With all the bad news confronting us, it is easy to become overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness. We witness the daily maiming and killing of innocent Ukrainians by the ruthless, unprovoked, immoral Russian attacks. Pictures of dead and injured children and their mothers are gut-wrenching. Worries about World War III pervade.
We are still reeling from nearly one million American lives lost to COVID-19 and its related social and economic disruptions. Polarization divides us. Unnatural disasters fueled by climate change proliferate, affecting millions of Americans.
Lost amid all this, a new report from the United Nations’ prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reads like a science fiction novel documenting apocalyptic effects already occurring and much worse projected for our future.
More than 200 top scientists from 195 countries produced this frightening document, drawing on thousands of academic studies. UN Secretary General António Guterres called it “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.
“This abdication of leadership is criminal. The world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home.”
Scientists document how climate change effects are already causing “dangerous and widespread disruption” to the natural world and to billions of people.
In 2021, more than 1,000 people died from a record Pacific Northwest heat wave in which temperatures reached 121 degrees, the highest ever recorded in Canada. Global warming has caused the local disappearance of 400 plant and animal species. Since 1945, severe droughts have killed about 20% of trees in North America and parts of Africa. Since 1984, wildfires in our west doubled in acreage. Coral reefs have been destroyed by bleaching from warming waters. Higher temperatures are incubating microbes and insects that spread diseases causing increased deaths.
In this, there is a link to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine: Svitlana Krakovska, Ukraine’s leading climate scientist and a UN report reviewer, noted “Human-induced climate change and the war on Ukraine have the same roots: fossil fuels and our dependence on them. We will not surrender in Ukraine. And we hope the world will not surrender in building a climate-resilient future.”
Putin’s war machine is fueled by oil and gas, and European reliance on it has clouded efforts to cut this reliance and punish and restrain this megalomaniac.
“Putin is able to use the oil money to get rid of any domestic political constraints and to build a military and a war chest to allow these kinds of foreign policy adventures,” Jeff Colgan, director of the Climate Solutions Lab at Brown University, told Inside Climate News.
The late U.S. Sen. John McCain once opined, “Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.”
Russia is the world’s largest oil exporter and the third-largest historic contributor to greenhouse gas pollution, behind the U.S. and China. No wonder Russia has resisted action on climate change.
The Chesapeake Bay is not immune. Some species of critical bay grasses are disappearing, and rising sea level is killing off intertidal vegetation, which I have witnessed in my backyard. The Chesapeake is losing vegetated wetlands and flesh-eating organisms proliferate in warmer waters. The bay’s oxygen-deprived dead zone last year was much larger than in 2020 and lasted longer than in 89% of recorded years. Such warming further complicates already failing restoration efforts.
We are not powerless in acting to help Ukraine and in resolving these threats to life on Earth. First, we can help the proud, brave, besieged Ukrainians with our generosity. There are life-saving groups working in Ukraine to aid its people. My wife and I contributed to Razom, Inc., which delivers urgently needed medical supplies. You can find other worthy groups online.
Second, all of us have opportunities to make clean energy choices and avoid as much oil and gas use as we can. Think about such usage as fueling despotism and global warming. Our choices affect global security and planet warming emissions. Through these choices we can save money. In Maryland, 38% of the main greenhouse gas, CO2, is produced in the transportation sector, while electrical generation produces 25%. These emissions are from burning fossil fuels that also pollute the bay and cause human health problems.
We can drive electric vehicles or choose fuel-efficient hybrids, keep tires properly inflated, avoid idling, and minimize miles driven. I have never bought a new car in 61 years of driving, which is my form of recycling. Nor have I had a car payment. My 2009 Prius gets 45 miles per gallon and my wife’s 2018 Prius Prime, bought used, has averaged 135 mpg. Governments should not be dropping the gas tax as it would encourage more consumption.
For your residence, choose 100% clean wind and solar energy for electricity as we do. Install solar panels using substantial tax incentives. Conserve electricity. We paid $300 total for our all-electric home for the past three winter months and that included heat. For more energy conservation tips, see my May 2021 global warming column.
Third, we need to stand up for Ukraine and never whine about higher gas prices. Remember, Russia’s oil and gas sales are funding the bullets, missiles, and bombs killing Ukrainians and destroying their country. In 2021, the U.S. imported more gasoline and other refined petroleum products from Russia than any other country. President Joe Biden is ending these imports but should not be seeking oil from despots like Venezuela’s narco-state dictator Nicolas Maduro, who stands accused of crimes against humanity.
As gas prices hit an average of $4.25 a gallon for regular, consider that in July 2008 they reached a then-record $4.11; when adjusted for inflation that’s $5.37 in today’s dollars. Gas is more expensive in 118 other nations, including in neighboring Canada and Mexico. The price of gas in Norway, one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, is more than double ours causing a huge shift to electric vehicles. Germany’s gas prices also are double ours.
Americans are addicted to cheap gas for their 268 million motor vehicles; it’s as if it is a Constitutional right. We have 816 motor vehicles per 1,000 people while Russia has 397, Ukraine 245, and China 214. We are already producing more oil and gas than ever – drill baby, drill. We are the world’s greatest oil producer. We also are the greatest consumer, exceeding the next-highest nation by 54%. We are oil gluttons consuming 20% of all oil with only 4% of the world’s people.
Finally, we can support the president’s call to enact his climate change initiatives and become the world leader in solar and wind power and 100% green motor vehicles. They passed the House on Nov. 19 and would put us on a path to clean energy and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, while lowering yearly energy bills by $500 per household. This would alleviate dependence on oil and gas that enables Putin and other nationalistic tyrants to weaponize these assets and fund atrocities.
I am inspired by “I’m ready to freeze for peace” signs carried by some of the hundreds of thousands of Berlin anti-invasion protesters. This alludes to Germany’s heavy reliance on Russian gas and oil for home heating. Ukrainians are ready to die protecting their homeland. Each of us should be compelled to act and make some small sacrifices. We are not powerless! We must be among the righteous.
Gerald Winegrad represented the greater Annapolis area in the General Assembly for 16 years. Contact him at gwwabc@comcast.net.