The clock is ticking on climate change

Just a few blocks from the State House is the City Dock in Annapolis, which is famous for its oversize boats (hence the nickname “ego alley”), a statue of the most famous slave to arrive there and his descendant biographer (the Kunte-Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial) — and floods that wreak havoc on the popular shops and restaurants that surround it. High-tide flooding at City Dock has become so common (an estimated 62 incidents in 2017 alone) that merchants believe climate change is increasingly driving customers away, and they have the receipts to show it.

That’s not some theoretical impact of rising greenhouse gas levels. It’s not some prediction of problems decades-hence. It’s just one of the more obvious circumstances that Maryland is dealing with as the planet warms. And the numbers are glaring: Between 1957 and 1963, Annapolis averaged slightly under four floods a year. From 2007 to 2013, the city witnessed about 39 per year, or 10 times more flooding than a half-century earlier.

Of course, if the worst thing about climate change was nuisance flooding around City Dock, the solution might be as simple as to build a sea wall, but, of course, the issue is far bigger, more costly — and, frankly, scarier — than that. Sea level rise threatens much of Maryland, but so do increased storm surge, more severe weather, worsened disease outbreaks (as ticks and other carriers more easily overwinter), diminished fresh water drinking supplies, shrinking productive farmland, and on and on. President Donald Trump may believe climate change is a hoax, but the science of how man-made greenhouse gas emissions are dramatically warming the planet is well established. The core scientific debate is not centered on if, it’s about when and how bad.

That’s why one of the most important bills pending before the Maryland General Assembly this session is the Clean Energy Jobs Act. It would increase the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (translation: how much electricity is generated from renewable sources instead of fossil fuels like coal) from 25 percent in 2020 to 50 percent by 2030. That climate change hasn’t happened overnight, and that addressing the problem will take years isn’t an excuse to delay. It’s actually a reason to move forward with great haste. The window to make a difference is closing.

Now, it appears that measure, despite broad support in the legislature, could be stalled in the House of Delegates. The apparent reasons? An already-crowded agenda and a desire to wait for a $1 million study on RPS commissioned last year but not expected to be completed until December are the primary explanations. Another may be that the lead sponsor of the House version is none other than Del. Mary Ann Lisanti, the Harford County Democrat whomanyhave called on to resign in recent days for her use of a racial slur at an after-hours social gathering. Somein the State House may also see Maryland as already a step ahead of much of the country on climate change. The General Assembly passed the 25 percent RPS standard just three years ago and then overrode Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto in 2017. So why the rush?

The problem is that, to use a sports analogy, climate change is already late in the fourth quarter, and the home team is behind. Maryland is just one state, of course, and it’s going to take a far broader, global effort to address the problem. But that won’t happen unless action takes place at the local level. Other states are on the same path. It’s not pie-in-the-sky stuff. Today, California has already achieved the 33 percent RPS mark. The District of Columbia. our next-door neighbor, has adopted a 50 percent goal, and it’s not alone — California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Vermont have, too.

Further delay is not only unhelpful, it’s unnecessary. RPS goals can always be amended down the road. Another delegate can lead the floor debate in the House. Meanwhile, Maryland is losing jobs in the renewable energy sector because demand isn’t what it should be. Officials estimate the solar industry lost 800 jobs in Maryland over the last year. In a Feb. 19 letter to lawmakers, Donald Boesch, president emeritus of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and nine other Maryland climate scientists called for passage of the Clean Energy Jobs bill this year. Their argument? That “one of the most affluent and best-educated states in the most powerful nation on Earth … has an obligation to lead.”

Amen. Given what’s happening in Washington from an administration willing to roll back so many efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and open up more land and ocean to oil and natural gas drilling (not to mention the ridicule Republicans heap on those who would advocate a “greener” energy future), we can’t envision too many more vital, or timely, efforts to protect our children’s future.