Clyde Burnett, Peak to Peak. Our slow-moving disaster of climate change has progressed to a new stage. The predicted extreme weather has become real. Our next generation has realized that climate change is here. They see their future to be in jeopardy. Parents’ monetary support won’t compensate for a life of tornadoes and floods. Our next generation will inherit an unlivable environment. So, there is a climate strike. They have blocked traffic and become a nuisance in the streets. TV news has even given them a one-line attention.

Question:  What is their specific goal?

Answer: Pay attention! Stop Global Warming! It’s not just a matter of ending bad weather. Don’t sacrifice our future just because it’s inconvenient to correct your mistakes. 

Our regulation of environmental hazards is dominated by the lobbies of economic interests. We need the science to cope with the economy-based propaganda of fossil fuel industries. We need to hear solutions from our next generation and from candidates to governmental offices. Votes for correction will depend on convincing tests from natural science. Vague expenditures of vast sums of money does not pass a test. We need all the efforts of solar, wind power, biofuels, nuclear energy and energy conservation. Talk is cheap. We need action on all fronts.   

We understood the discomfort of sunburn and hazard of skin cancer from too much solar ultraviolet if the stratospheric ozone were destroyed by chemicals. So, we secured the Montreal Protocol to stop making CFCs. But the tropospheric reservoir of CFCs will continue the ozone hole for a century or so.

Climate change is a hazard on many fronts to all civilization. Our government officials and voters have not appreciated the danger. We need an educated electorate who understands the science of the global warming and climate change due to the energy imbalance of too much greenhouse gas. Then we must pursue solutions in a manner similar to that for ozone.

Question:  What do we need to hear from our next generation and government candidates about causes and solutions of global warming and climate change?

Answer:  We need to be convinced to vote for solutions. Our young people and government office candidates need to understand the science. Some fundamentals: CO2 is the control knob for the thermostat for heat trapping by water vapor. A little bit traps just enough to warm the oceans on 70% of the planet and that evaporates a lot of water vapor that is the principal greenhouse gas. We’ve increased the amount of CO2 almost 50%. The carbon cycle for growing and decaying plant (trees) is about a century. The cycle for the oceans and soils is even longer. The CO2 today traps heat for the next generation and then some. We can’t go back!

Question:  What can individuals personally do to mitigate global warming and climate change?  

Answer:  Minimize local travel. If you drive an electric car, be sure the electricity does not come from fossil fuel. Get solar panels to charge. Commuters could carpool or use public transport. 

Minimize business travel.  Business flights could be replaced by electronic communication.  

Avoid fossil fuel heat. Examine electric source. Use solar or renewable. Our forest is a source of renewable energy; manage it well. Conserve home heat with triple pane windows and other insulation.

We all can do more!

(Originally published in the October 3, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)