A Delicate System Ready to Snap
By Jennifer Ruggiero
What’s there to say about climate change that hasn’t been said before? We have to act now before we exceed 1.5º C. Small changes add up. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Plant trees, de-lawn, and landscape with native plants. Compost. Go electric.
Plenty of noise exists to intentionally create doubt and uncertainty about how people think and feel about climate change and what people know about the topic. Bad actors are racing to create legislation to prevent adopting clean energy alternatives. This is compounded by social media and reinforcement loops that feed us endless information that confirms our own biases. Even our brains are working against us. Focused on today, struggling to overcome cognitive dissonance, and loathe to think we could be contributing to a planet-changing crisis, we push it away because we think we have the luxury of ignoring it.
Peering out the window with no snow on the ground on a balmy 40º day in the new year, a question surfaces, is Maine ready to pivot everyday living and economies in response to climate change?
Even now, we think major events don’t affect us because they’re not happening “here.” We gloss over news of a climate refugee moving due to extreme drought because it isn’t happening to “me.” However, if a tree in Portland can compensate for pollution produced in a different country, certainly a melting glacier will have an impact in Maine. As unchecked human activity has slowly contributed to anthropogenic climate change, we’re at the point where the slow march will now trigger escalated, accelerated feedback loops.
One in five countries are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing, according to recent research. Six of the nine planetary boundaries that create stability and resiliency have been crossed. As we push these interconnected systems to the edge, it will pose prominent, daily obstacles to living. Every person, company, and government need to be part of the solution.
-Source: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html
Portland is doing something about it.
Maine focuses on addressing this with numerous organizations and initiatives. Maine Won’t Wait and Maine Climate Council are just a couple of examples. The Portland Sustainability Office has a climate action plan that includes One Climate Future, policies, assessments, and more.
The resources are there for us. Today, we must go and plant the tree that we should have planted years ago.
Check out more at: https://www.facebook.com/PortlandClimateActionTeam.
