The skinny on climate

“Only in America do we accept weather predictions from a rodent, but deny climate change evidence from scientists.” – Reed McDonough

The January 29, 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment presented to the U.S. Senate by National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, the FBI and the CIA, is an ominous warning on the climate emergency, and an urgent call to action.

The 42-page report includes two pages on climate, saying, “Climate hazards such as extreme weather, higher temperatures, droughts, floods, wildfires, storms, sea level rise, soil degradation, and acidifying oceans are intensifying, threatening infrastructure, health, and water and food security.”

The report talks about what makes life on Earth possible, including clean air and water, and healthy soil to grow our food. The report says, “irreversible damage to ecosystems and habitats will undermine the economic benefits they provide, worsened by air, soil, water, and marine pollution.”

The statement undermine the economic benefits they provide, affirms what the Dogwood Alliance and many other people know. Forests, wetlands, rivers, land, and the atmosphere are worth much more preserved in their natural state than sold as stumpage fiber, concrete slabs, trash dumps, and sewage.

The Arkadelphia Sun-Bio cardboard mill, the two Arkansas Highland wood pellet mills, the Wisconsin Foxconn LED flat screen plant, and the threatened North Carolina Red Wolf 2018 “kill at will” program, should be scrapped. Greedy GOP, counting barrels of oil, dumping wastewater, killing fish and sea life, and peddling toxic air, are climate criminals.

Climate inaction

Hospitals are full of patients undergoing surgeries and other medical procedures. They put their lives in the hands of people they hardly know, speaking incomprehensible terms, wearing scrubs and face masks, and using sharp knives while you sleep. Most of the time all goes well. From a distance this seems like strange behavior. Why would people pay for hospital services and bad food? Pain is the most common reason, and the prospect of getting worse or dying if left unattended.

Cry of the Earth, cry of the poor. The U.S. economy is driven by consumption. The transition away from fossil fuels is not only about energy companies, but investment banks, retirement funds, shareholders, and massive tax subsidies granted by the U.S. Congress. The illusion of all gain, no pain is over. Time to clean up the mess. Rise up, we are facing extinction.

Climate justice

The justice system is based on forensic science. Investigators look for suspects and try to establish which individuals had the means, motive and opportunity to commit the crime.

In 2001, ExxonMobil and the Global Climate Coalition, a fossil fuel industry group, advised the U.S. to ignore the Kyoto Accord, which demanded the immediate reduction of carbon emissions. To protect the U.S. economy, the response to global warming was to do nothing – while pretending to do something. In 2016 ExxonMobil was back in the White House. Our fearless leader said, I don’t believe in global warming, let’s pull out of the Paris agreement.

Ignoring climate

Richard Feynman said it is very difficult to explain to a layperson why things really happen. Feynman, one of the best physicists of the 20^th century, drew diagrams to explain quantum mechanics and was passionate about the scientific method. He played the bongos and won a Nobel Prize. The climate system is complex, but the effects are undeniable.

Building walls and improving trade requires systems thinking to identify the interconnections and the dynamic behavior. Bringing back wolves to Yellowstone in 1995 after 70 years reduced the number of elk, as expected, but the cascading effects improved the trees and all forms of life. Please see the miracle of nature in YouTube, How Wolves Change Rivers.

Climate hope

We come from apes, but we are unique. We look to the future and our imagination is boundless. The National Intelligence Assessment and the unstoppable voices of our children give hope for the future.

His Holiness the Dali Lama and South Africa Bishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu met for a week and wrote The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. Please pick up a copy for inspiration and strength.

Dr. Luis Contreras