“This country is going to be in big trouble if we lose this election.”
I’ve heard that sentiment expressed here in Kansas by supporters of both presidential candidates.
Some are alarmed and outraged by false claims that gangs of illegal immigrants are taking over communities like Aurora, Colorado, and repeated assertions that the country is being overrun by rapists and murderers. Many also believe that the economy is in the tank and the so-called deep state is out of control.
Others are concerned about the preservation of our democracy and the institutions that it depends upon to function, as well as the freedom of women and their families to make their own decisions about unplanned or problematic pregnancies.
There is another factor on voters’ minds, one that makes this election even more consequential for the long-term viability of life on Earth: climate change.
Even though it sits at the bottom of the top-10 list of issues about which voters express concern, scientists monitoring the situation have issued an urgent warning as we keep edging toward irreversible cataclysms. I have been immersed in this subject for the past two years while working on a documentary about the local impact of climate change and what is being done in this region to deal with it.
The first person we approached as we began recording interviews was Doug Kluck, the regional climate services director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
He confirmed that we are on a trajectory leading toward more catastrophic weather events, as we have already been experiencing an increase in severe droughts, devastating floods and significant intensification of storms.
The Republican presidential candidate would have us believe that people who work at NOAA are just a bunch of “climate alarmists.” What we really need to do, he contends, is accelerate the extraction of fossil fuels to keep our economy humming. In a meeting with petroleum executives last spring, he promised to start auctioning more oil leases as soon as he takes office (suggesting they could facilitate that by injecting $1 billion into his campaign).
What will happen if the vote goes in his direction and we “drill, baby, drill” while relegating entities such as NOAA to a diminished role within the government if not doing away with it entirely?
What has already happened?
We have just experienced the hottest summer in recorded history, and the warming trend continues.
Recent hurricanes have demonstrated how warmer waters in places like the Gulf of Mexico contribute to the rapid intensification of storm systems. And when those storms move ashore, we have seen how inland areas hundreds of miles away can be hit by catastrophic flooding, leaving cities like Asheville, North Carolina devastated, and destroying roadways and critical infrastructure throughout the entire region.
At the same time, prolonged drought and windblown wildfires continue to plague us in the Midwest, and the rivers of the Amazon are running lower than we’ve ever seen them. We are losing the tropical rain forests that absorb and convert carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas — in addition to providing habitat for a multiplicity of life forms.
According to a recent report from the World Wildlife Fund, we have seen a 73% decline in the average size of monitored wildlife populations in the past 50 years due to a combination of habitat loss and climate change — almost three quarters!
The WWF’s chief scientist, Rebecca Shaw, contends that this sharp decline should be viewed as an urgent warning that nature is unraveling.
“When nature is compromised,” Shaw says, “it is more vulnerable to climate change and edges closer to dangerous and irreversible regional tipping points.”
The amount of suffering and death due to heat and extreme weather is bound to continue increasing as ice that has accumulated for millennia in glaciers and ice sheets around the world continues to melt. The meltwater not only increases sea levels, it may also disrupt the flow of ocean currents, which could have major consequences for the weather we experience in Kansas and around the globe.
But the same candidate who wants to unleash oil and gas production while reversing course on renewable energy (“the green new scam,” as he call it) dismisses the threats posed by rising sea levels, erroneously claiming that it only creates more oceanfront property.
The presidential candidate of the Democratic Party has been criticized for not fleshing out her own plans for addressing the climate crisis, but she did cast the deciding vote in the most significant climate legislation passed by Congress (the Inflation Reduction Act) and does acknowledge the urgency of action.
These are “perilous times on planet earth” as well documented in the most recent State of the Climate Report from the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
“The surge in yearly climate disasters shows we are in a major crisis with worse to come if we continue with business as usual,” it concludes. “Only through decisive action can we safeguard the natural world, avert profound human suffering, and ensure that future generations inherit the livable world they deserve.”
As high as the stakes of this election are for the future of our nation, the outcome is perhaps even more consequential for the future of life on Earth.
Dave Kendall served as producer and host of the “Sunflower Journeys” series on public television for its first 27 seasons and continues to produce documentary videos through his own company, Prairie Hollow Productions. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.