A year ago, we were huddled in the dark and the cold in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
A year later, the rebuilt Long Beach boardwalk was the site for a protest for New York State to ban hydraulic fracking, and prohibit the construction of a Liquid Natural Gas terminal 19 miles off our South Shore, right in the path of what would be prime offshore wind farm. Throw in there a call for Obama to nix the Keystone pipeline.
Long Island, New York State and the entire country should be shifting away from a carbon-based energy economy altogether. Failing to do so imperils not just our economy, but our political structure, and our very existence.
The Koch Brothers have made their multi-billions by selling carbon-based fuel, spewing the carbon dioxide that is polluting the air and killing the planet. but because of their vast wealth, they actually have been able to own the political discussion – and the politicians – they fund the climate-change deniers and the propaganda campaigns. If the economy shifts from their product, they will not only lose their unlimited funding, but their ability to control politics.
I visited the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History where there is a fascinating new Human Origins Hall – with major funding from David Koch, himself. This struck me as extraordinarily ironic since a major theme of the exhibit is how climate change, coinciding with rising carbon dioxide levels, has driven evolution and also caused the extinction of the hominids that came before us.
Homo erectus became extinct 143,000 years ago; 74,000 years ago, all hominids were nearly extinct due to climate change – the population of adults reduced to 10,000 (here might be the basis for the Adam and Eve creation story!); 28,000 years ago the Neanderthal went extinct, and 17,000 years ago, Homo floresiensis went extinct. Will homo sapiens follow this course?
In those time frames, the high carbon dioxide concentrations and climate change would have been brought about by some significant natural event like volcanic eruptions. But since the Industrial Revolution, homo sapiens have harnessed fossil fuels to power society, spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, doing what volcanoes had done eons ago, and creating warming that exacerbates weather events like floods, drought, tornadoes and hurricanes.
Justin Gillis in the New York Times this week reported, “Climate change will pose sharp risks to the world’s food supply in coming decades, potentially undermining crop production and driving up prices at a time when the demand for food is expected to soar, scientists have found. Perhaps reducing production over all by as much as 2 percent each decade for the rest of this century, compared with what it would be without climate change. And, the scientists say, they are already seeing the harmful effects in some regions.”
In August, Gillis reported on Aug. 19, 2013, “An international panel of scientists has found with near certainty that human activity is the cause of most of the temperature increases of recent decades, and warns that sea levels could conceivably rise by more than three feet by the end of the century if emissions continue at a runaway pace.”
Rising seas will render 200 million people “climate refugees” fleeing the swamped coastlines for higher ground – think of the populations that will need to flee New York City, Long Island, Miami.
A major climate catastrophe like drought or flooding that interferes with food and water supply will be the final trigger to a general breakdown in society and our cherished democratic political structure.
What would you think the reaction of Americans – the most heavily armed on the planet – will be to famine, drought and deprivation?
We need to actually shift our economy from being based on carbon-based energy. New construction should all have a mechanism to tap renewable energy and resources as well as conserve.
Imagine if all homes had some form of self-generating energy: home owners can use state-of-the-art solar energy systems which actually generate excess electricity for the grid, and get back from the grid when needed; government buildings and shopping malls can have solar panels or green roofs or just painted white roofs; imagine if communities could build small water mills along the shore – we used to have one, the Saddle Rock Grist Mill, powered with the movement of water . ranches used to have windmills.
Instead, the fracking process, in addition to freeing methane and radioactive materials and injecting a toxic soup of chemicals into the ground, is a massive consumer of water.
We need to tax carbon for the true cost of what communities have to spend because of its consequences – pollution, public health, exhausting water and other resources. In fact, perhaps one way to address the frackers – who are now shielded by the Halliburton loophole from liability for the damages they cause – is to charge them for water and require insurance
The argument that the Koch Brothers and others use that shifting away from fossil fuels will somehow hurt the economy is a crock: the federal government shelled out more money for Sandy relief than it spent on education.
What does that say? At some point the money will run out, the destruction will remain. Consider how much food and water prices will go up. We don’t need oil to live. We need water.
An interesting case in point is Qatar, which is hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This is a country that draws its wealth from oil and gas, but has to import 95 percent of its food. So it is tying the World Cup to a massive project to develop a sustainable food supply – in effect, the stadiums will be greenhouses – powered not by oil, but by solar power. Other oil-rich countries are also shifting toward renewable fuels.
And in the last bit of irony, the U.S. has now surpassed Saudi Arabia as the largest producer of energy.
