This Thursday, Jan. 31, Wesleyan will participate in Focus the Nation, a nationwide series of symposia and teach-ins to discuss solutions to one of the greatest challenges of our generation: global climate change. The debate about whether climate change is real or not is over, and now we as a country are forced not only to acknowledge the substantially disproportionate impact we are having on the health of the earth, but also to make vast changes both on an individual and national level to lessen this impact. To hold global warming to the low end of three to four degrees Fahrenheit will require developed countries to cut greenhouse gases by more than 80 percent below current levels by 2050. So how can this be accomplished?
No effective international agreement has been reached to curb greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This is largely because of the United States’ refusal to comply with an agreement that lacks requirements for developing countries like China. Meanwhile, China’s leaders point to the United States as a hypocrite, and cite us as the reason they will not make their own efforts to reduce emissions.
Even if China is just using us as a scapegoat, making sweeping changes to our national economy toward clean energy and sustainability will still be advantageous in the long run, weaning us off of foreign oil dependence, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, improving domestic environmental conditions, and enabling us to compete in some of the fastest-growing global markets. Plus, changing our own behavior and standards the way Europe has done over the past several years will send a clear message to China, India, and the rest of the developing world that green energy, technology, and practices are truly the future of our global economy.
But how can we, as university students, possibly have any impact on issues of such a global scale? Well, let’s look at the facts. There is a presidential election this year, as well as key congressional and gubernatorial elections. While only one Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, takes the environment seriously enough to include it as a topic on his campaign website, it is in fact far from a partisan issue.
Many Democrats and Republicans in Congress are serious about climate change and environmental issues, and as the threat of global warming becomes clearer and graver each day, we have to make sure that both incumbents and candidates are putting effective solutions at the top of their agendas. Many are still not on board, and as the delegate from Papua New Guinea said at the Bali conference on climate change in December to the U.S. delegate, “If you cannot lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way.”
In the Senate last month, a cloture vote fell one vote short on an energy bill provision that would have eliminated tax breaks for oil and gas companies. We can let Congress know that this and other measures that will help to solve the climate crisis must be a top priority, and valuing cronyism and lobbying over these pressing issues is intolerable.
This brings us to Focus the Nation’s educational initiatives, occurring at over 1,600 colleges, universities, high schools, middle schools, places of worship, civic organizations and businesses across the country. Do a Google News search for “Focus the Nation.” There’s a whole lot going on. Meanwhile, elected representatives are starting to get the message (look at some of the endorsements on http://www.focusthenation.org). But this still isn’t something that we can sit out on and leave to the “more dedicated people” to take care of. This is something that we as a democracy have to confront as a collective whole. So please, play a part in this historic day. Come to the keynote address at noon in the chapel. Come to all the panels that you can. Think about the issues, think about the solutions, engage your friends and family, and most importantly, contact decision-makers and let them know how important these issues are. We need to focus our government, and focus the nation, on solutions to climate change before we run out of time.
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