By Becky Gillette
“It is hard to find words to capture the fact that humans are facing the most important question in their history – whether organized human life will survive in anything like the form we know – and are answering it by accelerating the race to disaster.” Political theorist Noam Chomsky in response to Donald Trump’s election.
Local climate protection activist Jan Schaper woke up the Wednesday after the election feeling physically ill and as if the world had been punched in the solar plexus. But by the weekend she was traveling to Washington D.C. for Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s (CCL) Congressional Education Day. While dismayed at a climate change denier taking the White House, Schaper said it just makes her more determined to fight for the future of Earth.
“Being in Washington right after the election was a unique circumstance because no one expected Trump to win,” she said. “I and about 300 other CCL volunteers had one day of training and then visited congressional offices. We were cordially received by our Arkansas congressional delegation. CCL, which is non-partisan, has a reputation for respectful, determined engagement.”
Schaper has only recently become heavily involved in climate protection.
“Like many folks, I watched The Inconvenient Truth many years ago and have long been concerned,” Schaper said. “Honestly, I didn’t do much beyond reading, beginning to lighten my own carbon footprint, and donating money. Eventually I felt so despondent about the emerging climate science that I just had to get out and do something. That is when I found CCL.
“CCL’s goal is to bring about climate solutions and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Right now we are laser focused on our carbon fee and dividend initiative. Regional economic models show that it would reduce emissions, create jobs, and protect the pocketbooks of everyday Americans.”
Schaper said Trump’s victory is a wake-up call for all who care about the Earth, our societal fabric and societal well being.
“The beauty of this moment is the urgent opportunity to say ‘I am going to trust and dare myself to go one step beyond Facebook and signing online petitions. I will follow my heart, find something I resonate with and make a difference’,” Schaper said. “I have been so inspired by the people here in Eureka Springs who act on what they care about. We are lucky to have so many people here in Eureka who lead by example.”
This fall has seen record-breaking heat in Northwest Arkansas with the peak of fall colors and first frost date coming a month later than normal. The warm fall extended the growing seasons for farmers and may have generated more tourism. But the increasing evidence of climate change bodes badly for people and the environment.
Addressing climate change is the greatest moral imperative of our times, Schaper said.
“Decisions we make today directly impact the well-being of future generations,” she said. “In addition, the poor and those responsible for the least amount of carbon emissions are and will continue to bear the brunt of climate change.
“I have a friend from Springdale born in the Marshall Islands. His grandfather’s grave is being washed away. His family’s drinking water is contaminated by seawater, their fields are contaminated by seawater, and their home and entire country may soon be under water.”
Schaper also points to a recent publication in Scientific American where military leaders who are members of the Center for Climate Insecurity point out that climate change presents a significant and direct risk to U.S. military readiness, operations and strategy.
“Climate change is a threat multiplier and an instigator of great suffering,” Schaper said. “It can destabilize governments and society. For example, the crisis in Syria was at least partially precipitated by unprecedented drought that caused a huge migration of people from rural to urban areas.
“Donald Trump is going to do what Donald Trump does, but there are forces in motion that will likely not be stopped. Municipalities and states are initiating clean energy solutions. More people in the U.S. are employed in the renewable energy sector than in the fossil fuel industry. China is moving towards carbon pricing. British Columbia has carbon pricing, and a national carbon pricing is on the table in Canada. This will have implications for U.S. exporters if the U.S. does not act in kind.”
Schaper said it would take working with non-traditional allies to protect the climate under the next administration.
“We, as people who care about the Earth, have to realize we may find support in unexpected places,” she said. “It’s important to remember that not all Republicans are anti-environment. There are people who love the environment and the planet and who support carbon pricing and reducing carbon emissions across the spectrum. I extend an open invitation for respectful conversation on this topic between Independents, Republicans and Democrats.”
Schaper is heartened that big businesses have come out in favor of climate protection. Hundreds of U.S. corporations and investors, including DuPont, Hilton, and Levi Strauss have sent an open letter to Trump stating their own commitment to addressing climate change and urging Trump to stay the course with the Paris Climate Agreement.
At the 2016 G-20 summit, some of the world’s biggest insurance companies called on the G-20 to stop subsidizing fossil fuel production. “They are calling climate change the ‘mother of all risks,” Schaper said. “I agree.”
Schaper goes to a monthly Citizens’ Climate Lobby meeting in Fayetteville. She is pleased with the chapter’s success in fundraising to hire a start coordinator to help establish chapters across Arkansas.
Schaper´s political standpoints are full of technically wrong claims and demagogic delusion.
Chris Martenson, thank you for sharing.
Six years ago I bought a heavy cold weather jacket and a pair of winter boots. They have been hiding in my closet. I was going to ship them to North Dakota.
I better keep them, if I understand your what you say, there is a good chance I will need it next Month.
I must be delusional, I find what Jan Scharper says and does, to be technically accurate, and an example for demagogs.
Thank you Chris
“carbon fee and dividend initiative. Regional economic models show that it would reduce emissions, create jobs, and protect the pocketbooks of everyday Americans”
If you look at my 10-year work and interviews with key players in the energy industry, you´ll realize that these marketing claims correspond to a pure business strategy that is implicit in a much wider scheme that has been recently implemented by corporate interests that are very present in the renewable energy industry. This industry aims to push political pressure through lobbying tactics in Washington D.C, to a great extent, in order to permit and regulate at a state level higher levels of production and distribution of an important stock of technologies that are being produced and worldwide distributed in several Asian countries. The only issue present here is a typically business one, which is to allow these products enter the U.S. at a feasible price, as these products are not technically competitive in the energy industry and attract no investment in the stock markets, and the only way they can be nationally implemented is through governmental subsidies.
These initiatives have no connection to any environmental protection whatsoever. They correspond to corporate tactics in the legal and political realm developed in order to pressure the U.S. government, to compensate the high cost of these renewable technologies with tax payer money. Unless one has experience in lobbying and Wall-Street mechanisms it is very hard to understand the perverse tactics that are used in the U.S. to manipulate the minds of those who are sensitive to the ecological problem.