Our leadership has not yet stepped up to the plate with respect to the changing climate and the necessary broad actions that have to take place quickly in order to drastically cut carbon output and reverse the effects of pollution and energy consumption. Our global carbon benchmark is 350 ppm, and we're at 392. This is based upon extensive research and observation, and has become the critical issue for our time. Oil and coal have proven to be disastrous, poisonous energy sources, and the change needs to be swift. Instead, industries in California have come up with so-called "green" regulations like SB 375 that create immense new loads of carbon by requiring unprecedented growth in housing and new buildings. The very things that created this horrific climate situation to begin with.A policy report issued by the Lincoln Institute outlines the need for an immediate, large-scale movement to change the use of fossil fuels for clean technologies and low-impact lifestyles. Climate change in the West, especially, is anticipated to be severe, to the point where it threatens livability, water availability and will result in major habitat destruction.
The report asks planners and public policy bodies to change rapidly:
* Mobilize the political will.
* Recognize local action and citizen participation.
* Identify resources and a variety of options.
* Adapt climate science to local planning needs.
The more radical and viral parts of the environmental reform movement have been vociferous for a decade now, leading up to a viral campaign last September that recalls the start of other historic movements. The activism and public outcry right now over the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is clearly creating an urgency that fuels this reaction and calls for rapid public implementation of carbon-mitigation measures.
This will affect our economic, social and global resource systems in a drastic way. But that's far better than leaving a smoldering ruin for the next generation by hanging on to old destructive industries.
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