Citizens' Climate Lobby: Unintended events and climate change - HollandSentinel.com

Citizens' Climate Lobby: Unintended events and climate change

As a young college freshman, I was introduced to the premise that problems come in bundles. For instance, no one is just an alcoholic. That dysfunction impacts every sphere of one’s life — health, job, family, and more. So where do you even start if you want to unravel the interconnections?

I suspect that Sierra Club’s John Muir would have understood the bundling concept, but in a more positive light. In 1911, he wrote: "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." Muir’s observation was foundational for what would later be articulated as ecology.

Ecology recognizes the intricate web of interrelationships that exist between all living organisms. Every change in the interplay between species will, to some degree, rebalance a system. Rachel Carson, in her 1962 seminal book "Silent Spring," drove that point home.

Change, even well-intended, rebalances a system; which, in turn, introduces the conundrum of unintended consequences. Consider India in the early 1990s when cattlemen introduced veterinary medications. Vultures, the natural sanitation system, declined rapidly. Feeding on carrion transferred the medication to the vultures. The consequences were lethal and catastrophic.

The demise of vultures allowed rodents and other pests to thrive; they, in turn, spread disease. Carrion, unremoved, tainted water systems. Rabies infections multiplied in concert with an explosion in the feral dog population. Human death rates climbed by 4% and academics calculated $34 billion in economic impact.

Nobody intended for us to have a climate change problem. The negative outcomes, at their origin, were unintentional. Yet undeniably, the burning of fossil fuels has changed earth systems. The negative consequences are now the thing of everyday headlines.

With regard to changing climate, the obvious solution is to stop using fossil fuels. But wait a minute — fossil fuels are embedded in every sphere of our lives. Every grocery purchase, medical advance, and mile traveled is tied to fossil fuels. To quote President George W. Bush, “America is addicted to oil.” Is it even possible to unravel all those interconnections?

Where does one start in order to redirect the trajectory of climate change? How do we walk away from fossil fuels? The first step is the most difficult: accept the challenge. That won’t be easy. Building new ways of thinking and acting are going to push us out of our comfort zone.

Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe defines appropriate response as a 60/40 proposition; 40% of effort will be directed at those uses of fossil fuels that are under one’s direct control; 60% will be directed toward the implementation of public policy. In the end, nothing good happens if you don’t accept the challenge and work at it.

But you can’t get where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re going. Step two is to paint a picture, to share a vision. What does a better future look like? Why is this change going to be worth it?

For one thing, a world free of fossil fuels would be more secure — foreign powers can’t corner the sunshine and wind market. Public health would also improve (the medical consequences of fossil fuel pollution have been devastating). And finally, stable energy systems would minimize the stress on global immigration and financial systems.

The future wouldn’t have to be invented, just implemented, because the threads of a better life — cheaper alternative energies, EVs, and workable city architecture — are already here. Our job is to weave them into a healthy public fabric. Constructive dreaming isn’t idle wishing. It’s an exercise in calling out the possible.

Back on the subcontinent, India is addressing their vulture challenge. They’ve taken steps to reverse the process that set this problem in motion. They’re making progress but India will never get their old world back. The old system’s balance is gone, they’re working on a new one. Let’s say that in the face of unintended consequences, they’re working to bring about intended consequences.

Here in North America, we face a similar reality. The pre-Industrial Revolution climate is never coming back. Climate scientist James Hansen believes that the glacial epochs that punctuated Earth’s geologic history will never return; human influence is just too great.

Recreating a past climate, however, is not our challenge. Our task is to blunt the existing trajectory of climate change. Unchecked, the current trajectory suggests that we are headed toward a climate that will be hostile to human thriving. Getting here may have been unintentional. Getting out of here will have to be intentional.

— Peter Boogaart is a founding member of Citizens' Climate Lobby's Holland chapter.