California Leading: The Climate Crisis

It's been another week of grim warnings. A report by a coalition of environmental and aid organizations warned that the weather in the Carribean is becoming less predictable and more extreme, due to the Climate Crisis--both global heating and the environmental degradation and other changes it causes. John Holdren, new president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science issued a stern warning in one of his first public pronouncements, to the BBC: "We are not talking anymore about what climate models say might happen in the future. "We are experiencing dangerous human disruption of the global climate and we're going to experience more," Professor Holdren said.

He emphasised the seriousness of the melting Greenland ice cap, saying that without drastic action the world would experience more heatwaves, wild fires and floods. He added that if the current pace of change continued, a catastrophic sea level rise of 4m (13ft) this century was within the realm of possibility; much higher than previous forecasts.

Fortunately there was better news in the growing awareness of the Climate Crisis reality. The World Bank has officially recommended that the Climate Crisis and its effects be figured into development and anti-poverty plans globally (and also warned of possible severe economic consequences due to the CC.) Bill McKibben, who has been writing about the CC since 1989, believes public awarness and demands that the CC be confronted are finally becoming powerful:
And so more environmentalists are starting to decide that 10 years of only behaving reasonably may be enough -- that the time has come to let leaders know that a sizable portion of the population is truly upset, and that it won't rest until the nation's on track to tackle the problem. Progress is by no means impossible: Vermont independent James Jeffords has introduced a credible bill in the Senate calling for an 80 percent reduction in carbon by 2050. But if the bill is to have any chance in a capital dominated by the energy lobby, it needs strong backing from think tanks and scientists -- and from people in the street. The lesson of every movement in US history is that being right is only half the battle; being loud helps, too.

To support his thesis of support, this little tidbit: the biggest cheer at the MTV Awards was for Al Gore and his message that it will be the younger generation who will demand the CC be confronted, because it's their future.

As for actual action, California took a stunning step to jumpstart the "Stop It" element of slowing down global heating for the future by cutting greenhouse gases emissions now. California legislators passed a plan which Governor S has promised to sign with a graduated series of steps culminating in reducing emissions in the state by 25% by the year 2020. The SF Chronicle describes some of the implementation, as well as speculating on the effect this will have on other states and the federal government.

How about the economy? The doom and gloom right wingers went on record immediately: the Competitive Institute's press release was entitled, "California Joins the Third World." But others believe the loss of expanding and polluting fossil fuel operations can be more than offset by new and cleaner industries, and by the energy of innovation. The Chron:

But others sense an opportunity. They argue that California can cut greenhouse gas emissions with little increase in the price of electricity and, down the road, will reap an enormous payback by having retooled its economy for the 21st century. Much of the rest of the world is working to turn industry greener -- California could lead the trend in the United States, they say. Global warming, they say, ultimately represents a much more insidious economic threat than any regulatory mandate. "California's economy is vulnerable to climate impacts, but it can benefit from climate action," Michael Hanemann, professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Berkeley, said in a statement.

California's gross state product could grow by $60 billion to $74 billion in the next 14 years if it takes advantage of opportunities created by greenhouse gas restrictions, according to Berkeley researchers. "The economic evidence supports a cap on global warming emissions," Hanemann said.

Advocates believe that companies focused on energy-efficient products or renewable sources of power will flock to California and thrive. As more states and countries try to curb emissions, these "clean-tech" businesses will be ready to help them.

As Al Gore has been saying, and others agree, there is growing recognition--even within fossil fuel dependent industries and the Republican party--that efforts to curb CO2 emissions will grow because the science is basically beyond dispute, and the evidence of ongoing climate change is increasingly obvious. But emphasizing the opportunity, both in the "Fix It" and "Stop It" efforts, to put the country to constructive and creative work on a crisis affecting billions of people, the planet's ecosystem and much of the life on it, including human civilization, is the proper motivator. And California may lead the way.