It’s drizzling as I write this, just before Thanksgiving. Maybe we’ll have a “normal” rainfall year! Maybe we can set aside our perpetual worries about another drought cycle. As the hills “green up,” we can worry less about wildfires erupting in our hillsides and destroying us, as we saw in the Mountain Fire in Ventura County earlier this month. That fire destroyed or damaged more than 220 homes, just the latest, unmistakable sign of planetary peril fueled by climate change.
It’s tempting to turn our eyes away from this devastating cycle of drought and fires, of floods and hurricanes. Can’t we just concentrate on the upcoming holidays, gather with family and friends, and try not to talk about climate change?
This year is already on track to be the hottest year for our planet in all human history. The World Meteorological Organization once again issued a Red Alert to warn us of the realities of climate change. In 2015, the Paris climate change accord set a goal of limiting annual planetary warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) over pre-industrial levels. Global warming is about to exceed—may have already exceeded—that target. All indications are that we’ll see up to 5.6 degrees Fahrenheit of warming within a few years as ocean heat rises and polar sea ice recedes.
Yet the incoming Trump administration plans to withdraw (again) from the 2015 Paris climate accords. And late last week, the 2024 COP29 climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, wrapped up without meaningful funding to combat the catastrophic impacts of climate change.
As the Baku climate talks got started in early November, the CEO of Exxon Mobil actually cautioned Trump against withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. Essentially, he argued that the U.S. needs to retain its place at the negotiating table. In Baku, those negotiations forged a last-minute agreement to raise $300 billion each year—rising to $1.3 trillion by 2035—to transition away from fossil fuels and limit the damages from increased fires, droughts, floods, reduced food production, and sea level rise.
But that pledge came just as Trump nominated Chris Wright as his secretary of energy, another oil industry CEO who posted this just last year: “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either.” Trump proposes to expand oil and gas production, deregulate coal, and defund all initiatives aiming to reduce planet-heating greenhouse gases.
With apologies to Humphrey Bogart’s assurance to Ingrid Berman, “We’ll always have Paris … ,” no, we won’t! Forget Paris. Forget Baku, and forget about transitioning to a clean-energy economy. Forget the economic benefits from improved technologies, employment growth, and international trade.
Trump won’t contribute one thin dime to that limited $300 billion goal. In fact, the Trump administration will obstruct even state-level or private financing to mitigate climate change, if it cuts into oil and gas profits. The Trump administration will suspend and suppress all research and development on new technologies that could improve energy efficiency. Other nations (notably China) will take over the global market share of these technologies that might have been and should have been ours.
Is there any hope for this imperiled planet? A few straws may be grasped: Electric vehicles continue to gain popularity. We already derive 30 percent of our global energy sources from renewable, earth-friendly sources (wind, solar, and hydro). Our global energy system is moving toward sustainability on a course that cannot easily be reversed, as solar and wind generators become increasingly competitive.
So as we look ahead to 2025, let’s look to this first major rain that soaked our hillsides, let’s keep faith in our indomitable spirit, and let’s look to the long term. We must not wallow in the grief and despair that so many of us feel from the political setback of this election; we must stand up and resist the creeping authoritarianism that threatens our civic traditions.
We must keep up the fight against this insidious menace of ignorance and greed. If we can prevent even one degree of climate change through our actions, we will reduce human suffering and ecological damage. If we act, if we collaborate, if we organize, we can make real progress through our climate-committed states and cities.
Here in California, and in San Luis Obispo, we are blessed to live in such a state and community. If you would like to help our community to act, join or donate to the SLO Climate Coalition and/or SLO County Citizens’ Climate Education. Contact your legislators, your county supervisors, your city council members.
And at the dinner table this Thanksgiving weekend, as you listen to your Trump-supporting, Fox “News”-addicted Uncle Fred expounding on the virtues of fossil fuels, don’t hesitate to speak up! After you’ve heard him out, gently remind him what we all know about climate change: It’s here, it’s real, and it constitutes an existential threat to our planet. We can and we must take a different path, one that guarantees a future for the children and grandchildren who are sharing that meal with us.
Each of us can help steer the ship of state away from the devastating legacy of fossil fuels and in the direction of renewable energy. As Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, wherever you are.” And if you can, do it with some people you love—starting this Thanksgiving Day. Δ
John Ashbaugh doesn’t have an Uncle Fred in the family, so he regularly plays the family role as “grumpy Grandpa” as he carves the turkey. It’s gotten so bad that—for the sake of a decent slice of turkey—the carving knife usually goes to the most convenient son-in-law. Send your comments by writing to editor@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 8, 2024.
Doing what we can where we are everyday is a model we can all commit to as we go about our lives. This year I am planning my gift giving by limiting single use plastic and giving tools to others to limit their usage. Cotton produce bags, bring your cup to the coffee shop/pool/gym are two ideas. Modeling this for others is a way to show our love for the planet and each other.
This is an excellent article and a sorely needed reminder as we approach the Trump years. I’m doing everything I can to lower carbon emissions because I love my children and grandchildren. I hope you will consider doing what you can to be part of the solution to the rising threat to all living things on our fragile planet.
Single use plastic is estimated to comprise 40-50% of plastic use on planet Earth, and as such, and along with severe biodiversity decline, is a major factor in our planet’s health. All plastic ever produced remains as part of our Earth’s air, water and/or land. Plastic does not biodegrade. Eliminating single use plastic goes a long way toward: reducing emissions caused by producing the plastic; eliminating the use of the 10,000 + toxic chemicals used to produce plastic; eliminating the release of those 10,000+ toxic chemicals into the biosphere from the plastic; reducing the harm to plants and animals and humans caused by microplastic and nanoplastic particles; reducing microplastic particles that have been found on both sides of the human placenta, as well as in other human organs. Breaking the habit of single use plastic benefits the entire biosphere.