As I sat eating my lunch in Carmichael on Tuesday, looking through the windows at the clear blue sky, one of my friends approached. As he sat down, he remarked, "Nice day outside, kind of scary." Damn. As he spoke I was torn from my temporary shelter of ignorance, blissfully forgetting the fact that it is not normal for Boston to be 60 degrees in February. "Terrifying," I responded. And so my enjoyable state of naivety ruined, we began a conversation I have had all too often, discussing the dire state of our planet's environment.
Being a "concerned environmentalist", I have been inculcated with the forbidding facts of the current environmental situation. In my mind, the most dangerous issue right now is that of climate change, or global warming, because it threatens all forms of life, everywhere on the planet. By now, most know of the causes of climate change: carbon dioxide (and other) emissions lead to a greenhouse effect which causes the atmosphere to trap heat, altering global climate patterns and presenting catastrophic consequences. So why am I so concerned right now?
* On Feb. 21 (last week), the Climate Monitoring Branch of the National Climatic Data Center reported: "The nationally averaged temperature was 39.94 degrees Fahrenheit for November through January, 4.3 degrees above the 1895-2001 long-term average...The previous record for the same three-month period was in 1999-2000. Since 1976 the nationally averaged November-January temperature has risen at a rate of 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade." (Quote from "Americans Bask in Record Warmth," Associated Press, 2/21)
* 2001 was the hottest year on record, second to 1998. Nine of the ten hottest years have occurred since 1990. ("2001 the Second Warmest Year on Record," ENS, 12/18/01)
* Analysis of Antarctic ice sheets shows present-day atmospheric levels of heat-trapping CO2 are 30 percent higher than at any other time in the last 420,000 years and are growing. (Tufts Climate Initiative)
* Even if all greenhouse gas emissions were stopped today, it would take 100 years for the climate to stabilize
* The only significant world attempt at lowering greenhouse gas emissions, the Kyoto Protocol, which the US has pulled out of, does not even come close to the 70-percent reduction many scientists argue is necessary.
But soothsayers have been glooming and dooming since the dawn of the "Green Revolution" in the 1970s, why worry now? Look out the window.
But what is even scarier than the picture-perfect spring day in February is the unlikelihood of its cause being solved for several more years. Ehren Brav creatively reminded us once again of where the interests of the current Presidential Administration lie in his Daily column ("A Poor Politician is a poor politician," 2/27). As the President has already demonstrated during his first year in office, he is an avid environmentalist, right up until it challenges the profits of industry. The most recent example of this is Mr. Bush's decision to slash the tax which acts as the primary income for Superfund, the Federal government's answer to irresponsible industrial polluters. (Ironically, such people as Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, have shown that our current economy is currently wasting mammoth amounts of money by maintaining its inefficient practices.) So if the Executive branch, which includes the Environmental Protection Agency, won't calm my fears, who will?
One of the few glimmers of hope I have is in the upcoming Congressional election. This is the best time to send a mandate to all those in Washington that something is wrong with this planet and its making us nervous. Thus, I urge all Tufts students to make a commitment to write, e-mail, call, and most importantly vote, either in your home state or here in Massachusetts, and tell your leaders that you do know what is going on and that you want it to become our national policy not to tolerate the destruction of our homes.
Furthermore, on an individual level, each of us can make a personal commitment to stop the process of global warming before it really is too late. Each one of us can make a measurable difference with small things. For example, if all Tufts students turned off their computers at night for only six hours, we would prevent 572 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year and save the University over $87,000 (rising tuition costs?)! Perhaps the simplest thing of all, though, is just to become aware of the fact that we really are not supposed to be wearing shorts and playing Frisbee in the middle of winter.
Oh, and by the way, it has been snowing since I began writing this Viewpoint. Freaky.
