By Greg Auriemma
Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest report on climate disruption. Among its findings is the reaffirmation that global temperatures are rising and an increasing confidence that humans are to blame. Underscoring the findings: Half of the Arctic ice cap has melted in the past 20 years.
The changes are far-reaching and affect us in more ways than we’d think. Point Hope, Alaska, the country’s longest-inhabited village, is seeing unprecedented change. Animals have different migration routes and come at different times of the year, when they come at all.
Most people in the village depend on a subsistence way of life, and these changes have very real consequences on the food security of the whole community. Right now, as the rains continue this fall, residents of Point Hope are adjusting their thinking to prepare for winter by filling their freezers and getting warm clothing out. While the hunt will go on, they still have to worry about the impacts to their land and water from actions taking place around the world. They’ll need government to take action and save their food.
What happens in the Arctic extends beyond the icy north. The Arctic ice cap acts like a refrigerator for the planet. Less Arctic sea ice means a warmer planet and a change in climate patterns, creating a cycle that will further speed up climate change. From coast to coast, climate disruption contributes to worsening severe weather, floods and fires, superstorms and rising seas.
Eleven months ago, New Jersey was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. At least 650,000 houses were damaged or destroyed across the region. In New Jersey, 346,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed; 22,000 of those were rendered uninhabitable. Many people are still unable to return and have been left homeless. Sandy will rank as the second-costliest disaster in the nation’s history, with a current damage estimate of approximately $50 billion.
Hurricane Sandy was the ninth such devastating storm to hit the Garden State in the last three years and the fourth “100-year storm” to hit the Jersey Shore in the past two decades. The unfortunate reality is that the impacts of climate change will only make such storms worse.
At its heart, the story of climate disruption is one of people — of disrupted lives, disrupted homes and disrupted futures. Families here in New Jersey need to be protected from the effects of climate disruption and sea-level rise. Ours are not the only climate stories, and if we fail to act, the collection of stories will grow longer.
Despite the reality of climate change, dirty-fuel companies continue to push forward plans to drill and burn fossil fuels that will release huge amounts of carbon pollution into our air, pushing average global temperatures ever higher. Scientists agree that to avoid the worst effects of climate disruption, we need to prevent temperatures from rising another five degrees. The time to act is now.
President Barack Obama has promised leadership in fighting climate disruption. Already, his administration is taking positive steps toward limiting carbon pollution from new coal plants and has committed to proposing similar pollution limits for existing plants next year.
The president has recognized that the other side of the equation is equally important, saying “we can’t just drill our way out of the energy and climate challenge that we face.” He’s right.
Current proposals to drill in the Arctic Ocean are risky and dangerous business, both for this harsh yet fragile area and for our climate.
Opening up this wild frontier to drilling would undermine other climate mitigation efforts. The Arctic is the last place we should be drilling for oil and it should be the first place the president puts off-limits to oil companies.
If Obama is serious about fighting climate change, the administration must address both the extraction and use of fossil fuels.
At the same time, Obama needs to speed our country’s transition to cleaner sources of energy such as wind and solar, and reduce our dependence on oil by making our cars cleaner and more efficient and expanding our transportation options.
We can fuel our nation without sacrificing our wild places, our families’ health and our future. The benefits of doing so will stretch far beyond Alaska to New Jersey and beyond.
--Greg Auriemma is chairman of the New Jersey Sierra Club’s Ocean Group.
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