|
|
Awareness | Earth Letter | Articles |The Local is the Global
The Local is the Global: Global Warming
and the Puget Sound Region
by Patrick Mazza
Climate change, one of the most serious challenges facing humanity, is also potentially one of our greatest teachers. The seamless relationship between the most local and personal of actions and the most global of situations is illustrated by the warming of the climate. We are truly all connected, whether we acknowledge it or not. And we are all part of the problem. Global warming invites us to become part of the solution.
What’s at stake for our place
Our place on Planet Earth, call it the Puget Sound region, is a fine place to start. We certainly have a great deal at stake. Let's take a brief look:
· Snowpack - With a warmer climate comes a higher freezing line, so less snow piles up in the Cascades over the winter. By mid-century Cascades snowpack could be reduced by half.
· Flooding and Storms - Winters are likely to be wetter. More "pineapple express" storms will dump huge amounts of water, causing more severe and frequent flooding and slides.
· Salmon and Orca - Global warming threatens to heat up streams, rivers and oceans, making life much harder for cool-water-loving salmon. Flooding in the winter will rip up spawning grounds, while reduced flows in the summer will hinder salmon passage. Bad news for salmon is bad news for the Orca populations that live on them.
· Forests - Dried out by increased evaporation under warmer conditions, forests will experience great, stand-destroying fires.
· Coastlines - Rising sea levels will flood coastlines, damaging waterfront properties and facilities and eliminating much of Puget Sound's rich coastal wetlands.
· Human health - Hotter summers spell more smog and hay fever, as well as improved breeding conditions for infectious disease carriers such as insects and rodents.
The paradoxical significance of individuals
So it is clear that the very character of our eco-region is threatened, not to mention our health, quality of life, and significant elements of our economic base. At the same time, it is not some mysterious, uncontrollable force that poses these dangers. We are doing this to ourselves. Global warming is caused by humans, and so humans can solve it.
Here we encounter one of the paradoxical lessons of global warming. It deals with the significance of individual actions. When you are just one among six billion, anything you do amounts to the proverbial drop in an ocean-sized bucket. Yet what you do as an individual to solve global warming represents the vital link between awareness and action. Global warming requires many people to act, each believing their action will make a difference. If enough people take that leap of faith and do act, it will make a difference.
Becoming global grown-ups
Energy stands at the center of our challenge. For virtually all of human history, we relied on renewable energy -- our muscles and those of our animals, wood, wind and water power. About 250 years ago came the big departure, as Britain began powering its budding industrial revolution with coal. Steam engines and railroads were the core technologies of the first industrial revolution, and brought us the first large-scale industrial organizations.
The fossil fuel revolution born in Britain was perfected in America. From the first oil wells in Pennsylvania to the massive oil fields of East Texas, the United States took the world into the oil age. Henry Ford with his mass production of the Model T gave birth to the auto age. Thomas Edison created the world's first central power plants and grids, leading the world into the electrical age. The technologies of electrical power and mass mobility shaped the second industrial revolution. We literally live within the technological ecosystem of roads and power networks that they created. You can see it in the splashes and latticework of lights in nighttime pictures of Earth from space.
So it is no wonder that something so huge should be having an impact on the system of oceans and atmosphere that make up our climate. The collective impact of 250 years of fossil-fired technologies is a one-third increase in carbon dioxide (CO2), the major greenhouse gas. There is definitely more CO2 in the atmosphere than anytime in the last 420,000 years, and likely more than anytime in the past twenty million.
Down to specifics
Response to the general situation starts with specific actions. The following are some of the most important actions we can take for the climate:
1. Choose to live in a way and place that minimizes driving.
Just about the worst thing any of us does for the climate in the course of a day is drive. It is the source of over half of greenhouse emissions in the Puget Sound region. Living in typical suburban sprawl forces people to drive, since everything is spread out. If you can, pick a complete community – that includes stores, schools, workplaces, and parks – where you have the greatest options to walk, bike or ride transit to shop, work, go to school and have fun.
2. Buy the most fuel-efficient car.
Wherever you live, pick the most fuel-thrifty model you can. If you buy one of the new hybrids such as the Toyota Prius or Honda's models, you are helping build the market. And like computer chips, the more hybrids that are sold, the greater the economies of scale and the less they will cost for future customers. Though hybrids cost more now, you'll actually save money over the life of the car in reduced gasoline bills.
3. Make your home and appliances energy efficient.
Even though much of our electricity comes from hydropower, the dams are pretty well tapped out. And most new electrical power resources are natural-gas turbines. A large turbine emits more greenhouse gases than 500,000 cars. Meanwhile, about one-third (nationally) of electricity is used in residences, so climate solutions begin at home. Appliances are the biggest juice suckers, so buy the most efficient. If you have an older appliance, replace it. Replace standard bulbs with compact fluorescents. Upgrade insulation. Seal and caulk holes and cracks. Install programmable thermometers in each room and on water heaters. Replace windows with triple-glazed, low-E glass. The Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings, available at http://aceee.org/consumerguide, provides a comprehensive listing of efficient products.
4. Sign up for Green Power.
Puget Sound region utilities are now offering Green Power programs. By paying a small premium on your power bill, you support the addition of clean resources such as solar and wind power to the electrical grid. Not only does this make the overall grid more climate friendly, it also spurs the computer chip effect of reducing prices by building markets and economies of scale for new energy technologies.
5. Act as a citizen.
This is the most
important single step you can take. Because global warming is a systemic
problem tied to how we structure our energy and transportation systems, it
will require a systemic, political response. Individual actions are
important to lay the groundwork for systemic solutions. You may not be able
to afford a hybrid car, energy-efficient appliances, home renovations, or
Green Power premiums. But everyone has the capability to act as a caring,
involved, responsible citizen. Americans have a special responsibility as
citizens of the nation that led the world into the age of cars and
electricity, that is responsible for a quarter of global greenhouse
emissions, and which appears ready to plunge into new wars to preserve
access to oil.
Two acts stand at the center of citizenship: learning and communication.
Take time to learn the issues, and then communicate your views to fellow
citizens and public officials. On global warming, this is particularly
important. The best analysis of the current political situation is that,
while politicians see polls saying the majority of us view global warming as
a real problem, they also see that for most of us it is not the primary
concern. Unfortunately, politicians do not lose elections for bad positions
on global warming. They need to hear from us that we regard global warming
as one of the world's deadliest threats, and that we will make choices about
whom we will politically support based on this issue.
Global warming is real and serious. It has the potential to devastate our planet and our place here on the Puget Sound. It is rooted in the very basics of industrial civilization. Fortunately, solutions are within reach. Each one of us can take effective actions to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. The local is the global. If enough of us take the leap of faith, and act as if we believe the future depends on it, we will avert the climate change threat, and learn some very important lessons about living together on a small planet.
Patrick Mazza is Research Director for Climate Solutions, www.climatesolutions.org, which works to make the Northwest a global warming solutions leader. He is co-author with Guy Dauncey of Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate Change. See book review.