Climate change — it’s real, it’s now and it’s us
The recent cold temperatures — dipping into the 20s during the night — might lull us into thinking, as some still doggedly point out, that global warming is some kind of “fake news,” a diversion, a lie.
But no. As representatives of 200 nations — just about every single one on Earth — continue meeting in Poland to deliberate climate change, they take the issue very seriously. So did a massive U.S. study released by the Trump Administration only last month and another from the UN released the same week. Global temperatures have already risen the better part of 2 degrees Fahrenheit — measurable fact, not opinion — and scientists are hoping and praying we keep the rise to below four, as only a four-degree rise in global temperatures spells catastrophic conditions for many people across the planet. Sadly, the window for doing so is closing quickly.
Negotiations in Poland have been complicated by the fact that global carbon emissions, after three years of no growth, rose by 1.6 percent last year and are projected to increase by another 2.7 percent this year. That doesn’t bode well for America’s contribution to warming trends.
The story from China is worse. Now the No. 1 carbon emitter, having knocked us off our decades-long perch just a few years ago, its carbon emissions grew by a whopping 5 percent last year. And India’s grew by 6 percent. The European Union knocked its emissions by a meager 1 percent last year, but at least its emissions are heading in the right direction.
As those 200 nations meet, ironically, in Polish coal country, Poland itself is re-committing to coal and fossil fuels, and France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is mired in a raging controversy surrounding diesel fuel tax hikes, ostensibly a climate change measure that is hotly contested by everyone involved. Brazil recently elected a new president who is happy to reopen the Amazon rainforest to fossil fuel production. We all know about Trump’s disdain for environmental policy and his promise to withdraw from the UN climate change accord that is being negotiated in Poland right now.
And so it goes. Meanwhile, Philadelphia is #AllIn in getting the city to commit to lowering its carbon emissions, the Office of Sustainability creating an action plan for helping the city reduce its carbon footprint. While there are still climate naysayers — many of whom trolled me on Facebook recently for an op-ed piece I wrote for the Inquirer — a Yale University poll on climate opinion tracked positions on climate change across the country, learning that almost 75% of Pennsylvanians believe climate change will harm future generations. And while only one-third of Pennsylvanians think climate change “will harm me personally,” a higher 50 percent of Philadelphians believe this.
For we’ve seen climate change in Philadelphia. This has been one of the weirder years, rainfall coming in at 50 percent above normal, most days dark and gloomy like London. Even the current cold spell hides the truth — that winter has gotten warmer. As the accompanying graph from Climate Central shows, data tells us that Philadelphia’s winters have warmed by more than 4 degrees over the last few decades. While any given week — or even year — might divert from this, the long-term trend is no longer debatable. We’ve seen multiple 100-year storms, while we should barely see one in a lifetime, and rain falls harder and longer when it comes. We’ve also seen more 90-degree days than we once did as well.
And our rivers will rise during a time when riverside housing is hot. We’re busily building new homes on stilts on Venice Island when the odds of the Schuylkill flooding its banks have greatly increased.
Scientists estimate that carbon emissions need to be halved by 2030 if we have a shot at avoiding the four-degree mark. But we’re way off track by still debating the issue.
Climate change is real, it’s caused by us, it’s bad — but there’s hope if we act now. As we enter another winter of political discontent, consider your contributions to the climate story, and consider all the ways you can join Philadelphia in lowering our regional carbon footprint.
The future will thank you.