faulker083

One of the great advantages of a community (like Rochester, NY ) having a Climate Action Plan (CAP) is that addressing Climate Change is clearly spelled out for its specific region--what is happening, how it’s detailed, and recommended solutions. A CAP also offers the community and the media a precise, public strategy that, by virtue of its existence, holds our leaders accountable. If you know about a catastrophe and work out a plan to deal with it, then you’re morally compelled to act on your plan. There’s a caveat, of course: If your government, say our federal government, is holding an irrational and irresponsible position on Climate Change, then no matter how specific, how detailed, how thoroughly and expertly a report (say, the National Climate Assessment ((NCA)) is, it will lie fallow unless you the public hold your government’s feet to the fire. (Even if the Trump Administration decides to ‘sit’ on the next NCA (this will be the fourth since the President Reagan era), the med...

One of my hopes during Climate Change is that philosophy will help us think through this situation rationally. Besides homing in on moral issues (which is a major component of Climate Change), one of the activities that philosophy offers us is well-thought-out guidelines on existence. What is the nature of reality and how should we respond to it now that we know that our life support system is warming rapidly? Philosophy and the big picture It is more likely that we’ll be able to address Climate Change when we all get an accurate picture of what’s going on. Philosophy can help us pull back and get a clearer picture of the whole, the big picture. The backdrop for Climate Change discussions is that we are living in a quickly warming world that threatens our existence. No longer are we living on a planet where we thrived for the last 10,000 years, that is, not a ‘normal’ world with a relatively stable climate. Climate Change isn’t simply an issue among many we need to address. If we don’t...

It’s been a long while that scientists, doctors, other experts have warned us that a warming planet will probably increase the public health issues that come with hotter temperatures, more extreme weather, and disease carriers that can survive longer in what used to be colder regions. Studies that have taken the time and expertise to tease out this probable connection between Climate Change and more public health issues are getting more strident. Climate change fueling disasters, disease in ‘potentially irreversible’ ways, report warns  Climate change significantly imperils public health globally, according to a new report that chronicles the many hazards and symptoms already being seen. The authors describe its manifestations as “unequivocal and potentially irreversible.” Heat waves are striking more people, disease-carrying mosquitoes are spreading and weather disasters are becoming more common, the authors note in the report  published Monday  by the British medical jo...

Is it possible that much of the Climate Change news that optimists characterize as pessimism is simply realism? Independent of human sentiment, the Arctic is melting, the parts-per-million of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is steadily going up, and our oceans are absorbing much of the human-caused heat buildup —causing rising seas and more acidity. As scientists monitor and study the effects of greenhouse gas emissions being pumped into our climate system, the experts are finding that it is increasingly likely that our everyday weather, extreme weather events, our ecosystems, wildlife, and humanity itself are being negatively influenced by Climate Change. Scientists aren’t being pessimistic when they seek to unravel the consequences of Climate Change; they are reporting to humanity about a vital issue. According to Google, optimism is “hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something” and pessimism is its antonym. That is to say, both optimism a...

Local impacts of Climate Change One of the ways a community gathers information about how Climate Change will impact them and how they will address the consequences is through a Climate Action Plan (CAP). It takes years of data gathering and collaboration to produce a CAP that diverse groups can sign on to. But it’s all worth it. The disaster occurring now in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria highlights why Climate Action Plans are critical. In major extreme weather disasters, public health, insurance issues, infrastructure (transportation, water, wastewater, telecommunications) all reach a tipping point if communities are not ready for the worse. You really understand the vital connections between our infrastructures and Climate Change when you consider Puerto Rico’s power grid plight.    Why Puerto Rico faces a monumental recovery effort Almost a week after Hurricane Maria pounded its way across Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 155 mph, t...

Climate Change is complicated. It can and does contain so many consequences (some known and who knows how many unknowns?) that we won’t be able to prepare for all of them. This tragic case is further exasperated by the climate denial meme that turns our innate ability to imagine adaptation solutions upside-down. Instead of doing what our species does best, adapt to changing conditions, and maybe in the process become a better and more just species, we are still pushing back against the very science that proves Climate Change. What’s been normal for humanity is to try and understand the nature of disasters and plan for avoiding or dealing with them. To do so in this worldwide crisis, we need as much information as possible and many minds engaged in working out just what this man-made climate change means.   Climate Change is more than protecting ourselves against the most striking forms of this change, flooding, and wildfires. It is the infinite vicissitudes that come with the inter...

Studies have shown that climate action leads to economic opportunity. In fact, 91 percent of the 110 global cities tracked by the Carbon Disclosure Project and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group state that climate action created economic opportunities, thus making cities more attractive for businesses, largely in the sectors related to energy efficiency and the development of non-motorized transportation infrastructure. (Page 6, Rochester, NY’s Climate Action Plan ) At the national level, transportation accounts for 27% of our greenhouse gas emissions. At the local level (Rochester, NY), it’s at 24%, which is a drop of 7% since 2010, where “this decrease is correlated with a reduction in employment in the region (and attributed, in part, to improved vehicle efficiency.” (Page 21, Rochester, NY’s Climate Action Plan ) We are seeing two opportunities to advance clean transportation in Rochester: Rochester, NY is getting five electric buses. This “puts Rochester in the lead on elect...

Thanking Trump for pulling the US out of the Paris Accord because his administration’s anti-environmental policies have galvanized the US and the world to address Climate Change would be like wheel-chairing over to the guy who ran over you with his truck and giving him a bouquet of flowers because your being crippled by what he did spurred you to write the great American novel. Although the Trump administration’s anti-environmental actions, including ditching the Paris Accord , have crystalized the extremes these people will go to push their insensitive ideology upon the world, there’s absolutely no reason to believe we can, however exercised, overcome the blow of a crippled worldwide agreement. The players in the Trump administration have proven that they will plow through anything to hold on to their power and wealth created from an energy option now proven to be lethal to our life support system. What has not been proven (nor can it) is whether we can overcome the Trump administrati...