Valley Forum: Earth Day 2016 – getting warmer?

It’s easy to be upbeat on Earth Day, a time to celebrate the natural world that supports us. With full reservoirs, wildflowers and green grass, there’s plenty to celebrate all around us. And then there’s climate change. The climate situation is desperate and, perhaps especially on Earth Day, it deserves our attention - and action.

2016 is already staking a claim as the warmest year on record in a decade of such records. February was the hottest February in a 137-year record, capping 10 consecutive record-breaking months. It appears March will break February’s record. Climate change isn’t a problem for the future, it’s happening now, with sobering consequences around the world.

One example: According to the National Academy of Sciences, Syrian unrest in 2011 was heavily influenced by drought and famine made worse by climate change, and this crossed into a civil war.

The tragedy has created seven million refugees, destabilized the region and laid the seeds for ISIS, and taxed the European Union experiment to near breaking. In the United States, ripples of these impacts have fed an anti-immigration fever that has brought national election politics to a new low.

Climate change isn’t the only trouble in town. But it builds on weaknesses and inflames them. If it were a short-term disaster, we might have overcome it. But because climate change is such a vast issue in time and effect, most of us are barely able to comprehend the enormous risks and challenges it brings, if we can bear to think about it at all. Some have exploited this. As a result, we have delayed action, and its impacts will now last for centuries. We’re only just beginning to do something about it.

Sometimes the best solutions start small. For example, here at home we are doing things that help. These include creating an array of conservation and renewable energy tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, learning more about local climate impacts and advancing policies that help us adapt, experimenting with technologies that put carbon back into the ground, and building partnerships that support all of these efforts. (Search “Climate Action 2020” to see the county’s draft climate plan.) For this we in Sonoma County are recognized as national leaders. This is good. But there is so much more we need to do. 

We should lean on our elected officials to act now, to ratify the Paris Climate Agreement that limits global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius”; support renewable energy and move away from coal, oil and gas; create a power grid that can handle tomorrow’s loads and its distributed, variable supply; prepare for the changes that a changing climate is forcing on us, from rising ocean levels to the many consequences of more heat and extreme weather; and to avoid what got us here in the first place: make sure our actions have multiple benefits and don’t move problems somewhere else.

At home we’d recommend:

First, travel smart. Over 50 percent of emissions in Sonoma County come from transportation. Buy or lease an electric vehicle if you can, and limit trips in petro-powered vehicles, especially with a big engine, when you don’t have to, especially by yourself. Use transit or share a ride. Walk and bike.

Second, live smart. Energy use in buildings is one third of Sonoma County’s emissions. Take advantage of incentives for installing solar power. There are several no-fee programs that lease your roof and provide power back to you, at less than you’re paying. Help your home or business be efficient.

Third, plan smart. Prepare for dry and hot periods, and also heavy rain. Plant trees and shrubs that fit our area (search for “top plants for Sonoma County”). At home and work, help the land hold water and release it slowly into the ground. Be fire safe, in a way that helps the rest of nature. Use less water. Get to know your neighbors and community better. We are our best resource for the challenges ahead, and also for the good times that we can work together to make sure are still to come.

Happy Earth Day.

Richard Dale is the director of the Sonoma Ecology Center.