Positive signs on healing Earth

You know things are starting to look up when a leading environmental activist like Bill McKibben says we’re making meaningful advances in the battle against climate change. Hopeful signs are everywhere, if you know where to look.

“There’s a 60-year arc to the climate story,” McKibben told me recently, dating the start of the modern movement to a famous warning about human-made global warming issued by NASA scientist James Hansen at a congressional hearing in 1988 and the publication the following year of “The End of Nature,” McKibben’s seminal environmentalist manifesto.

“Everybody agrees that we’re going to be out of the business of burning carbon by 2050 now. Even the worst fossil fuel companies in the world are talking about net zero [emissions] by 2050,” McKibben says. “That’s a 60-year arc, which puts us precisely in the middle of it.” (Our full conversation is online at “You Decide,” my podcast.)

At this halfway point, we’ve seen a surge of grassroots pressure for climate change, including high-profile mobilization efforts by Extinction Rebellion, Sunrise Movement, and the activist Greta Thunberg. That includes the election of Joe Biden on a promise to take action on climate change.

Alongside the political activity is a large and growing range of global investments in renewable energy, electric vehicles, advances in energy-storage technology and other innovations. A recent Bloomberg publication on investments in clean energy found that “the world committed a record $501.3 billion to decarbonization in 2020, beating the previous year by 9% despite the economic disruption caused by COVID-19.”

That includes a record $139 billion spent worldwide on electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, and more than $300 billion on new renewable energy projects.

It’s happening all around us. In 2010, according to Kiplinger, there were only 17,000 electric cars worldwide: By 2019, the number was 7.2 million. That’s about to change in a big way.

Volkswagen and Chevrolet are promoting new electric SUVs that will cost less than $35,000. General Motors plans to phase out all diesel- and gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035, and is investing $27 billion in battery electric vehicles over the next five years. As prices come down and battery capacity increases, the last remaining hurdle

— convenience— is improving, too.

Last week, it was announced that the UBS arena at Belmont, future home of the Islanders hockey team, will include charging stations for 1,000 electric vehicles. Expect small steps like these to continue in number, size and frequency.

McKibben, in the meantime, says the political pressure has to continue, citing the growing movement to get pension funds and other big investment pools to pull money out of fossil fuel companies.

“We’re about $15 trillion now, in endowments and portfolios that have divested from fossil fuel — including, in the last couple of years, New York City with its pension fund under Scott Stringer, and now New York State with its pension fund under Tom DiNapoli,” says McKibben. “Those are huge, huge amounts of money. That’s waked up the bad guys. Shell, in its annual report last year, said that divestment had become a material risk to its business. Which was good, because frankly, Shell’s business is a material risk to the planet.”

The choice, in some ways, is simple: We can spend endlessly on repairing and rebuilding as storms, floods and wildfires devastate the planet over and over. Or we can smartly target our resources in the direction of reducing the forces that drive climate change.

Mayor de Blasio’s plan to invest $10 billion to keep lower Manhattan from flooding is an example of the climate change math we can no longer afford. The idea is to extend the South Street Seaport two blocks into the harbor at a height of 20 feet above sea level, with the new land doubling as a flood barrier.

“You probably could spend enough money to defend lower Manhattan, but the amounts of money become impossible once you’re trying to defend the shoreline of New York. And then, go try and figure out how you’re going to do it in Bangladesh,” McKibben says. “There’s not enough money on Earth — literally there’s not. The most recent estimates I saw for high-end damage estimates for climate change by the turn of the century was $551 trillion, which is far more money than currently exists on our planet.”

That leaves the only realistic alternative: diverting our resources to wind, solar, hydroelectric and other renewable sources of power, along with the infrastructure needed to distribute it.

The miraculous speed with which drug companies created, tested, and began mass-producing COVID-19 vaccines — an effort that will, literally, save millions of lives — is a template for the urgency and fast investment that can win the fight against climate change, the war we have to fight and must win.

León, Spain: To Voicer Nelson C. Dones: The answer to your question as to who gets to decide your ethnicity is relatively simple: You. My parents moved to the mainland in the 1920s. They were the pioneers; the first to confront a racist society that didn’t even know or care that they were Americans. However, they adapted and overcame. They taught their children to be proud to be Americans and equally as proud of their Puerto Rican roots. I am as proud of my maternal grandfather, who was a member of the Puerto Rican militia that fought alongside Spanish troops against the invading American military as I am of my Brown and white uncles who confronted a racially segregated military and fought for the U.S. in WWII. Also, my Brown brother who served in the Navy during Vietnam but was refused service in a southern bar in the U.S. This did not stop me from serving in the U.S. Army out of love of country.

I fail to understand why you would find being labeled Brown so “troubling, offensive and humiliating.” Every Puerto Rican has European, Indian and African roots. We all have white, Black and Brown ancestors and relatives. This is what makes us such beautiful people, and this should be a source of pride.

