Climate SOS

(Opinion) New Haven’s contingent of the U.S. Climate Strike is this Friday, Dec. 6, from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. at City Hall. Will you join me and the rest of the climate justice movement to show your support for action on the climate emergency?

The Emissions Gap Report released last week by the UN Environment Programme warns that the window to limit global warming to 1.5°C, the target recognized by scientists as critical to avoid devastating impacts, is rapidly closing. Because we have delayed action for decades, the measures necessary are drastic – global greenhouse gas emissions must decrease by 7.6 percent each year from now on (a five-fold increase from countries’ current commitments), in stark opposition to the insidious rise we’ve seen as each year passes. While we can endlessly debate capitalism vs socialism, when it comes to climate an objective glance at the crisis baldly reveals that there is no way to achieve such ​“rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,” as stated by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, via the free market and elective individual lifestyle changes.

We should use collective spending power on policies that make up the Green New Deal, a framework of ideas proposed at the federal level by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D‑NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D‑MA). It’s exactly the kind of bold investment in underserved communities and jobs necessary to mitigate the climate crisis while giving more economic and political power to workers and those most impacted by this catastrophe. The yellow jackets movement in France provides a striking example of the consequences when climate policy fails to consider issues of inequality. Decision-makers in New Haven — such as the City, Yale University, state representatives, Gov. Ned Lamont, and federal representatives — must do all they can to prioritize Green New Deal-style investments.

Skeptics say it will be too expensive, but what is the cost of inaction? 2017 was the most expensive year on record for US natural disasters, costing our country $306 billion according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This is nearly half of our yearly military budget. Could you imagine what progress we could make if we spent anywhere near that amount on climate solutions? And how could we possibly put a price tag on the 2,975 lives lost in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, the 85 lives lost in California from the Camp Fire, and the countless lives at stake in the future?

Skeptics also claim that there is little point to driving U.S. emissions down when countries like China and India are polluting so much. This is a fallacious perspective. While China is currently the highest emitter of greenhouse gases, the U.S. comes in second, and is by far the highest cumulative historical emitter. Claims that the U.S.’s emissions have been declining in recent years are spurious, as they fail to properly account for the methane emissions that result from fracked gas. Furthermore, I believe a more appropriate metric is per capita emissions -– China’s population is four times that of the U.S. and its per capita emissions are less than half the US’ because its individuals have a lower standard of living. India’s are ten times less. It should also be noted that much of China’s emissions stem from manufacturing products that are sold to the U.S. Finally, as Greta Thunberg pointed out, deflecting blame onto other countries is a fundamentally flawed, doomed logic – some people in Sweden cite the US’ inaction as an excuse not to act. Conversely, leadership begets positive influence.

While national action appears to be a lost cause for at least another year, many U.S. cities and states have been rising to the challenge. New Haven is on the cusp of becoming a regional leader, as the Board of Alders unanimously passed a Climate Emergency Resolution in September. Mayor-Elect Justin Elicker has also expressed support of this move, although much work lies ahead that must be prioritized amid what is sure to be a long list of to-dos on the mayor’s desk come January. The requested 0.1 percent (~$500K) allocation of New Haven’s yearly budget towards a Climate Emergency Task Force, which will enact measures to eliminate New Haven’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, has yet to be ratified. While the symbolic declaration of emergency is significant, New Haven’s carbon footprint is unlikely to shrink significantly unless the city puts its money where its mouth is. As a coastal city, New Haven has a lot to lose if warming is allowed to accelerate— low-lying landmarks such as Long Wharf, Union Station, and Tweed Airport are threatened by sea level rise and severe storms. Activists have also rightly pointed out that $500K is a negligible sum compared to Yale’s $30.3 billion endowment, and the very least it could do is match this allocation to the Task Force.

The climate crisis can understandably bring about feelings of despair and futility. While we have indeed locked in dangerous levels of warming, scientists still have clearly communicated that it is not too late to stave off the worst ramifications. I’ve done work for the nonprofit Project Drawdown, which also inspires hope by highlighting a host of under-utilized solutions with tremendous co-benefits that have high potential not only to limit emissions, but to sequester the carbon already in the atmosphere back into the plants and soil where it belongs. Some of the most impactful solutions include the management of refrigerant chemicals onboard air conditioners and refrigerators, reducing food waste, empowering women and girls, and regenerative agriculture.

I was one of the people arrested at the Yale-Harvard game protest on Nov. 23, and it was one of the most thrilling feelings of my time as an activist when an estimated 500 people from the audience rushed onto the field to join us in solidarity. It was humbling, though, to look out at the stands and realize that almost 45,000 onlookers remained in their seats. It was a testament to the persistence of the bystander effect in the face of climate catastrophe: research has shown that people will remain in rooms filling with smoke unless others are signaling the need to exit. If society truly faced the science of the climate crisis for what it is, the entire audience would have stormed that field.

If you are a parent, as I have recently become, then you owe it to your children to help disrupt our doomed status quo. Or even if you plan on remaining on Earth for the next 20 years, you ought to be very concerned. Will you acknowledge Greta Thunberg’s call to put out the fire that is burning up our one and only house? Will you join me at City Hall, from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Friday as we demand that decision-makers on all levels invest in a Green New Deal? 

Geremy Schulick, pictured above at a climate change protest, is a New Haven resident and member of New Haven Climate Movement, Sunrise New Haven, and Fossil Free Yale. He has served as content curator for Project Drawdown. Other members of Sunrise New Haven also contributed to this article.