What we need is a policy that shifts this economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels, but so far, policy makers seem fairly schizophrenic – the “all of the above” strategy is flawed.
Take for example the proposed Liquid Natural Gas terminal proposed 19 miles off the south shore.
So, in October, while the protestors were trying to push back against the LNG terminal and calling for a ban on fracking in New York State, the Long Island Power Authority issued two, separate requests for proposals: one would procure up to 280 megawatts of new, On-Island, Renewable Capacity and Energy such as solar, offshore wind, and fuel cells for up to 280 MW of capacity by 2018; the other to begin replacement of Long Island’s fleet of “peaking” generation facilities, installed as early as the 1960s and nearing retirement, with newer, cleaner distributed resources by 2019.
Environmental groups praised LIPA and Gov. Cuomo for moving forward with plans to purchase renewable energy for Long Island saying that the investment in 280 MW of renewable energy is enough to power more than 80,000 Long Island homes.
“This would facilitate the largest renewable energy investment in Long Island history and could lead to building one of the nation’s first offshore wind farms,” David Alicea, Organizer, LI/NYC Beyond Coal Campaign for Sierra Club said in a statement.
“Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Renewable Energy Long Island, National Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club have been working with partners across the state to ensure New York meets its renewable energy targets, an effort which has gained steam post-Sandy. While the Governor has supported the advancement of solar energy, the state and Long Island continue to be behind in meeting their renewable energy goals. In light of the devastating impacts of superstorm Sandy, this broad coalition is calling on the Governor to fight climate disruption by making significant commitments to advance wind power for New York.”
“Long Islanders understand the real devastating effects of climate change. We need to act now to curb harmful polluting fossil fuels and increase renewable energies, including investing in offshore wind. It takes us a few months to site fossil fuel power plants and decades for clean offshore wind. We must reverse this pattern, tackle climate change and create a new energy paradigm,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director, Citizens Campaign for the Environment.
“Offshore wind turbines have been operating across the Atlantic for two decades. Europe’s 55 offshore wind farms have created 58,000 jobs while generating carbon-free electricity,” said Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island. “Long Island has a vast offshore wind resource and it’s time to make the needed investments to harvest this clean and abundant supply of energy.”
With surrounding states moving ahead on plans to invest in offshore wind, Gov. Cuomo has the opportunity to make New York a national leader or let the state fall behind in developing a clean tech economy. With the potential for thousands of jobs throughout the region and the potential to spur a larger clean tech economy, the appeal of offshore wind is attracting a broad coalition of supporters, the Sierra Club stated.
But I worry that this investment in renewables is a fig leaf from Cuomo to give him cover to give the go-ahead with fracking, which he ties to economic development upstate.
Meanwhile, President Obama has been blocked by Congress from enacting any real move away from carbon-based energy toward clean renewables, and instead, Congressional Republicans continue to attempt to extort his approval of the Keystone Pipeline, which environmentalists like Bill McKibben say would be “game over” for the planet’s habitability.
But Obama also has promised to act if Congress refuses to, and this week, without any fanfare (or coverage) whatsoever, issued an executive order, “Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change,” which establishes establishing an interagency Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, chaired by the White House and composed of more than 25 agencies. And directs Federal agencies to: modernize Federal programs to support climate-resilient investments; manage lands and waters for climate preparedness and resilience: provide information, data and tools for climate change preparedness and resilience; plan for climate change related risk.
It almost seems like a white flag of surrender to the impacts of climate change, rather than doing what needs to be done to slow, stop and ultimately reverse the forces driving climate change.
Twenty years from now, as the US is bankrupted and unable to finance recovery from climate disasters – superstorms, droughts, floods, fires – we will be thinking back to the squandered opportunity of Obama’s presidency, and how he was thwarted and frustrated at every step to wean us off fossil fuels, shift to sustainable economy.
We will think back at the lost opportunity to invest in solar, wind, geothermal power, which would have saved households money, families from the grief of pollution-related health ailments, protected the food and water supply, bolstered the treasury with revenue from wage-earners. Instead, we will be competing for scarce, exorbitantly priced food and water. And the gun manufacturers will be doing big business. Think hunger games.
State Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, (D-Long Beach) who’s district was devastated by superstorm Sandy, highlighted the urgency to act on climate change, “There is no longer any doubt that our climate has changed and has become more extreme. This is impacting health, safety and quality of life for so many. After witnessing Sandy’s utter devastation and its lengthy aftermath, we all know changes are necessary in order to help stabilize our severe weather.”
