We’ve got to beat our fossil fuel addiction
15th July 2024 · 0 Comments
The word around New Orleans is that it’s too hot to go outside. But for the rain, you could fry an egg on the banquette (sidewalk).
This heatwave is not just a temporary inconvenience; it’s a symptom of climate change, a global issue affecting our city.
Philadelphia is experiencing record-breaking heat. Last week, its temperature spiked to 99 degrees, the hottest in 136 years. New Yorkers sweltered in 100-degree heat. Wildfires are burning parts of California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, with Arizona and Nevada under an excessive heat watch.
At the same time, several states were experiencing unseasonably cold temperatures. The Pacific Northwest, Northern Rocky Mountains, North Dakota, Nevada and Montana have lower-than-average temperatures. Colorado may see worsening drought conditions due to below-normal precipitation.
Meanwhile, tornadoes have caused destruction Alabama, Texas, South Dakota, Michigan, Maryland, West Virginia, Illinois, Ohio, Mississippi and yes, Louisiana.
Flooding, severe thunderstorms and tropical storms are starting in the Gulf. Some may turn into hurricanes.
It’s time to face the truth. Despite the noise from climate deniers, global warming and climate change are real, and they’re threatening our very existence.
The fossil fuel industry’s damaging oil and gas production significantly contributes to this crisis. To save our planet and ourselves, we must demand change and transition to clean energy sources.
These extreme weather events are not isolated incidents but are part of a more significant trend: 2023 was the planet’s warmest year on record, according to an analysis by scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
Fossil fuel and its poisonous gases, runoff discharges in the Mississippi River, and the destruction of the Ozone layer have affected our air and water supply and put us all at significant risk for diseases and even death.
NASA points to greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide – as the culprits responsible for climate change.
Those gases didn’t just magically appear from thin air. Let’s tell it like it is. Human behavior, our reliance on fossil fuels, is responsible for mucking up the climate and threatening the Earth and every being on the planet.
We can change this. We can make a difference by reducing our carbon footprint and advocating for sustainable practices. Unlike fossil fuels, clean energy sources like solar and wind power are abundant and renewable and can drive economic growth.
As sure as the sun rises, the Earth will burn up if world leaders don’t stop subsidizing petroleum, natural gas, and nuclear energy. The consequences of inaction are dire: more frequent and severe heat waves, droughts, and wildfires; rising sea levels that threaten coastal communities; and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems that sustain life on Earth.
When fossil fuels are burned for energy (electricity, heat, and transportation), they release greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, leading to global warming. Rising temperatures cause extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and rising sea levels.
The gas industry can harm communities and ecosystems with water contamination around fracking sites, abandoned wells that send streams of harmful pollution into the air, gas-fueled stoves that worsen in-home air quality, and increased risk of explosions and deadly accidents, to name a few.
Air pollution from fossil fuels can cause asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer, heart attacks, cardiovascular disease, ocean acidification, harm marine ecosystems and affect seafood availability.
Louisiana legislators must stop selling out our environment for campaign contributions. Their inaction in cleaning up Cancer Alley, the 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, and home to at least 30 LNG plants (Liquefied Natural Gas), is disgraceful.
The health and well-being of our communities should be a top priority.
Politicians from all parties need to take climate change seriously. Republicans are always screaming about being pro-life, but they can’t possibly be pro-life when they support rollbacks of fossil fuel industry regulations – like former President Trump did – and call for the abolishment of the EPA (Environment Protection Agency).
According to OpenSecrets.org, Republicans received the most contributions from oil and gas corporations in 2023 and 2024. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Congressman Steve Scalise, and Senators Bill Cassidy and John N. Kennedy have all received contributions from industry.
According to a CNN report, the top five U.S.-based oil and gas companies earned more than $250 billion in profits between 2021 and 2023.
Nevertheless, President Biden is supporting the transition to clean energy. He sees electric vehicles as reducing America’s reliance on fossil fuels and creating more clean energy jobs as the first steps in reducing fossil fuel usage in the U.S.
Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) authorizes $430 billion for clean energy production, jobs, climate programs and healthcare.
Forbes reported that this is the most significant clean energy investment by the federal government in American history and a step toward a more sustainable future.
Biden’s Climate-Ready Workforce Initiative funds skills training in emergency preparedness and response, flood proofing, structural elevation, water and wastewater treatment, geographic information systems, and other critical climate-ready jobs.
Also, states are benefiting from the IRA. Every awarded project supports a community identified as disadvantaged by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.
Biden’s legislation accelerated the permitting process of 47 clean energy projects on public lands, totaling 11.2 megawatts of wind, solar and geothermal energy – enough to power more than 3.5 million homes. He also broke ground on ten major transmission projects, slated to connect 19.5 gigawatts of new generation to the grid.
Louisiana has IRA projects in the works in rural parts of the state.
Heeding the concerns of researchers and the seafood industry, last January, Biden announced a temporary pause permitting new liquid natural gas, or LNG, exports, controversial mega projects costing billions of dollars along the Gulf of Mexico coast.
In addition to protecting 26 million acres of lands and waters, including new national marine sanctuaries, Biden delivered billions of dollars to accelerate land, water and wildlife conservation efforts in all 50 states, territories, the District of Columbia, and Tribal nations and canceled the remaining oil and gas leases issued by the previous administration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The U.S. must collectively do much more to replace big oil and gas with clean energy sources nationwide.
This can happen if we elect candidates committed to climate justice and willing to act boldly. Our votes can make a difference.
This article originally published in the July 15, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
