The Climate Crisis

To Turn It Into Action

The heat is still on in much of the U.S. and Europe. St. Louis was declared a disaster area last week. Today the power grid in California is teetering due to demand in the hot zones where triple digit temperatures still rule. I'm not sure yet if it's power problems or our own telephone wires but our DSL has been down a lot lately, and my access to the Internet restricted. Just to let you know in case there are long absenses here.

For those of us clutching at hope, there was a heartening article in Sunday's SF Chronicle Insight by Mark Hertsgaard, adapted from his piece in The Nation. It's about Jerome Ringo, the chairman of the Board of the the 4.5. million member National Wildlife Federation, the largest enviro organization in America. Ringo is also the only African American to head such an organization, and he is also a former petrochemical worker. He's a living blue-green alliance.

"I am the first African American to head a major conservation group in history," he says. Most environmental groups, he adds, "were founded by people who fished to put fish on the wall, not by people who fished to put fish on the table. And for poor people, issues like ozone depletion have not been a priority, compared to next month's rent. But I tell people in Cancer Alley, 'What good is next month's rent if you're dying from cancer?' "

Ringo is one of the proponents of a new approach to environment in politics, Hertsgaard writes. He pecifies three changes of approach. First: a focus on economically attractive solutions rather than downbeat warnings of disaster... Second, using clear, plain language to communicate with everyone (the enviro organizations have been mired in regulationspeak for years, as they functioned as lobbyists and legal watchdogs), and third, strengthening local organizations to work politically on local and state levels. One of the inspiring moments in Al Gore's movie is the screen filled up with the names of cities that have pledged to act on the climate crisis (and a prideful moment too, to see our much maligned Arcata on it). Here's the heart of the article:

Part of what makes Ringo interesting is that he can credibly connect with all the constituencies needed to transform environmentalism into a genuinely broad-based movement. The National Wildlife Federation chairman can talk to whites and blacks, environmentalists and hunters, business leaders and union members, church-goers and secularists. And he recognizes that all of them benefit from an environmental policy that stresses both respect for the Earth and economic prosperity.

"The glue that connects the dots" is the fight against climate change, says Ringo. He argues that environmentalists can best pursue this battle by championing a green energy plan put forward by the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of environmental, labor and business groups of which he is the new president.

Apollo proposes investing $300 billion of public funds in green energy technologies during the next 10 years. This investment would create 3 million jobs and countless business opportunities, Apollo says, while also fighting climate change and cutting dependence on foreign oil.

It's a good time to be making this argument. Not only has global warming finally been widely acknowledged as an urgent problem, it is now undeniable that fighting it can be extraordinarily profitable. Beginning in 1999, energy giant British Petroleum invested $20 million to increase energy efficiency throughout its production facilities and offices. Three years later, it had saved $650 million in lower fuel costs -- a stunning thirtytwo-fold return on its investment.

Apollo says there is no reason that state and local governments and other public entities cannot cash in just as handsomely -- a message ready-made for the 235 cities that have committed to meeting the greenhouse-gas emissions reductions mandated by the Kyoto Protocol. Ringo spoke at the National Conference of Mayors in June about the Apollo program and got a standing ovation.

"Apollo began five years ago as a vision," he says. "My goal is to turn it into action."