As we celebrate Earth Day, Texas could lead environmental change

We are so lucky to be here.

If you do anything today — Earth Day — pause to remember this. In all the universe, there is only one Earth. As the great cosmologist Carl Sagan reminded us in his Pale Blue Dot, every person you have ever known, every couple in love, every bit of laughter, every moment of joy or sorrow, every war, every heartbreak, every good deed has happened on Earth.

“Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark,” he said. “In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere.”

We are the caretakers of this remarkable planet and of one another. Earth Day is a celebration of all that we share.

It is also a warning. Founded in 1970 by Wisconsin’s U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day’s inspiration is rooted in Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” which sounded the alarm about DDT, pesticides and environmental degradation. It was a clarion call for the modern-day environmental movement and radical change.

Decades later, the urgency remains, and much of what Carson advocated for is no longer viewed as radical but courageous and mainstream.

We find ourselves at a remarkable moment — one that might have been imagined optimistically by a science fiction writer such as Isaac Asimov or spun into dystopia by Philip K. Dick. Perhaps it is a bit of both.

While artificial intelligence, quantum computing and unparalleled digital connectedness offer a new frontier in knowledge and possibility, they also pose new environmental challenges through their intense use of water and electricity. How we manage the growth of data centers, and how we apply new technologies that rely on these centers, will have profound impacts on our warming planet.

Texas, with its rapid population growth and embrace of data centers and corresponding innovation, will play a pivotal role in shaping this future.

Despite the reticence of many Texas leaders to say the words “climate change,” we are not immune from the consequences of our actions. The Office of the Texas State Climatologist makes this point clear enough in the 2024 update to its report, “Extreme Weather in Texas, 1900-2036.”

By 2036, the report forecasts, the number of 100-degree days in our state will have quadrupled compared with the 1970s and 1980s. Drought — like the one we are living through, this April rain notwithstanding — will persist. But storms and extreme rainfall, as we experienced in the Texas Hill Country on the July 4 weekend, will become more intense and occur more often.

The question becomes: How will we respond?

At the local level, it begins with building on the work of the city of San Antonio’s 2019 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.

As the nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen has argued, this means addressing heat stress on low-income families by weatherizing homes and limiting the heat island. It also means celebrating the early closure of the coal-fired Spruce 1 power plant in 2028, and pushing CPS Energy to continue embracing solar and wind energy, as well as emerging battery storage technologies.  It means more rapid transit such as VIA Metropolitan Transit’s north-south Green Line to take drivers off the roads and reduce emissions.

At the state level, it means regulating data centers and requiring full reporting about water and electricity usage. It also means embracing wind and solar power sources, treating them not as hostile competitors to oil and natural gas but as essential to maintaining the Texas grid in extreme weather. It means policies that promote buying properties in floodplains and protecting against coastal erosion.

When we care for the Earth through our policies and actions, we are not only caring for one another but for future generations to share in the splendor of this magical world. This pale blue dot in space. The only planet we call home.

Make every day Earth Day.