You appear to readily accept the term “Hispanic.” Personally, I have protested against this politically contrived term. Using the same criteria by which 21 countries that happen to speak Spanish are lumped together, I want to see the 44 countries that speak English labeled “Britannic.” Daniel Colón

On labels

Rockaway Park: To Voicer Nelson C. Dones: I never thought about the term “Brown people” in reference to people of Latin descent being derogatory or insulting. Maybe because I consider myself a Black man, which I am proud to be called. I must admit that when discussing the topic of race, I usually use the term “people of color” which includes all of us. I feel this term is apropos because the white racist does not distinguish any difference in our ethnicities. To him or her, we are all inferior and undeserving of what America has to offer in the way of equality. Anthony Johnson

Executive power

Long Beach, L.I.: What do we need Congress or the Senate for if President Biden can act on reparations without them? And more importantly, use our tax moneys without due process? People are struggling to rebuild lives and businesses and looking for jobs after the looting, rioting and burning that occurred during the pandemic and because of the rising cost of living. We can’t afford more burdens placed on our shoulders. What happened to democracy? Arlene Reilly

Right back at ya

Mahopac, N.Y.: Watched the news yesterday morning. Mayor de Bozo said if you can’t govern, you should step down. Why didn’t he follow his own advice and step down years ago?

Jim Garry

Name change

New Windsor, N.Y.: Perhaps Andy Cuomo’s name should be changed to Randy Cuomo. What a gavone. Todd Schuster

Unappealing

Brooklyn: Dear Gov. Cuomo: No young woman in her twenties wants a sexual relationship with a 63-year-old man. I think you’re suffering from COVID dementia.

Eileen McIntyre Hughes

One-downsmanship

Long Beach, L.I.: God bless Gov. Cuomo! He did the impossible! He’s making Mayor de Blasio look good! Rob Ryan

Condolences

Congers, N.Y.: To Voicer Steven Dolman: I am so terribly sorry to hear of your brother-in-law Voicer Howard Katz’s passing. I enjoyed reading his letters in the Voice of the People. I hope you and your family can find some peace and comfort in knowing that he touched the lives of so many people he never met.

Beth Friscino

Not so fast

Staten Island: The nonsense written by Voicer Joyce Pinto can’t go unchecked. The USNS Comfort in N.Y., like the USNS Mercy on the West Coast, was deployed to handle overflow patients facing non-COVID emergencies. They didn’t accept COVID-positive patients initially. We were inundated at that point in the pandemic, running out of hospital beds, PPE and ventilators. COVID-positive nursing home patients infected by asymptomatic staff at nursing homes were sent back to nursing homes because of this growing crisis. N.Y. would be best served if you spare us your uninformed opinions, focus on your own state of Connecticut and let us New Yorkers worry about our state.

Ellen Settanni

Fixed price

Manhattan: The irony contained in the current rent regulations is that the small owners who desperately need the rental funds as a primary source of income are in many cases not obtaining their money because of the selective moratorium, while the large corporations currently supplying limited amenities (gym, lounges, swimming) and personnel because of the virus are for the most part receiving their higher rental money. These amounts far exceed current rental rates. In my case, I am being charged 20% more than the going rate for an identical unit. Appeals for adjustment to lease rates have fallen on deaf ears. Mine is not a unique case. Nelson Marans

Gone too soon

Hallandale Beach, Fla.: Jahmil French was such a special human. He was fearless and brilliant in his pursuit, and I’m so sad we won’t get to see more of his gift. I wish him eternal peace. Paul Bacon

Glaring omission

Forest Hills: Why is it that the people who are outraged by books written in 1950 by Dr. Theodore Geisel aren’t as outraged or offended by rap lyrics that for over 40 years have included curse words and the N-word in their lyrics? Not to mention descriptions of what they want to do to women. Double standards strike again.

Sherri Rosen

Leave it be

Brooklyn: What’s up with Dr. Seuss? His children’s books were amazing. It’s like when Little Black Sambo was banned. This all is part of our history. It was then; it’s not now. We can’t erase history. It has happened. Let’s move on to the future. No more destruction of statues or names of sports teams — or slavery or concentration camps. It all sucks but it’s a part of our history and should be something we should remember. Rita Leslie

Field dreams

Rego Park: Every county in New York State is allowing high school sports except for the five boroughs in NYC. High school seniors are missing out on possible college scholarships because they’re not being seen in competition. It’s up to the NYC Department of Health to make a decision. Let the kids enjoy the benefits of sports. Let them play.

Gerard Angelastro

Potshot

Manasquan, N.J.: Johnson & Johnson’s COVID vaccine is only 65% effective. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are about 94% effective. Yet J&J got emergency FDA approval and now Big Pharma buddy

Merck will help manufacture this charade. How perfect. Why would anyone take the J&J shot over the other two? J&J has justified their unimpressive results by saying that if you get COVID using their inferior vaccine, you will be “less likely to die” than having no shot at all. That is ridiculous. The definition of a vaccine is to “provide immunity from a disease,” not just limit its effects. J&J should not be allowed to call their shot a vaccine. It should be called a shot in the dark.

Bill Reinhard

Way too soon

Wantagh, L.I.: SNL opened the show with a skit depicting a game show hosted by Dr. Fauci. The panel was three controversial governors with contestants competing to be vaccinated. Our country is in the midst of climbing out of what is arguably its most difficult time, with a pandemic death toll exceeding 550,000. Perhaps my funny bone was removed but can someone point out the humor in this subject matter?

James Burke

Un-Seuss the youth

Little Egg Harbor, N.J.: Now we know why we are all racists: Dr. Seuss. We are all victims of racist indoctrination. In the new COVID bill, the federal government must fund therapy for all Americans who have been exposed to the writings of Dr. Seuss to try and purge us all of our Seuss-induced racist habits.