Pasadena should be willing to spend whatever it takes to fight climate change - The Pasadena Star-News

Pasadena should be willing to spend whatever it takes to fight climate change - Pasadena Star News

What if I told you that the United States faces a threat that caused $93 billion in physical damage to our country in one year? You would think that this is an existential threat to our nation. You would want to mobilize our country to defend against this threat. You would say that this is the most pressing issue we must confront. You would think so, but reality doesn’t reflect this. What I just told you is not hysteria or a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie. It is a fact. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States experienced 28 separate billion-dollar natural disasters in 2023 totaling $93 billion in damage due to climate change. And yet we refuse to act to defend against this threat. It is not that we don’t have the tools to act. It is because we lack the courage.

The environmentalist Robert Swan saw the real cancer in our climate problem when he said, “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” The truth is, there is no one coming to save our planet. It’s just us. Recognizing this fact won’t save our planet, but it is where we start to save it.

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That’s why my classmates and I decided to implement a sorting and composting program at our school in Pasadena so that our food waste would never end up in a landfill again, thereby reducing the amount of methane in our atmosphere. I was awarded the Presidential Environmental Youth Award by the EPA for that work, but more needs to be done if we are to achieve meaningful reductions in carbon emissions.

Our climate problem has grown beyond the choices individuals can make. It is no longer enough if we compost at home or switch to LED light bulbs. We need more large-scale action. Changing the way we generate electricity is one way we can significantly reduce carbon emissions. Power plants produce a quarter of all greenhouse gasses in the U.S. I am part of an organization of concerned citizens in Pasadena called Pasadena 100 that is advocating for Pasadena Water and Power to transition to carbon-free energy by 2030. Why are we concerned? Because PWP sources 38% of its electricity from coal and gas.

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Fortunately, the Pasadena City Council also shared our concerns and on Jan. 30, 2023 passed a resolution setting a goal for PWP to be carbon free by 2030. I was there that night and it was inspiring to see the entire community come together to fight climate change in a meaningful way.

But the devil is in the details. Since that day, PWP has struggled to come up with a plan that will actually get Pasadena to be carbon free by 2030. I have been to enough City Council meetings to know that cost is the No. 1 roadblock to carbon-free energy. I understand that cost is a real factor and must be carefully considered. But cost is just one side of the equation. There is another side of the equation that no one seems to ever consider and that is the damage done if climate change were to continue, which brings me back to the $93 billion in damage to our country just in 2023. If higher electricity rates are a barrier to progress then what is the $93 billion? An acceptable cost for our inaction?

A year after the resolution we are still working to make true the promise of a carbon free future in Pasadena. But I want Pasadena’s City Council members to know that a 15-year-old girl is worried about her future. Instead of worrying about my next test or what college I will attend, I am worried about things that should be fundamental to human life like the air I breathe, the food I eat and the water I drink. I hope our leaders will put their short-term interests behind the long-term interests of kids like me and kids like their own and help us shape a future we can all be proud of.

Audrey Ma is a student at Polytechnic School and a member of the Pasadena 100 Coalition.