When Policymakers Fail, We Must Step Up
By DAVE FISHER/ecoRINews staff
OK, let’s not kid ourselves. The scientific community marches in near lockstep on climate change vis-à-vis greenhouse gases (GHGs) and man’s emission of them. The natural warming/cooling cycle of the planet is being accelerated by our consumption of fossil fuels. That was made more than evident by the barrage of climate-change charts presented at last week's climate policy seminar and panel discussion held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Su-su-su- Sunday! C’mon down this Sunday to Chris’ Climate Change Chart Warehouse and Dystopian Future Supply Emporium for our fifth annual Climate Change Chart Inventory Selloff. We got ‘em all: bar charts; pie charts; graphs; spreadsheets; charts for every carbon output scenario; climate-change policy as a roulette wheel; output of GHGs per capita, per car, per penguin; polar bear death rates; acres of rainforest destruction per hamburger; CAFO vs. grass-fed cow flatus. The biggest selection of climate-change graphs in the U.S.
I jest, because in all honesty, much of the science that was presented last week was cruising at 35,000 feet over my head.
The policy deadlock on climate change, globally and nationally, I understand a bit more. Globally, the lack of international climate policy is due to the fears that enforcing carbon output limits on developing countries would stunt, or altogether halt, their development, and concerns that the developed world pay its fair share for its continued mass consumption of fossil fuels. In the United States
We need national and international policies that get us to net-zero emissions, and quickly. These policies can't just have reductions in fossil-fuel usage, but altogether phase-outs. These policies need to rely heavily on the renewable energy and clean technology sectors, and advancements in these technologies should be funded through the subsidies now allotted to the fossil-fuel industry, and then some. Restoration of habitats, especially wetlands, can play a role in climate mitigation and adaptation.
Local laws also have a role to play in addressing climate change. Local zoning and building ordinances need to mandate strict efficiency standards for new and refurbished buildings. Laws limiting the amount of new impervious surface should be enacted on the local level as well.
As I sat through the lectures, and panel discussions, the title of the seminar “When Policymakers Fail” kept popping into my head with various subtitles. When policymakers fail ... the world goes to hell in a hand basket. When policymakers fail ... everyone sweats. When policymakers fail ... we yawn. And the one I liked best: when policymakers fail ... people solve problems.
The solutions to many, if not all, environmental problems are the steps that we take in our everyday lives that can have a significant cumulative effect on our carbon footprint. We could blanket this country in wind turbines and solar panels, but if our consumption of energy and resources — a lot of which are wasted — continues to grow in proportion to our population, we will still be locked into fossil fuels as a source of that energy.
As a country, we have to stop being so wasteful. Countless tons of food, kilowatts of electricity, barrels of oil, cubic meters of natural gas and gallons of water are wasted daily. Remember when you were a kid, and one of your parents told you to shut off the lights when leaving a room? Or when they asked you to not let the water run while you brushed your teeth? Or when they insisted that you finish your dinner because kids were starving in Africa ?
Those rules are even more important today, and center on one basic idea: Don’t take more than you need and use what you take efficiently. Let’s add “Give back more than you take” to that and we’ll be well on our way to sustainability and, hopefully, into restoration.
Dave Fisher is the managing editor of ecoRI News and, thankfully, not a scientist.