Where has Earth Day gone? Once a day of reflection, learning and community involvement, Earth Day now appears to be little more than a day of sales by plant nurseries and big-box hardware stores. Have we given up hope, or are we so jaded and self-absorbed that we just don’t care? Hopefully none of the these possibilities are true, because the real lesson learned from the first Earth Day celebration was the power of an informed, involved citizenry.
As citizens of the world we, and our leaders, can no longer afford to ignore the reality of a changing climate. Record snows, floods, fires, droughts, storms and temperatures are now becoming the “new normal” in countries around the globe. While we classify such short-term events as “weather”, weather is the building block of climate. If we look at the longer term, the evidence of climate change is even more startling. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Center has recently announced(1) that March, 2013 was the 37th consecutive March with a global temperature above the 20th century average; and it was the 337th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. Lets put that information into a different perspective: 337 months is 28 years and one month. Thus anyone born on Earth Day 1985, or later, has never experienced a single month with an average, or below average, global temperature. And, since the median age of the entire world’s population is 28.4 months(2) essentially one-half of the worlds population has never experienced a single month of average, or below, global temperatures.
On the first Earth Day the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was 325ppm (parts per million), it has now risen to 397ppm, an increase of 22%, as shown below(3) (The red line shows the impact of season and hemi-sphere upon plant photosynthesis.)
Most scientists are in agreement that a CO2 value of 350ppm is the upper limit for a stable climate, a value that is now out of reach for centuries due to momentum and feedback factors discussed on AreWeToast.com.
On the first Earth day the worlds population was estimated to be 3.7 billion, it is now in excess of 7.1 billion people. This rapidly expanding world population is both increasing the rate of climate change, and is dependent upon an environment that is increasingly stressed by climate change. Of special concern for this expanding population is the available supply, and distribution, of fresh water, and the shifting patterns of agriculture due to changing climatic conditions upon both crops and crop pests.
Climate climate change and societal impacts are interwoven and global in nature. But as we look around the globe we see little action, or progress in addressing the problem, or even acknowledging the reality of a changing climate. The most ambitious effort to date has been the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their global summit meetings and the 1997 Kyoto Treaty with their annual summit meetings. The 1992 IPCC Rio Summit Meeting resulted in the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997 and went into force in 2005, with the simple goal of reducing global emissions by 5% from the 1990 level by the end of 2012. 192 nations signed the Protocol, but the United States never ratified it and the new conservative government of Canada withdrew in 2011. At the end of 2012, world emissions had increased by 58%(4), rather than the 5% reduction called for by the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol was amended in 2012 to add the addition period of 2013 to 2030 with participating countries making non-binding commitments to reduce emissions. The countries that have signed up for this second round of emission cuts account for only 15% of the world’s current emissions.
There are a number of reasons why national governments are reluctant to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases such as, the current economic recession, the interest of developing nations to improve the standard of living, and the fear of economic competition between nations. However, there also appears to be an increasing denial of the reality of climate change by conservative political parties. This is certainly the case in the United States, where conservatives in Congress have consistently thwarted legislation related to climate change. This is even true at the state level, where for example, the conservative legislature of the once environmentally progressive North Carolina recently prohibited coastal zone planners from even using the words “climate change” in their reports, and that they could only use historic sea level data for developing plans.
At the city level however, we see an entirely different picture, with such activities as the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the Worlds Mayors Council on Climate Change at the global level. In the United States the U.S. Conference of Mayors has probably accomplished more that the national government. City governments are the closest government to the ground, and the most accountable to their citizens. Thus the diminishing community involvement with Earth Day is of concern.
Individually, we can be most effective at the local level, and it is at the local level where our individual efforts can most readily become collective community efforts. We can not afford to rely on national governments to protect us from a changing climate, rather we must education ourselves and through our individual activities encourage others to do likewise. The power of an informed and active citizenry is need now, more than ever, if we are to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. If your community is holding Earth Day events by all means support them. I not, join with friends and neighbors to organize events for next year. And, remember to make the 22nd of every month your own personal “Climate Day”!
Learn! Teach! Act!
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1.) http://www.climatewatch.noaa.gov/image/2013/march-2013-global-temperature-update
2.) CIA World Factbook (updated April 12, 20130). https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html
3.) http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/co2_data_mlo.html
4.) CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/12/20/pol-kyoto-protocol-part-one-ends.html
