Letter below was submitted to the Bernardsville News, posted on line on May 2, and published in the print edition on May 4.
EDITOR:
“The times they are a-changin’.”
So sang Bob Dylan in 1964. The words apply in 2017.
As I made my morning review of the news on April 7 a photo and headline caught my eye. I saw solar panels on the flat roof of a small building. Nothing remarkable about that. Then I read the headline:
“Harlan County, Ky., has a coal-mining museum. It’s putting solar panels on the roof.”
The reason for the solar installation is to save money on energy. The museum is in the southeast Kentucky town of Benham–the heart of coal country.
Bloomberg News reported on April 25 that Saudi Arabia is requesting bids for a 300 MW (megawatt) solar power plant. In January it had announced plans for a 400 MW wind power plant. These are parts of a 30-50 billion dollar program to produce 10,000 MW of renewable energy by 2025.
Scientific American reported on April 21 that the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii recorded its first-ever concentration of 410 ppm (parts per million) for carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere. CO2 is the most important greenhouse gas, and scientists believe that the earth has not seen a concentration this high in millions of years. We produce CO2 every day when we burn fossil fuels–coal, oil, and natural gas.
The concentration was 316 ppm when scientist Charles David Keeling began these measurements in 1958, and the continuing series of measurements is called the Keeling Curve. It was 390 ppm in 2010 when I published here a letter to President Obama. I urged him to launch “a program to ReEnergize America with the goal to stop burning fossil fuels by 2050.”
The first two news items above are encouraging. They show that people, from a coal county in Appalachia to the largest oil producing country in the Middle East, are moving to clean non-fossil energy. But the third item is scary. We are moving much too slowly.
The current administration in Washington is now moving aggressively to encourage more use of fossil fuels. This too is scary. But there are small and growing positive movements led by Republicans in Congress
Members of the House of Representatives have formed the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus to “look for economically viable options to reduce climate risk.” By design there are an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, currently 36 total members, 18 from each party.
There is a Republican Climate Resolution (H. Res. 195). By April 25 it had been co-sponsored by 17 Republican House members, including Frank LoBiondo of NJ District 2. Three of its nine findings follow:
“it is a conservative principle to protect, conserve, and be good stewards of our environment, responsibly plan for all market factors, and base our policy decisions in science and quantifiable facts on the ground”
“if left unaddressed, the consequences of a changing climate have the potential to adversely impact all Americans…”
“there is increasing recognition that we can and must take meaningful and responsible action now to address this issue”
It is time for those who represent your readers—Congressmen Leonard Lance and Rodney Frelinghuysen–to join and support these initiatives.
Bill Allen