My Open Letter to the EPA

Photo from Thom Ayres' Stilled Life Series

Dear EPA Leadership:*

Your decision to begin to address our Climate Crisis today will be something you tell your grandchildren some day. Or not. It really is that black and white. A decision to regulate carbon gives a glimmer of hope that we will be able to survive Climate Change. Without it, our chances for survival as a species are diminished. We are at that crossroads and you, members of the US Environmental Protection Agency, may very well be deciding the fate of our species and many other life forms on this planet. 

Coming to realize just how dire this crisis is has been a very painful journey for me. I am a Climate Leader, a volunteer with the Climate Reality Project. The more I learn, the more I want to shake everyone I see and meet and tell them that this is the crisis of our lifetimes, not some future generation. It is happening NOW. To convince others to wake up, to act, to write their Congressman or Congresswoman and demand action be taken immediately is my goal for the rest of my life.    

At this point, it is very much like standing in a theater shouting FIRE but the audience remains transfixed by the images on the screen, not hearing our cries. Except with this fire, there are no exits. Either we extinguish the flames together or die a certain death together. 

What I hope you do is to first fine those corporations who are spewing carbon, the major cause of global warming, into our atmosphere. We will not be the first country to do so. In fact, there are nearly 40 countries before us who are already regulating carbon polluters to help curb Climate Change. Even China has a pilot carbon policy program in place that they will expand to the rest of the country by 2015. Even China understands what this crisis means.  

Secondly, my hope is that you and the Obama Administration will set up a task force to determine our way forward as curbing our carbon output is only the very first small step toward addressing this crisis. We need a task force comprised of: 

Climate Scientists who can tell us the best and worst case scenarios over the next year as well as 5, 10 and 15 years from now and how much carbon needs to be reduced.

Ecologists/Environmentalists who have had boots on the ground for the past 50 years, passionately telling us that this was coming, who have vital networks within our communities who will help us roll out the plan or plans determined to be best. 

Community Leaders who can tell us how to best organize these plans in their towns, cities and rural areas, what kind of practical application will best be applied to their home territories and others in their charge.

Policy makers who know the laws, who know what laws will affect this process and can suggest fair and just laws that need to be written to support this way forward. 

What this task force will determine are two vital points:

What sources of energy will be used going forward?

How will we capture the carbon existing in the atmosphere? 

BOTH tasks need to happen simultaneously if we are to survive this crisis. Choosing to only secure alternative energy sources will only lead to a longer lingering death for millions. We must also draw the carbon out of our atmosphere to avoid further degradation of our overall climate, water, and soil systems. There are carbon capturing resources that exist now and many are being developed and championed. These technologies exist and more will be invented as we focus on this crisis.

We are a creative, thoughtful species and we are approaching the 11^th hour to address this Crisis. Please lead the way.  

Thank you for the opportunity to speak out on this issue. 

Monica Jenkins, Climate Leader

*For the last couple weeks, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been hosting public listening sessions, inviting the public to suggest ways to address the carbon pollution pouring from our power plants into our atmosphere. This is my written statement response to that question and addressing the larger issue of Climate Change that I think they are stepping too gingerly around. 

Pogo said it first.

 

Walt Kelly's Classic Cartoon for Earth Day, 1971

"Yep Son, we have met the enemy and he is us." ~ Pogo

 When Pogo originally said the above quote in Walt Kelly's iconic cartoon,  he was referring to the high levels of pollution tolerated at that time and generally taken as a 'natural' byproduct of progress. It was not long before that, in 1969, when Ohio's Cuyahoga River caught on fire due to all the flammable contaminants floating in it. I grew up in the 60's and 70's and remember the excessive litter in the streets and I also remember the PSAs telling us to put 'litter in it's place'. I learned my lesson so well that I still bristle when I see people throw their non-biodegradable cigarettes out the window of their cars! However, the litter problem now is nowhere near what I remember it being like then. We all learned where the trash cans sit and we have also learned how to recycle to reduce the amount of trash as well. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was brought into being at that time by Richard Nixon's Republican administration in late 1970. Something needed to be done to address the toxins in our rivers and the acid rain falling on our people and other growing environmental concerns. Nixon set up a special agency to address all that. And they did.

For the past two years, there are some Republicans who have called for the abolishment of the EPA. Is it because there are no more environmental threats? No. If anything we have even more environmental threats than when the EPA was first established. Water is catching on fire in people's homes in areas where fracking methods have poisoned the wells and honeybees are on the decline possibly due to a multitude of factors related to pesticide use. Those are just two pollution-related issues that are looming at the moment. It is these Republicans 'concern for jobs', they say. 'Regulations are hurting the economy'.

Let's take that as a possibility for a minute as being true. Are we really a country of people who are 'ok' with some fellow Americans suffering or losing their homes so we or one of our family members can have a job for a few years? I don't think that's who we are and I think that is a false argument.

Could it have more to do with who is funding these politicians' next campaign - or who funded their last one? Let's ask them. You can also do a little research here to find out who funded their last campaign. Open Secrets lists who has received what from whom and is an excellent resource for learning more about who your representative may be really representing. Let's ask them to explain where they got their information on climate change? Who's research did they use and can you get a link to that? Is it a research firm or project funded by one of the oil, gas or coal companies?

And while you are talking with your representative, ask them if they have read the New York Times Opinion piece of August 1, 2013 written jointly by all four of the EPA agency heads appointed under Republican administrations of the past 43 years. It is titled A Republican Case for Climate Action and it states the following:

"There is no longer any credible scientific debate about the basic facts: our world continues to warm, with the last decade the hottest in modern records, and the deep ocean warming faster than the earth’s atmosphere. Sea level is rising. Arctic Sea ice is melting years faster than projected."

"The costs of inaction are undeniable. The lines of scientific evidence grow only stronger and more numerous. And the window of time remaining to act is growing smaller: delay could mean that warming becomes “locked in.”  

"... The only uncertainty about our warming world is how bad the changes will get, and how soon. What is most clear is that there is no time to waste."

 Ask your congressional representative, respectively, no matter what their political affiliation is, to reconsider their position on Climate Change for all our sakes.

The majority of all scientists and ALL academies of science throughout the world all concur that ...

Climate Change is happening.
It is happening now.
And we humans are creating this climate crisis.
We must act together. Now.
Because there ARE solutions to this crisis, IF we act together NOW.

We are a brave people – That’s who we are.
Taking action in crises is who we are as a nation.