican politicians, who have abandoned protecting the planet.

A November 2021 Washington Post-ABC News poll showed the disinformation campaign has been effective. The share of Republican voters who say climate change is a serious problem dropped by 10 points to 39% over the last seven years. In the same period, Democrats who see climate change as an existential threat rose by 11 points to 95%.

Interestingly, the poll found that 62% of Black Americans and 50% of Hispanics say global warming is an urgent problem while only 40% of Whites say the same.

So should people believe nearly all the world’s climate scientists or the oil companies? It should be a no-brainer but the divide among voters is a barrier to getting effective environmental legislation enacted.

An April 2022 article in Nature.org summarized the third part of the United Nations’ Assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This latest report focuses on how we can limit any further climate change. It says that in most countries, emissions continue to rise and plans by governments to address climate change are not enough to avoid catastrophic results. Anyway, even those modest plans are usually neglected as governments carry on with business as usual.

The IPCC report says it’s urgent to protect natural habitats like the world’s forests that store billions of tons of carbon. It also notes that we cannot achieve effective action without the leadership of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Indigenous-managed lands support about 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. To help Indigenous groups keep playing this crucial role, governments must formally recognize their land and their resource rights, and funding for climate action should include support for their communities.

The IPCC estimates it would cost about $400 billion to make the changes necessary to agriculture, forestry and other land uses to limit emissions. While that seems like a lot, it’s less money than the government already spends to subsidize these sectors.

Converting our power grids to renewable energies like solar, wind and tide power would be a huge move to mitigate the damage we’re doing by burning fossil fuels. The cost of implementing renewables has dropped precipitously and the conversion would create many new jobs, so it’s a win-win for the ecology and the economy.

Developing greener public transportation, including a revamping of America’s trains, would be another way to reduce the climate crisis. Rails are a vastly underused mode of transporting both freight and people. That would save a lot of fuel and carbon emissions by trucks and buses, which are highly inefficient.

Continuing tax credits for buying electric vehicles could boost sales and help wean us off gasoline. Installing networks of fast-charging stations would inspire confidence in consumers to go electric.

In January 2021, the United Nations published results of the Peoples’ Climate Vote. With over a million respondents, it was by far the largest environmental poll ever conducted. The results are heartening.

When it comes to age, younger people (under 18) were more likely to say climate change is an emergency than older people. Nevertheless, other age groups were not far behind, with 65% of those aged 18-35, 66% aged 36-59 and 58% of those over 60 agreeing that we are in a climate emergency.

Now if government and corporate leaders would only follow the wishes of the people, we’d be able to get something done and possibly avert disaster. Let’s hope people care as much about our world as we do about sports.

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2022

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