Decades of oil, gas and coal production, in spite of endless warnings of impending disaster have begun to set much of the feared destruction in stone. Even though we hoped our leaders in government and fossil fuel CEOs would hear the cries of millions suffering and dying, burning and polluting accelerated in 2013 with the largest increase in CO2 pollution ever. Pollution free geothermal steam and free solar energy are limitless and leaders must be convinced next week at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change to switch or face inevitable and unstoppable destruction of Earth.
The two most powerful people in the world, President Obama and the prime minister of China, as well as heads of state from every nation, will meet Sept. 21 in New York. Unlike many similar meetings on climate change, this time the urgency to act is much higher. This is a wonderful opportunity for Americans to join The Peoples Climate March to demonstrate to those in power that we the people need help stopping fossil fuel production. MN350 will be sending busses from St. Paul to New York and this will be the largest Climate March to date. If you can go, Americans and people everywhere will be thankful and hoping this march will be the one everyone will remember when we stopped polluting and started using the clean free stuff.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has reported to the world for decades the dangers of fossil fuel use, issued a new report Aug. 26 for this UN meeting. It says in no uncertain terms that the 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit increase we caused with industrialization is causing worldwide grain production decreases as well as sea level rises, 30 percent more acidic oceans, and killer droughts in the Amazon rain forest. It further states that if we continue to accelerate the use of the current reserves of fossil fuels, which are four times greater than can safely be burned, within decades we will reach 8 degrees above pre-industrial levels and that will almost certainly be catastrophic to human and ecosystem existence.
For the first time, we are as much to blame as the oil companies who produce the dirty fuels, because today we can buy solar panel power much cheaper than coal power and drive nearly pollution free cars for the same price as dirty cars. We can also build homes that stay 70 degrees year round without a furnace for cheaper than stick built. If you choose to continue in your old polluting ways, the blood of millions is on your hands. If however, you really are the children and grandchildren of the greatest generation, you'll do like they did in World War II. Put everything you got into not burning coal, oil, or gas. Hire your local solar contractor. Buy a plug-in hybrid car from your local dealer. You'll be starving ISIS, stopping oil spills, and breathing cleaner air.
Neal Lesmeister
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Baxter
Ex-petroleum exploration geologist
