Folks, it’s time to wake up. Actually, it’s way past time.
We’ve seen two terrifying reports recently about how climate change is destroying the air, water and land we all need to live, and that the window for us to fight it is closing fast.
The first report, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says catastrophic effects of the climate crisis, like food shortages and droughts, could occur by 2040—within the lifetime of many of the people we sit next to on the bus or at the coffee shop, and certainly that of our young children.
Ironically, the second dire report was just released by the Trump administration’s National Climate Assessment, showing that climate change will likely cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage over the coming decades, spurring crop failures, crumbling roads and bridges, and wreaking havoc on public health.
These reports read like a death sentence for a crime I didn’t commit.
Yet the president continues to mock science and has no intentions of doing anything to stop climate change’s worst effects on our lives, despite his own administration's warnings.
So it’s up to us and our local leaders to do as much as we can to protect our families and our kids. Thankfully, the Charlotte City Council is preparing to do just that.
Council members will vote Dec. 10 on a Strategic Energy Action Plan (SEAP) that would commit the city to be 100 percent carbon-free by 2030, with a big emphasis on adding solar. This is a smart move, especially because North Carolina ranks second in total solar capacity, beating even Sunbelt states like Arizona and Nevada.
There’s also a larger goal in the plan for the community to be sustainable and resilient by 2050. This part of the SEAP would call on us Charlotteans to voluntarily recycle more, conserve energy and water, and do what we can to help our city reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that exacerbate climate change.
As part of the SEAP, we should also push for the retirement and full remediation of the coal-burning Allen power plant, which sits on the outskirts of our city, consistently pollutes our air and threatens our groundwater, while also contributing to climate destruction.
I believe we can give up our addiction to the polluting fossil fuels that are leading us to climate catastrophe. I believe we can ensure that our low-income communities and communities of color, who bear the biggest brunt of environmental injustice and pollution, can thrive.
I pledge to do my part to help our city become cleaner, greener and more resilient, I applaud our City Council for giving this issue the critical attention and action it requires.