LONG VIEW ON GLOBAL WARMING
The greatest threat to national security is not on our southern border. It is climate change.
Evidence of the alarming growth in greenhouse gases (GHGs) is mounting: the Himalayan glaciers, which supply fresh water to a third of the world’s population, are melting faster than previously recognized; oceans are warming more quickly than climate models had predicted, threatening whole ecosystems. The latest reports from international and U.S. scientists suggest that, after several years of progress in reducing GHGs, we lost ground in 2018.
We need to take bold action. With no help in sight from the federal government, we, as leaders of U.S. colleges and universities committed to going carbon neutral, met in February at Second Nature’s Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit to share innovative approaches to reducing GHGs and improving the environment. Together, we announced a Call to Action: Guiding Principles for Accelerating Equitable and Just Climate Solutions signaling for ambitious cross-sector climate solutions that advance sustainability practices on our campuses and in our surrounding communities.
At last year’s conference, we heard from Paul Hawken, whose Project Drawdown demonstrates we have solutions at hand to stem the rise in GHGs and generate trillions of dollars in new economic growth. It provides a blueprint for a bipartisan infrastructure bill that could stimulate development and restore hope, particularly to hard-hit rural communities. From Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and an expert panel we learned how the city transformed itself from one of the nation’s most polluted cities to a model for more sustainable growth that others around the world are seeking to emulate. This year, conference attendees previewed a new National Geographic film, “From Paris to Pittsburgh.” It documents the scale of the environmental challenges Pittsburgh and the country face, but also shows that cities, acting locally, can meet over 70 percent of our country’s original commitment to combat global warming.
Our colleges and universities prepare students and future leaders to think critically and come up with evidence-based solutions. It is our responsibility to serve as catalysts for change locally, nationally, and globally, by sharing research insights and best practices with each other and our surrounding communities.
We must also engage effectively in public debates, so that individuals understand the connections between climate change, immigration and global security. For example, the crisis in Syria was magnified by three years of record droughts that displaced more than five million refugees who could no longer feed their families. Rising global sea levels and more frequent extreme weather events threaten coastal areas and populations from Bangladesh and South Pacific islands to Florida, Houston, Puerto Rico, and New Orleans.
Our military leaders understand this, as evidenced by the Pentagon’s assessments of global security risks. It is vital that the public and policy-makers do the same.
We need creative new solutions to get beyond partisan deadlock. This is not just wishful thinking. Three years ago in Georgia, the tea party and the Sierra Club bridged opposing ideologies to achieve a shared renewable energy solution. Congress could emulate such creative compromise in working on bipartisan green infrastructure legislation (e.g. mass transportation, clean water, smart electricity grids) to demonstrate to the American people that our government still works. It could finance over $100 billion in bonds for these projects by removing the more than $9 billion in annual subsidies that the federal government provides to the fossil-fuel industry and reducing our GHG emissions at the same time.
We understand the short-term pressures our elected officials face. As leaders of many of the oldest organizations in the country, however, we prefer to take the long view, focusing on creative approaches to address societal challenges and environmental justice. It’s up to our leaders in higher education and government to come together with our partners in the corporate and non-profit sector to take action before it’s too late. Finegold is president of Chatham University, in Pittsburgh. Miller is president of Virginia Wesleyan University, in Virginia Beach.
They serve on the governing board of The Climate Leadership Network, representing 600 colleges and universities. Miller is chairman of the CLN.