An open letter to the DEEP

To Whom It May Concern at DEEP,

Thank you for the opportunity to submit written comments; I also appreciated being able to speak in person at the public hearing in New Haven on Sept. 7.

I am a climate change activist with New Haven Climate Movement and 350CT. I have become an activist because I repeatedly witness a disconnect between what I read regarding the severity/urgency of climate change, from credible sources like The Guardian, The New York Times, and Scientific American, among others, and the slowness of the response to it, even from those who fully recognize the basic scientific principle of the greenhouse effect.

I realize you've heard from many people like me, and yet I feel it's important to add my voice to the increasing swell of those demanding a faster, more aggressive switch to renewables.

With this CES, DEEP is once again taking a gradualist, incremental approach when what we really need at this point (because we have delayed action for so long) is something much more ambitious and immediate. In the case of climate change, attempting to win slowly effectively amounts to losing: there are negative feedback loops that scientists say could be set in motion in the near future, from methane-releasing melting permafrost to black carbon released by wildfires.

I think on some level you must be aware of this, and yet you still do not act accordingly. I recognize that this is not usually a forum for discussion, but I wish it were, because I would love nothing more than to hear your honest response to these questions: why are you not acting on a level commensurate to the gravity of the problem? Are you beholden to the interests of fossil fuel corporations? Are your hands tied in a tangle of red tape and bureaucracy? Do you not recognize that fossil fuels are actually getting enormous indirect subsidies when you factor in the tremendous costs of damages that they are never held responsible for, from climate change and other forms of pollution?

I fully admit I have very little understanding of what it is like to engage with this problem from your perspective, so I would love to hear what your main obstacles are. If you are willing to take the time to write to me, I would love to hear from you so I can come to a better understanding of the obstacles that prevent climate change being addressed with the seriousness it deserves via an aggressive bid to de-carbonize our energy system.

To give one glaring example of this disconnect, the CES draft aims to have renewables comprise 30 percent of our energy mix by 2030. Just this past spring, a team of experts, including some here at Yale, were brought together by the former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres (one of the main architects of the Paris Agreement). They published a study entitled Mission 2020 that detailed a list of measures that must be undertaken globally by 2020 in order to stay within the emissions limits set forth at the Paris Agreement. In that study, it says that renewables must comprise 30 percent of the energy mix by 2020, not 2030.

At the public hearing, I was humbled listening to the testimonies of people working in the heating oil industry here in Connecticut, who are understandably upset about the tax the draft CES would impose on them. I realize that if a swift shift to renewables were to take place, this could be seen as an even bigger threat to their livelihood. However, the job-creating potential of renewables is well documented, and if there were mechanisms put in place to re-train people and transition jobs to renewables, it could actually be an overall boon to employment levels.

I recently attended a conference on climate change here at Yale led by former Sectretary of State John Kerry, who stated firmly his belief that the oft-stated adversarial relationship between the economy and the climate is actually a myth, and that the US will actually be left in the dust compared to other countries if it doesn't aggressively pursue a low-carbon economy.

I just implore you from one human to the other, to act swiftly and boldly if you care about our future. Just look at what’s happened over the past few months with the widespread wildfires and hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and imagine what will happen in the not-too-distant future if we don't get our act together.

Connecticut itself has a lot of coastline that is vulnerable to sea level rise and storm surge — just here in New Haven, Union Station, Tweed Airport, and Long Wharf are threatened. The federal government is moving in exactly the wrong direction right now, and it likely will continue to do so until at least 2020, which is when science tells us it could already be too late. It is up to cities and states to lead the charge — the future is in your hands. I know it is infinitely easier for me to simply say these things than it is for you to actually implement policies, but I know bold action can, and must, be done on a global scale if we are to preserve life as we know it. When you put it that way, what choice do we really have?