The United Nations\u2019 Climate Action Week\nwrapped up with intense speeches, promises and emotional pleas for action. Here in New York, the battle over how best to\nrespond to the unfolding climate catastrophe is intensifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s start with the science. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the beginning of industrialization in\nthe second half of the 18th century, humans have released so much CO2<\/sub>\ninto the atmosphere that the global average temperature has increased by around\n1 degree Celsius (nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit). And temperatures currently continue to rise by\na further 0.2 degrees Celsius each decade. \nThe amount of carbon dioxide in the air\u2014the key metric of greenhouse gas\npollution over time\u2014is at 408 parts per million, well beyond the safe level of\n350 ppm and 46% more than pre-industrial level of 280 ppm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The consequences of global warming have long\nsince become tangible in the form of heat waves, rising oceans, floods and\ndroughts. And the costs could be much\nmore dramatic, far-reaching and lasting than anything the civilized world has\never had to contend with. Heatwaves,\ndroughts, storms, forest fires, floods, disruption to the entire food chain:\nThe impacts are becoming more visible all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In October 2018, the world\u2019s climate experts\n(the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) issued a report examining whether\nthe world will meet the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees\nCelsius above pre-industrial times\u2014a target contained in the 2015 Paris\nAgreement. Their conclusion was that\nevery nation needs to do a lot more, much more than they are currently doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the experts, there is only one\nway to meet the 1.5-degree goal: the world\u2019s CO2<\/sub> emissions must be cut\nnearly in half<\/em> by 2030. By middle\nof this Century at the latest, the world must reach a carbon “net\nzero.” That means that if CO2<\/sub>\nis released at all, the same amount must be removed from the atmosphere. If the climate warms by 2 degrees Celsius\n(nearly 4 degrees Fahrenheit), the future looks even more dire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two degrees would mean a complete destruction\nof the coral reefs, huge crop losses, the melting of the Greenland icepack and catastrophic\nthreats to millions of people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It bears noting that more recently climate\nscientists have stated that the climate crisis is accelerating even faster than\nthey believed and that things are perhaps even more dire than the 2018 report\nindicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which brings us to the fight in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the growing existential climate crisis,\nsome continue to advance plans seemingly without concern for the consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, National Grid\u2014a United Kingdom company which provides power to much\nof New York State, wants to build a new $1 billion natural gas pipeline under\nthe Hudson River. The rationale for this expansion is that the company expects\nthere to be a 10 percent increase in gas demand over the next decade due to a\ngrowing New York’s economy and as building owners stop using oil as a source of\nheat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The pipeline would take time to build and would have to operate\nfor decades for its investors to make a profit from the construction of the\npipeline. Organizations concerned about\nthe threat posed by the burning of fossil fuels have opposed the plan (and\nothers like it) stating that expansion of the use of any fossil fuel makes no\nsense due to the growing threat from global warming. Governor Cuomo has pledged to block the\npipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What should be done? Instead\nof building new natural gas hook-ups, many customers should look at relying on\nelectricity for their needs. While much\nof the power for electric use comes from polluting sources, ultimately those\nwill be replaced with renewable sources and thus building for that future makes\nmore sense than building out new fossil fuel infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No one is arguing that people should stop driving cars, turn off\nthe lights, eat only cold foods and live in homes with freezing or hot\ntemperatures. But the planet must stop\nbuilding for a fossil fuel future. The\nfossil fuel era, like the steam engine before it, has passed. We are now living with the consequences. It\u2019s time to focus our resources and planning\non a non-fossil fuel future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New York cannot invest in long-term fossil fuel capital projects\nat the same time that state law mandates a rapid transition to renewable energy\nin all sectors\u2014housing, transportation and industrial and\ncommercial. The policy in New York is\nsettled and we must move quickly away from fossil fuels. As the world\u2019s experts have said, there is no time to\nwaste. Actions to curb such use must be\ntaken now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The United Nations\u2019 Climate Action Week wrapped up with intense speeches, promises and emotional pleas for action. Here in New York, the battle over how best to respond to the unfolding climate catastrophe is intensifying. Let\u2019s start with the science. Since the beginning of industrialization in the second half of the 18th century, humans have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions\/2310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}