BY SCOTT CARLIN
Scott Carlin is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental
Science at C.W. Post, Long Island University.
March 27, 2006
The White House and Congress ignore it, but global warming is a major national
security threat - a weapon of mass destruction. This peril grows more dangerous
each year, so where is our response?
Gov. George Pataki has taken one important step by creating the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Six Mid-Atlantic and New England states have joined
New York to reduce emissions from electric power plants.
KeySpan and other power providers will need to curb future emissions
under this plan even though the Long Island Power Authority forecasts increasing
future demand for electricity.
This conflict can only be addressed by repowering
older power plants and managing demand. LIPA already has a variety of programs
to reduce energy consumption and promote renewable energy, but we need to expand
them. Many local governments also have pledged to reduce energy consumption. For
example, Southampton Town is reviewing proposals to build a high-tech cluster of
municipal buildings; it would be the nation's first large-scale green-building
municipal complex. This is the kind of innovation Long Island should strive for,
in the Nassau Hub and elsewhere.
There are no plans to control other local sources of greenhouse gas emissions
from transportation, heating and manufacturing. Nor do we have much information
on how Long Island's consumption of foods, chemicals, building materials, metals
and hundreds of other products - including national defense resources - affect
direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. New York City is compiling an
emissions inventory; Long Island needs to do the same.
As for the national and international picture: In May 2003 the United States
recorded 543 tornadoes, a one-month record. In August 2003, 35,000 people died
in Europe during a record heat wave. Almost 15,000 died in France and 7,000 in
Germany. That year, a British scientist estimated that climate changes caused
more than 150,000 deaths a year globally.
The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season posted a record 27 named storms, including a
record 15 hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina caused more than $100 billion in
damages, the most expensive storm in U.S. history. Katrina displaced more than
1.5 million people, our largest humanitarian crisis since the Great Depression.
Millions of animals perished. A Georgia Institute of Technology study recently
confirmed that devastating storms are likely to occur with
increasing frequency.
Coral reefs are bleaching as oceans warm. Mountain glaciers are retreating. Tens
of thousands of sea birds washed up dead on beaches from California to
Washington this year. The ice in Greenland, the Arctic Circle and Antarctica is
thinning at an alarming rate. Colorado
scientist Julienne Stroeve noted, "If current rates
of decline in sea ice continue, the summertime Arctic could be completely
ice-free well before the end of this century."
Political conservatives argue that doom-and-gloom environmentalism is a
dangerous distraction; we should focus on the opportunities this new world
presents. The New York Times reported this fall that thinning Arctic ice will
create many new economic opportunities for shipping, fishing and mineral
exploration.
Climate change is happening so rapidly that we have to adapt. But adaptation
alone is a prescription for disaster; the costs imposed by climate change will
be enormous and potentially catastrophic. Leading scientists argue that we must
rapidly curb greenhouse emissions or face dire consequences.
On the regional level, many resources exist to foster education and investments
in emission reductions, including Long Island's Sustainable Energy Alliance and
research institutions such as Brookhaven National Laboratory. In April, Save the
Sound will examine the impact of
climate change on the Long Island Sound, like declining lobster populations near
Bridgeport, Conn.
But the pace of change must quicken. Schools, businesses, religious institutions
and civic groups should all commit to making modest reforms in 2006. Science
teachers can give presentations at church or PTA meetings. Long slanders can get
rid of inefficient light bulbs, as Kenny Luna's students are doing in North
Babylon's Robert Moses Middle School. People can share auto rides or take the
railroad; they can participate in LIPA's Green
Choice program.
The Kyoto treaty has many flaws, but more than 150 nations signed it. Many
cities across
the United States are moving forward with their own Kyoto-style plans. Long
Island's towns and counties should join them. Properly conceived, these
investments will generate jobs and economic innovation, reduce energy
consumption and improve our health.
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.