Your View: Pennsylvanians must support efforts to stop climate change - The Morning Call

Your View: Pennsylvanians must support efforts to stop climate change

Did you know that koalas have been suffering from a deadly outbreak of chlamydia for several decades?

For years, Kangaroo Island was home to the largest population of wild chlamydia-free koalas, helping to repopulate mainland Australia, where infection rates were up to 100% in many areas. Kangaroo Island brought hope to conservationists, or at least it did, until I watched it burn to the ground.

I went to Kangaroo Island in south Australia as a conservation volunteer at Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to learn more about koalas. My second day there, it was completely destroyed.

A distant bushfire trapped in a ravine escaped, wreaking havoc on a windy day. The Hanson Bay staff and I evacuated three times, twice moving further east before leaving the island altogether.

In just one day, the bushfire scorched over half of the island, which is nearly double the size of Rhode Island, and killed a father and son. It is estimated half (approximately 50,000) of the disease-free koalas died.

In recent years, wildfires such as the one I witnessed have affected people and the planet on a previously unseen scale.

Here in the U.S., more than half of the largest wildfires in California’s history occurred in the last two years, and we witnessed devastating fires where they historically haven’t occurred, such as on Maui, Hawaii. These fires don’t just take human life and destroy the environment, they cost exorbitant amounts of money. In 2021, battling wildfires in the western U.S. cost $4.4 billion — more than double the 10-year average of typical firefighting costs, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. If left unchecked, conditions will only worsen.

I’m sure many Lehigh Valley residents remember the orange haze that lingered across our area in June, smoke from Canadian forest fires hundreds of miles away. That sequestered many of us inside, especially those with asthma or other health conditions. About 128 million people across the Northeast were under air quality alerts for multiple days. Globally, wildfire smoke results in more than 30,000 human deaths each year.

Wildfires are just one side effect of the larger issue at hand — changes in the global climate due to industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Experts predict that, if high greenhouse gas emissions continue, the risk of large wildfires will be six times higher in 30 years.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate collaborative effort across the Northeast, is an attempt to lower industrial emissions and tackle generalized air pollution. RGGI does this through cap-and-trade policies targeted at power plants. These policies limit the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that a power plant could produce, but it could buy or sell allowances if it produces more or less than allowed, with the proceeds from these sales getting reinvested into Pennsylvania.

Then-Gov. Tom Wolf entered Pennsylvania into RGGI in April 2022, a decision later put on hold by a judge. After taking office in January, Gov. Josh Shapiro wouldn’t commit to staying in the program due to concerns that RGGI could increase energy costs for consumers, or contribute to fewer jobs in Pennsylvania’s energy sector.

But other participating states report electricity prices there fell by 5.7%, even as prices rose by an average of 8.6% in other states. It has also been predicted that Pennsylvania’s involvement in RGGI would create 30,000 jobs in the commonwealth.

Furthermore, if Pennsylvania continues to participate in RGGI, our state could avoid up to 225 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution, and decrease other harmful pollutants like mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says.

The health benefits of reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide alone are projected to prevent up to 639 premature deaths from respiratory illness, 30,000 hospital visits, and over 83,000 lost work days. In economic terms, this means that RGGI could save up to $6.3 billion in health costs by 2030.

Furthermore, the DEP predicts that RGGI would increase gross state product nearly $2 billion, and residents would have a cumulative increase in disposable personal income of $3.7 billion by 2050.

On Wednesday, the Commonwealth Court permanently blocked Wolf’s effort to join RGGI. Shapiro and the DEP have less than 30 days to appeal. In the midst of this setback, we must not lose sight of what really matters: tackling the existential threat of climate change by reducing industrial emissions. RGGI has demonstrated success in this area across multiple states.

I strongly encourage Pennsylvania residents to contact your representatives and Shapiro in support of appealing the RGGI case, and demanding more policies that address the climate crisis.

Ever since Kangaroo Island, my world has been on fire. If we don’t act now, summers of smoke will be our new normal.

Angie Rizzo is a staff member and graduate student in the Environmental Policy Program at Lehigh University.