Scientists have been warning us for many years of the danger of climate change, but mostly they have been ignored. Many people think that global warming and climate change are something that are going to affect ‘other people’ – those who live on low-lying coasts, on islands, in developing countries and so on. Efforts to stop the rise in temperatures and sea levels and the modest changes they may require to how we live are too annoying and won’t have any effect on us anyway.
This year we’ve seen how shortsighted that viewpoint is. Unprecedented rainfalls and flooding in Western Europe and in China in recent months have killed hundreds and destroyed billions of dollars in property. Unprecedented heat waves in the American west have killed further hundreds, destroyed crops and wildlife and have led to raging wildfires and dangerous drought conditions.
All of these events are attributable to global warming/climate change. The warmer atmosphere holds more water and the heating of polar regions is causing a slow down in the jet streams leading to heavier rainstorms that move very slowly. The changes in the weather patterns also contribute to the development of ‘heat domes’ that concentrate heat for days.
These kinds of catastrophes can happen anywhere, none of us are safe. Sea levels are rising, the atmosphere is growing more unstable and the defenses we have built are, by and large, insufficient to deal with the threats. So, if you think the problem is far in the future and it will mostly affect other people, you are wrong. The threat of greater and more common disasters is here and you are as likely to experience it as much as anyone else.
So take action now…for your sake, for your children’s sake and for your grandchildren’s sake. The most important thing you can do is speak up. Politicians are not going to do something difficult unless their constituents demand it. Push for laws and policies that limit emission of carbon and other greenhouse gasses and punish polluters. You can find more suggestions HERE. But the important thing is to not bury your head in the sand and think this is going away. Climate change is coming and it’s coming for you. TAKE ACTION.
Yesterday was the birthday (February 20, 1902) of Ansel Adams, American landscape photographer and environmentalist. His work is noted for not only the beauty of the subject matter but the sharp focus, clarity and depth of image of his photographs. He was a life-long advocate for environmental conservation and his work reflects that. For his work and persistent advocacy which helped expand the National Park System, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.
Adams grew up in San Francisco. At age 12 his parents took him on his first visit to Yosemite National Park which he thought was overwhelmingly beautiful. On that visit his father gave him his first camera – a Kodak Brownie Box Camera.
Kodak Number 1 Brownie Box Camera
He returned to Yosemite the next year with a better camera and went to work for a San Francisco photographer learning darkroom techniques.
He joined the Sierra Club at age 17 and remained a member throughout his lifetime. He served on the board for 37 years and from 1920 to 1923 he was a summer caretaker for their lodge in Yosemite.
His first photographs were published in 1921. At that time he was an advocate of ‘Pictoralism’ which strove to imitate paintings with soft focus, diffused light and other techniques. This photo is an example of his work at that time.
By 1925 he had rejected Pictoralism for a more realistic approach that relied on sharp focus, high contrast and darkroom expertise. in 1927, working on a portfolio of photos of the High Sierras, he photographed the face of Half Dome using glass plates and a dark red filter. The result was one of his most famous photos.
During the 1930s, he began to use his photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation. His work and testimony before Congress played a vital role in the creation of Kings Canyon National Park.
In 1941, he contracted with the National Park Service to photograph National Parks, Indian Reservations and other areas under control of the park service. It was intended that the photos would be used as murals to decorate the new offices of the service but that never happened due to the war. Adams sent a total of 225 prints to the government but kept many others. As property of the US Government, these prints are in the public domain. Here are some of my favorites
Castle Geyser Cove, Yellowstone National Park,” Wyoming; From the series Ansel Adams Photographs of National Parks and Monuments, compiled 1941 – 1942
Looking across forest to mountains and clouds, “In Glacier National Park,” Montana.; From the series Ansel Adams Photographs of National Parks and Monuments, compiled 1941 – 1942
Front view of entrance, “Church, Taos Pueblo National Historic Landmark, New Mexico, 1942” [Misicn de San Gercnimo] (vertical orientation)
Many more of these images are available at the National Archives and Records Service.
During World War II, Adams was distressed by the internment of Japanese-Americans and requested and received permission to visit the Manzanar War Relocation Center. The resulting photo essay was published as ‘Born Free and Equal’. The work was met with considerable resistance and rejected by many as disloyal.
Farm, farm workers, Mt. Williamson in background, Manzanar Relocation Center, California
Sumiko Shigematsu, foreman of power sewing machine girls, Manzanar Relocation Center, California
Adams continued his photography during the fifties working with a number of magazines and as a consultant for the Polaroid Corporation which was founded by his friend, Edward Land. During the final 20 years of his life, his favorite camera was a 6cm by 6cm Hasseblad. His favorite photo taken with that camera was ‘Moon Over Halfdome’.
Moon and Halfdome – Ansel Adams
Adams suffered from gout and arthritis later in life. He died in 1984 of cardiovascular disease.
