Greta Thunberg gets it: our house is on fire. This is the second time in my lifetime that our house has been on fire. I was only 3 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, thus starting WW II. I was too young then to remember that day, but I do remember the cold day in February of 1946 when my father came home from the Philippines. Our family was lucky, others weren’t, as more than 400 thousand didn’t come home. It took more than 16 million Americans (out of a population of only 140 million) serving in the military to put that fire out, plus millions more working in defense factories to put that fire out.
Today, once again, our house is burning, and, once again, the time has come for Americans to mobilize and do whatever it takes to put the fire out. Only this time, we don’t need to ask our young men and women to sacrifice themselves on the far-flung shores of Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Anzio, Omaha Beach, or elsewhere. This time we can all mobilize and do something about climate change without leaving the safety of our homes.
Yet, it’s not happening. At least not on the scale needed to avert the catastrophic consequences of continuing to burn fossil fuels to power our society. It’s time for a regeneration of that American spirit that has always set us apart from the rest of the world and amazed the world in the years that followed Pearl Harbor.
Yet, it’s not happening. Has our spirit been crushed by disbelief? By apathy? By stupidity? Does it really matter why?
For the past 12 years, the Green Living Journal has been offering you practical actions to reduce your impact on the environment: Give your dryer ( and the grid) a rest and hang dry your laundry, buy healthy organic foods, shop at farmers markets, install LED lights, use mass transit, walk or bike, consume less, waste less by reusing, repairing, and recycling, fly less often (take the train!) and so on. It all makes a difference.
Yet, still, too few are taking action. Granted, these changes are inconvenient, but let’s be honest, it’s nothing compared to what Americans faced in the ‘40s.
There is one huge difference between the situation today and that of 1941: unity. Back then, everyone (i.e., individuals, companies, and the government) agreed on what had to be done. Today that unity is absent. Our house is not just burning; it is divided as well.
Fortunately, signs of unity are rising. A small group of our congressional representatives has introduced the Green New Deal to get the federal government to lead the charge and unify America in the fight to combat climate change. Every American should take a closer look at this Green New Deal. It’s too long to present in its entirety, but here’s a short version of the main goals:
• Meet 100 percent of the power demand in the U. S. through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources.
• Build or upgrade to energy-efficient, distributed, and ‘‘smart’’ power grids and ensure affordable access to electricity.
• Upgrade all existing buildings in the U. S. and build new buildings to achieve maximum energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification.
• Work collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the U. S. to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector as much as is technologically feasible.
The chances of the Green New Deal getting through Congress and being signed into law by the current President are iffy at best. The fossil fuel industry will spend whatever it takes to crush it for as long as they can.
Saul Griffith summed it up very well: “We will solve climate change if we don’t let the bureaucratic crud and mental laziness of 100 years of writing regulations for a fossil fuel-based economy get in the way of a verdant decarbonized future for our children.”
The clock is ticking. If we don’t act now, we may not get a second chance.
For more thoughts from Saul Griffith: www.saulgriffith.com
