The climate emergency is unlike anything we have faced before
U.S. climate migration begins. Florida Keys coastal homes are being bulldozed due to rising seas. During the first half of 2019, more than 7 million people were displaced by extreme weather events, double the number displaced by conflict and violence. By the end of the year the total number for 2019, including climate refugees from the Bahamas, is expected to be 22 million.
The destruction of the Bahamas Islands, fifty miles from Florida is impossible to ignore. Residents of Grand Bahama Island and the Abaco Islands, with more than 70,000 people, have no food or shelter. Refugees coming to the U.S. were intercepted and turned away.
Severe floods on sea level landscapes are deadly. Houston has had five 500-year old floods in the last five years. When Houston floods, deadly toxic waste from Superfund sites, oil refineries, oil storage tank farms and petrochemical plants contaminate the vast flooding waters.
Three big lies
- We are running out of oil. False. There is a glut of oil in the world market. Stopping Iran and Venezuela from selling oil using the U.S. dollar transfer of funds as a weapon has had limited impact at the pump. Not even losing 50 percent of Saudi Arabia’s refinery capacity made a dent.
- The U.S. economy benefits from exporting crude oil and liquified natural gas. False. Companies drilling shale wells, trucking freshwater and sand to drilling sites, trucking toxic wastewater, building and operating pipelines, etc., make profits from federal subsidies using taxpayer money. The cost of a barrel of crude oil at the wellhead is higher than the world commodity price.
- The U.S. government denies the climate crisis is real. False. A 2018 U.S. Department of Transportation report found oil and gas will be left in the ground. The study was used to allow higher pollution for cars and trucks, based on suicidal logic let’s make more profits while we can. Today, our carbon budget is 335 gigatons of carbon dioxide, and the annual emissions are 36 gigatons. By 2030, eight years from now, the global temperature will have increased 2°C. If that happens, we are screwed!
Existential crisis
Last Friday, over four million people joined the Global Climate Strike, started by one amazing, unstoppable 16-year old. Greta Thunberg says we don’t understand what is happening around us and worries everything is not going to be OK. She says, “This is above all an emergency and not just any emergency. This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced.”
Our survival skills are limited
Unlike cockroaches, humans are very fragile. The survival rule says humans can survive three minutes without breathable air. Three hours in extreme heat or cold without shelter. Three days without drinkable water and three weeks without food. To survive, you don’t need barrels of oil or pockets full of money.
Economy or ecology, is a false binary choice
Inaction on climate is usually explained saying it costs too much. Here are some examples of what people say. “We are not going to wreck the U.S. economy just to pay for a Green New Deal.” “The Clean Power Plan was hamstringing energy in this country, raising the cost of utility rates for working families across this country.” “We are not going to take action while other countries continue to emit greenhouse gases.”
Facts: The climate crisis is real. We have two choices, invest now and avoid further devastation, or pay with our lives.
The unspeakable truth
Are the coal cartels, big oil and gas, financial institutions, petrochemicals, and other corporations stopping the U.S. Government from leading the world with effective climate solutions?
When you hear “the U.S. Economy is booming, it has never been stronger …” please remember the 2017 $1.8 trillion tax cuts per year for corporations and billionaires. Think about the threats to Social Security, our national forests, the Alaska Tongass National Rainforest, our national monuments, and anything else we have left. These funds flow to the U.S. Treasury to pay for weapons and the lifestyle of the executive branch.
Dr. Luis Contreras
CO2 is a gas measured in terms of its mass. When talking about climate, gigatons are used to describe the amount of CO2. One gigaton represents one billion times more mass than one metric ton.
The remaining carbon budget, 335 gigatons of carbon dioxide in 2019, is the total amount of CO2 emissions we have left in the atmosphere – additional emissions will make Earth inhabitable for humans. In 2020, we are down to 299, and then 263, until we are on fire!
https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/how-many-gigatons-of-co2/
No, I have not given up. Keep reading and you will seel what I am talking about.
“Natural Climate Solutions” is a workaround the so-called leaders avoiding the New York UN Climate Summit.
Greta Thunberg is working with Santa, keeping a list. She is tough, she has to be. That is why the World loves Greta!
Here is what you need to do to be on the Nice list: be generous, help someone
https://youtu.be/pbdk4LYbqGM
Amazon does not deliver on climate action
“Amazon Employees for Climate Justice,” walked out in protest on Friday over the company’s inaction on climate change.
More than 1,800 Amazon employees in over 25 cities and 14 countries pledged to take part in the action. According to a release, the group estimates that over 3,000 tech workers walked out in Seattle.
It coincided with a greater global movement to fight climate change,
The Global Climate Strike, the week-long global event that will bring together young people, labor and humanitarian organizations, environmental groups and company employee collectives.
Thousands of strikes are expected to take place in over 130 countries, according to teenaged climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is one of the organizers of the global initiative.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/20/tech/amazon-climate-strike-global-tech/index.html
The official story says the U.S. Economy is booming, the best in the world, it can only grow
This is a false GOP story for 2020. Here are the facts: US household disposable income is down … Global Economy in ‘Window of Weakness’ Says Pimco
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-09-26/global-economy-in-window-of-weakness-says-pimco-video
Excellent letter!
Thank you Susan, and thank you for your kindness. The op-ed is posted on my Facebook page with pictures and comments.
Peace
The price of crude oil went up for a few days, but in 10-days the Saudi refineries are running again. When you have $ billions of oil sales waiting, repairs can get done working around the clock.
The myth of “running out of oil” was disproven by the Saudi’s. Billions of dollars in beautiful American weapons were insufficient to stop a drone attack.
We need to rethink our priorities and stop wasting Trillions of dollars on nuclear weapons. The military complex is the root cause of wars, not the solution of conflicts
Peace and diplomacy trump WWII weapons of mass destruction
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco/saudi-aramco-restores-oil-output-earlier-than-expected-sources-idUSKBN1WA0WN
What used to be rare events are measured in hundreds of years. A 500-year flood is less likely than a 100-year flood. These numbers describe how likely an event is to happen.
500-year floods do not happen every 500 years, severe flooding with low moving hurricanes are “the new normal” in some areas at high risk.
If you wonder why I said “Houston has had five 500-year old floods in the last five years,” congratulations.
I meant to say “Houston has had five 500-year floods in the last five years.”
This op-ed was very stressful to write and edit, there may be other errors I have not found.