You can find a lot of his work with the relocation camps online at the Library of Congress site. The Wilderness Society in Washington DC has a nice gallery of his work. In his autobiography, Adams expressed his concern about Americans’ loss of connection to nature in the course of industrialization and the exploitation of the land’s natural resources. He stated, “We all know the tragedy of the dustbowls, the cruel unforgivable erosions of the soil, the depletion of fish or game, and the shrinking of the noble forests. And we know that such catastrophes shrivel the spirit of the people… The wilderness is pushed back, man is everywhere. Solitude, so vital to the individual man, is almost nowhere.”
One of the critical issues the Biden administration needs to deal with is Climate Change. Sea level rise is one of the effects of climate change. The image shows tidal flooding in Norfolk, Virginia. Since the 1970s, the number of flooding events in Norfolk has tripled. Sea level in Norfolk is projected to rise another six inches in the next 9 years and this kind of flooding will be at least a monthly event. Let’s go back to the cause of sea level rise.
Greenhouse Effect. Earth receives radiation from the sun in the form of ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared radiation. Some of this is reflected back into space, some is absorbed by the atmosphere and some by the earth itself. Because the earth is much colder than the sun, it radiates at much longer wavelengths and these longer wavelengths can be absorbed by certain gases in the atmosphere heating the atmosphere and radiating the heat right back at the surface. These gases are called ‘Greenhouse Gases’.
In order to maintain the Earth at a stable temperature range, it is critical that the energy being absorbed by Earth from the sun and the energy being radiated back into space be in balance. If too much energy is radiated back into space, the Earth will cool and if too little is radiated back, the Earth will warm.
Greenhouse Gases. The Greenhouse Effect is caused by ‘greenhouse gases’ in the atmosphere. Chief among these are carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere has increased dramatically and, as a consequence, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased.
This has thrown off the balance between the amount of energy absorbed by the Earth and the amount radiated back into space thus warming the planet and everything on it. The average global temperature in 2020 was approximately 1.84 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1951 – 1980 average. Further, the rate of increase is growing.
Global Warming has a number of effects:
Sea Level Rise is caused both by the melting of glaciers and other water locked up as ice such as the Greenland ice cap and the Antarctic ice cap and the thermal expansion of water as the temperature of the oceans increases. Roughly 750 million tons of ice is melting every year due to global warming. The seas have been rising for some time and the rise is accelerating. Here are graphs of the recorded sea level at Lewes Delaware and Baltimore Maryland. I chose these because they have a relatively long history. The trend is unmistakable.
Many of our coastal cities and towns are already seeing increased levels of flooding and it will get worse.
More Severe Weather. The Atlantic basin had a record number of hurricanes this past year likely due to warmer water and changed wind patterns. Severe flooding events are also increasing both in the U.S. and around the world. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water and thus an increase in flooding rains. A series of sudden thunderstorms caused this flood in the Washington DC area.
Weather-related disasters have been increasing and will continue to increase as global warming continues.
Disease. Global warming has increased the spread and occurrence of vector-based diseases. Malaria, Dengue, Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases are spreading to the United States. Yellow Fever is on the horizon and various forms of encephalitis are spread more easily as there are more frost-free months for mosquitos to feed and breed. Tick-borne diseases have more than doubled in the last 13 years including lyme, spotted fevers and babesiosis.
Wildfires. Warmer and drier summers lead to an increase in wildfires as we have seen both in California and Australia in the past year.
Increased Extinction Rates. As climate changes, species will have to adapt. Some will make it and some won’t. While animals can move to cooler climates, trees cannot. And animals that are already at the highest latitudes, such as Polar Bears which depend on sea ice, will disappear.
Ocean Acidification. So far about 30% of the excess carbon dioxide generated by human activity has been absorbed by the oceans. This is a good thing for the atmosphere but a bad thing for the oceans. As carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans it forms a weak acid called carbonic acid. This makes the oceans slightly more acidic and the process is continuing. This is very bad news for creatures that rely on carbonate to make their shells. These creatures include some of my favorites – mussels, crabs, oysters, clams and others such as coral that are critical to the bio-diversity of the ocean.
There are many other effects but let’s go on to what we can do about it.
Accelerate the switch to renewable energy for electricity production. Roughly 30 percent of US carbon-dioxide emissions come from electricity production, mostly from natural gas and coal. As a bonus, reducing the use of natural gas will also reduce the emission of methane through leaks – a potent greenhouse gas. A carbon tax will make a big difference here.
Accelerate the switch to electric vehicles. Roughly 28% of greenhouse gas emissions in the US come from transportation – primarily from the burning of petroleum products. A carbon tax along with a buyback of older, more polluting vehicles will have a strong impact.
Reduce industrial emissions. Roughly 22% of US greenhouse gas emissions are from industrial activities, primarily burning of fossil fuels but also through leaks in production equipment. A carbon tax along with a return to stronger rules on leaks and bans on certain activities such as flaring gas will make a big difference. More and better recycling will also reduce the amount of energy required to produce many items.
Eat less meat. Cattle are responsible for some 35% of methane emissions in this country. More efficient production will help as will a reduction in consumption.
