One of our leading climate activists, Mr. Mike Tidwell, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, recently published a thought provoking opinion piece in the Washington Post that has attracted a fair amount of attention. Mr. Tidwell, a resident of suburban Washington, D.C. has long practiced a “green lifestyle” with solar panels, a corn-burning furnace and other energy conservation measures; and in his public speaking appeared optimistic that we can control climate change if we act. But in this uncharacteristically negative article he describes a change of direction – fortifying his house, the purchase of a generator and vegetable seeds, and taking firearm lessons.
While he still actively promotes clean energy, Mr. Tidwell now believes that we are “running out of time” and that “our weather has gone haywire”. As proof, he cites the string of extreme weather events that have been experienced in the mid-Atlantic region this past year.
There is no doubt that the Washington, D.C. area set snowfall records last winters, record heat last summer, thunderstorms so frequent that “thundersnows” occurred during the winter, and periods of high winds became increasingly common. None-the-less, Mr. Tidwell’s article appears to, at least border on, confusing climate and weather, or more precisely, climate change and individual weather events. For example, Mr. Tidwell cites the frequent, widespread and long-duration power outages that have been experienced during storms in the Washington region. While undoubtedly demoralizing, poor maintenance practices by a dysfunctional power company (Pepco) and a dense, aging urban tree canopy could have been major contributors to the power failures, rather than storms caused by climate change. While extreme weather is indeed one of the expected consequences of global warming it is impossible to say that any specific weather event, or its severity, is a consequence of climate change. Mr. Tidwell may indeed by quite correct that the number of extreme weather events recently experienced in the Washington region are an indication of climate change, but only time will tell.
The actions to protect his family described by Mr. Tidwell basically fall into two very human categories, self-defense and self sufficiency, which are obviously correlated; i.e. I have food, electricity and heat and must protect these resources from others.
Mr. Tidwell's article has been cited and republished in a numerous other publications and blogs, such as ClimateProgress.org, and have thus generated a number of comments. Many of the commenters describe actions that they have taken, with the vast majority again falling into the two categories of self-defense and self-sufficiency. Interestingly, many of the commenters have purchased property to be used as a retreat from the impacts of climate change. When describing these properties, commenters often focused on such attributes as a short drive to the property; good soil and water for food production and wind for power generation; and/or well armed neighbors. That people have purchased their climate refuge only a short distance from their current location is interesting since both locations will most likely be experiencing the same change of climate.
While perhaps appearing fatalistic, self-defense and self-sufficiency are really a variation of what may be the only course of action that we have left, and that is “adaptation” to climate change. We may be beyond a tipping point, with major climate change inevitable. Our failure to act has ensured a changing climate for at least the next century, the only option now is to act in time to slow the rate of change, or perhaps even reverse it.
Having failed to prevent climate change, the question becomes will we adapt to a changing climate as civilized societies. Will our nations and communities prepare, and take adaptive actions, or will we become a collection of armed individuals protecting their resources against roaming bands who “have not”?
