The climate crisis and the need for leadership
By
It is now clear that we face a
deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly and
wisely. "Global warming" is the name it was given a long time ago. But
it should be understood for what it is: a planetary emergency that now threatens
human civilization on multiple fronts. Stronger hurricanes and typhoons
represent only one of many new dangers as we begin what someone has called
"a nature hike through the Book of Revelation."
As I write, my heart is heavy due to the suffering the people
of the
The science is extremely clear: Global warming may not affect
the frequency of hurricanes, but it makes the average hurricane stronger,
magnifying its destructive power. In the years ahead, there will be more storms
like Katrina, unless we change course. Indeed, we have had two more Category 5
storms since Katrina -- including Wilma, which before landfall was the strongest
hurricane ever measured in the
We know that hurricanes are heat engines that thrive on warm
water. We know that heat-trapping gases from our industrial society are warming
the oceans. We know that, in the past thirty years, the number of Category 4 and
5 hurricanes globally has almost doubled. It's time to connect the dots:
Last year, the science textbooks had to be rewritten. They
used to say, "It's impossible to have a hurricane in the
This summer, more than 200 cities in the
This summer, parts of
The new extremes of wind and rain are part of a larger pattern
that also includes rapidly melting glaciers worldwide, increasing
desertification, a global extinction crisis, the ravaging of ocean fisheries and
a growing range for disease "vectors" like mosquitoes, ticks and many
other carriers of viruses and bacteria harmful to people.
All of these are symptoms of a deeper crisis: the
"Category 5" collision between our civilization -- as we currently
pursue it -- and the Earth's environment. Sixty years ago, Winston Churchill
wrote about another kind of gathering storm. When Neville Chamberlain tried to
wish that threat away with appeasement, Churchill said, "This is only the
beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste, of
a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year -- unless by a supreme
recovery of moral health and martial vigor, we rise again and take our stand for
freedom."
For more than fifteen years, the international community has
conducted a massive program to assemble the most accurate scientific assessment
on global warming. Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, have
produced the most elaborate, well-organized scientific collaboration in the
history of humankind and have reached a consensus as strong as it ever gets in
science. As Bill McKibben points out in "The Debate Is Over", there is
no longer any credible basis to doubt that the Earth's atmosphere is warming
because of human activities. There is no longer any credible basis to doubt that
we face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we prepare ourselves and deal
with the underlying causes of global warming.
Scientists around the world are sounding a clear and urgent
warning. Global warming is real, it is already under way and the consequences
are totally unacceptable.
Why is this happening? Because the relationship between
humankind and the Earth has been utterly transformed. To begin with, we have
quadrupled the population of our planet in the past hundred years. And secondly,
the power of the technologies now at our disposal vastly magnifies the impact
each individual can have on the natural world. Multiply that by six and a half
billion people, and then stir into that toxic mixture a mind-set and an attitude
that say it's OK to ignore scientific evidence -- that we don't have to take
responsibility for the future consequences of present actions -- and you get
this violent and destructive collision between our civilization and the Earth.
There are those who say that we can't solve this problem --
that it's too big or too complicated or beyond the capacity of political systems
to grasp.
To those who say this problem is too difficult, I say that we
have accepted and met such challenges in the past. We declared our liberty, and
then won it. We designed a country that respected and safeguarded the freedom of
individuals. We abolished slavery. We gave women the right to vote. We took on
Jim Crow and segregation. We cured fearsome diseases, landed on the moon, won
two wars simultaneously -- in the Pacific and in
So there should be no doubt that we can solve this crisis too.
We must seize the opportunities presented by renewable energy, by conservation
and efficiency, by some of the harder but exceedingly important challenges such
as carbon capture and sequestration. The technologies to solve the
global-warming problem exist, if we have the determination and wisdom to use
them.
But there is no time to wait. In the 1930s, Winston Churchill
also wrote of those leaders who refused to acknowledge the clear and present
danger: "They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided,
resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful
to be impotent. The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and
baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place, we are
entering a period of consequences."With Hurricane Katrina, the melting of
the Arctic ice cap and careless ecological mayhem, we, too, are entering a
period of consequences.
This is a moral moment. This is not ultimately about any
scientific debate or political dialogue. Ultimately it is about who we are as
human beings. It is about our capacity to transcend our own limitations.