The President has proposed a large investment in renewable energy and ‘green’ jobs and these are certainly needed, but I don’t think they go far enough. A significant carbon tax is going to be required to incentivize industry to take steps and make investments that will reduce carbon dioxide generation. The tax should focus not just on direct emissions but also on downstream emissions over the lifespan of the product. The government also needs to support efforts to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, primarily by reforestation efforts and perhaps taking some land out of agriculture and returning it to forested land. Regulations governing petroleum and natural gas exploration and production need to be strengthened. There’s really no time to waste.
I’ll have more on this soon, but I welcome your thoughts. Our grandchildren are depending on us.
Ten days from now, on January 20th at noon, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the next President of the United States and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as the next Vice-President. With Harris as Vice-President, the balance of power in the Senate will swing to the Democrats (albeit only slightly) and the obstructionist Mitch McConnell will be relegated to minority leader.
With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Presidency, there is an opportunity to get things moving again and accomplish a lot, and there is certainly a lot to do. Over the next several days I’m going to try to describe what I think needs to get done. I’m going to try to organize my thoughts into five categories:
Economic Security for Working Women and Men. Tens of millions of Americans, even in two income households, are just barely scraping by…or less. Wages have been stagnant or worse and costs of housing and other necessities have continued to increase. Child care costs are astronomical in many places with infant care costing an average of about $15,000 a year. College costs have also skyrocketed. It’s a recipe for disaster for our country.
A Sustainable Environment. I live on the seashore and most of us here are aware of the dangers of rising sea level. We see more frequent sunny-day flooding and stronger storms. Climate change is, of course, not the only environmental issue. There are things we can do but we need to act quickly.
Equal Treatment for All. I don’t like to use the term ‘Racial Justice’ because it means different things to different people. The concept, though, that all of us deserve fair and equal treatment regardless of our race, color, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender or belief seems obvious to me but we are a long way from that ideal in our country.
Rebalance the Economy. The United States has the highest level of income inequality of any developed country and every year it gets worse. All of the increase in wealth since the Great Recession has gone to the wealthiest fifth of our people and almost all of it has gone to the top 5%. We need to enact policies and laws that will help share the wealth more broadly. The way we are going now will only lead to disaster.
End the Pandemic. We need real leadership from our Federal Government and from our President to bring this horrible pandemic to an end. We can do it, but we need clear guidance and direction from the top.
Please feel free to comment with your suggestions. I’m sure there are things I could have said better and maybe some things I’ve left out.
I have very mixed feelings about the election. On the one hand we won the presidency and got Trump out of office. On the other hand, we didn’t manage to take control of the Senate, even though the polls showed we were likely to and we lost seats in the House despite pre-election predictions that we would expand our margins.
For Democrats to have a majority in the Senate and the House means that we have to elect members in states and districts that may not be as liberal as we might think they should be. Most people don’t eat, sleep and drink politics and are more concerned with putting food on their tables, a roof over their heads and raising their kids than studying policy alternatives. So the words that are used to describe certain policy proposals can, and have been, misunderstood.
‘Defund the Police‘
For most of us these words don’t literally mean ‘abolish the police’, but rather use some of the money to attack the causes of crime as well as using other tool – mental health professionals or social workers to address certain kinds of problems rather than relying on law enforcement officers to handle every problem. This is something I personally support. But the phrase: ‘Defund the Police’ sounds to many like a plan to eliminate law enforcement and that is very worrisome to many and was effectively used by Republicans in this past election to scare people.
‘Democratic Socialism’
Many on the left wing of the Democratic Party describe themselves as ‘Democratic Socialists’. Now these folks are not socialists in the traditional sense of mandating state ownership of the means of production and abolishing corporations. In general they seem to be advocating for a return to some of the elements of the New Deal – stronger labor unions, more regulations to hold corporations accountable, a fairer distribution of income through tax policy and so forth. I personally support many of their goals. But…once again the word ‘socialism’ is scary to many people who equate it with communism. Republicans used this word very effectively particularly among Hispanic populations in Florida and Texas.
‘Medicare for All’
I support single-payer health care in our country. Most do not, however. Surveys show that most Americans are satisfied with their health insurance and are fearful, based on phrases like ‘Medicare for All’ that a Democratic majority in the House and Senate would take away their right to choose how they get their healthcare. Medicare has its own problems anyway. I think the idea of a ‘public option’ is a good way to get folks to understand that there can be better ways to pay for their healthcare than the private insurance model.
‘Shut Down the Oil and Gas Industry’
Climate change scares the hell out of me. We had a record number of hurricanes and tropical storms this year and unprecedented wildfires in California, Colorado and other states. This past winter, one of the warmest on record, the Great Lakes didn’t freeze over. This year we have had sixteen weather disasters that cost $1 billion or more. We need to act swiftly to prevent things from getting much worse.
But hundreds of thousands Americans work in the oil and gas industry. How can we say ‘Shut Down the Oil and Gas Industry’ without reassuring these folks that they will have other jobs, at least as good? We have to be more nuanced in our speech if we expect to persuade folks to support our party and our programs.
These are just some examples – there are lots more. If we want to build solid, lasting majorities across the country we need to be much more careful about how we frame our policy choices and the words we use. Words do matter.
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