Earth In Crisis: Making Up for Lost Time
We Can No Longer Accept Inaction On Climate Change
The global pandemic has impacted every single one of us and has altered our lives. At the time of this writing, more than 1,000 Coloradans have died from COVID-19. Tens of thousands more have recovered.
Yet many individuals have not believed that this crisis would really affect them or that it was even real. Sound familiar? Think about the rationale exhibited by some climate change deniers.
Last month I highlighted the similar parallels that the illness has on our marginalized communities as it does with the climate disaster. While a majority of Americans have responded to this global health emergency, many others have called it a hoax, even as the death toll soared. Warning bells for this crisis were ringing late last year, and yet our country did not begin a system-wide response until mid-March, losing precious and valuable time.
What could have been averted if we had acted sooner?
It was more than 30 years ago that physicist James Hansen testified before Congress, ringing the warning bells that he was “99 percent confident that recent rise in temperatures were due to human activity.” After his testimony Hansen told reporters that the “evidence is pretty strong that the greenhouse effect is here.”
Our government was warned in the 1950’s and further reinforced in the 1970’s when oil companies knew that burning fossil fuels could cause global warming. Seventy years of inaction. Seventy lost years of opportunity. Unlike COVID-19, which has swiftly transmitted around this globe and arrived at our doorsteps, the idea of the greenhouse effect, now known as climate change, appeared to be so far in the future that it wouldn’t impact us. Yet here we are, facing rising temperatures, food and water insecurity and an unrecognizable planet. It’s a dismal picture for our youth.
We cannot continue to ignore these elephants in the room. Biodiversity is key to reducing our risk of animal vector diseases. Humans have caused rapid loss of habitat and deforestation, pushing animals closer to human populated areas and therefore putting ourselves at risk for zoonotic diseases. The journal Nature published an article in 2015 suggesting that biodiversity “stabilizes ecosystem productivity by increasing resistance to climate events.” Continuing our unsustainable growth and consumption will cause further encroachment and risk.
Katherine Hayhoe, an atmospheric and climate scientist, has noted that the pandemic has demonstrated that we need a system-wide response. In a recent interview, Hayhoe said “Even if we as individuals did everything we could to cut our carbon footprint, to live within our personal boundaries, that in and of itself as individuals would not be sufficient to fix either the ecological crises or the climate crisis. And that’s why we need system-wide change.”
Anecdotally I see people installing more solar on their homes. I see people working to reduce their carbon footprint and rising concern worldwide, including that U.S. response has not risen to the level that this emergency requires.
Unfortunately, while COVID-19 has been making its way throughout the U.S., the Trump administration has accelerated its assault on our natural world. We are in the midst, as NASA notes, of a “truly global, complex problem with economic, social, political and moral ramifications,” whose solution “will require both a globally-coordinated response and local efforts on the city- and regional-level.”
It is true: It’s up to us what happens next. We cannot have an appropriate response to our climate crisis if we continue to allow big oil and developers to continue to receive a pass from our governments. We must have strong green policy initiatives that they are required to follow.
In an article published in Eos, Hayhoe also notes that “The health and safety of our family, our loved ones, our friends, our community, the people and places we care about, that’s what the pandemic puts at risk, and that is exactly what climate change puts at risk as well.”
And let’s not forget, as with the climate crisis, COVID-19 disproportionately affects black and native and indigenous people. Both require us to tackle our system of injustice.
The delayed response – in both the pandemic and the climate emergency – have unnecessarily cost lives. We can no longer accept inaction while our planet continues to decline. We cannot be silent while our brown and black brothers and sisters disproportionately suffer.
Tracey MacDermott is chair of the board of Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. She was trained as a Climate Reality Leader in 2017, and is currently the Statewide Co-Chair of the Climate Reality Project for the 100% Committed Campaign. Contact her at chair@greaterparkhill.org.