We are living in a time of crises. Many of them are self-made and a few are based on conspiracy theories with inadequate evidence reflecting ulterior agendas. Examples include the “border crisis” of illegal immigration. In reality, crossings of our southern border are lower than they have been in 18 years. Even then, those risking their lives to come here are refugees of the more verifiable crises that our policies have fostered in their home countries. Another crisis of our making and based in lies, is our escalating aggression toward Venezuela. It didn't start with Nicolás Maduro but with the election of President Hugo Chavez and his initiation of Bolivarian socialism which broke from US corporate dominance with the radical notion that funds from nationalized oil should be shared by all Venezuelans. President Bush attempted a coup to remove Chavez, which failed. Since then our government has worked to undermine their economy in a successful attempt to create desperation.
This is in no way a new tactic. The history of the U.S. in Latin America is a long and brutal one of orchestrated upheavals against popular governments which dared to defy US corporate hegemony followed by the installing of unelected brutal regimes to serve as reliable pawns. Victims of our aggression include Cuba, Chile, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, and El Salvador to name only a few – and always with the support of our corporate press.
The “Russiagate” crisis is also a questionable one on weak ground. In reality, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel meddled far more than Russia in the last election. They continue to dictate Trump's foreign policy, especially where Iran, Syria and Venezuela are concerned. The hypocrisy of our furor over the possibility that another country dared to influence our elections is all the more laughable with Trump deciding who the unelected president of Venezuela should be, as he strengthens and expands the embargo on that country, seizes assets and threatens military intervention.
Real crises that affect us include the disaster of neo-liberal economics pushed by Wall Street which results in record economic disparity and poverty, the mounting student debt that cripples futures, and the lack of access to medical coverage affecting about 44 million of us. A more complete list here.
The most important actual crisis of our making is the growing climate catastrophe. Even as oceans warm with glaciers and polar icecaps melting faster than predicted, recent peer-reviewed global measurements show that 2018 saw record increases of carbon emitted into our atmosphere. Researchers based in Potsdam, Germany report in the journal Nature Communications that they and colleagues in the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost monitored and measured soil temperatures in boreholes at 154 locations. The most dramatic warming was in the Arctic where soils that were more than 90% permafrost increased in temperature by 0.3°C or to just above freezing. In Siberia, temperatures rose by 0.9°C or more. Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that permafrost stores vast amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, which is released as the soil thaws. Alaskan permafrost melt is now emitting more greenhouse gases than the entire state is storing in tundra and forest ecosystems, according to findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This wasn’t supposed to happen before the end of the century.
In the last year we witnessed firestorms in the west and catastrophic deluges and flooding on the Gulf and East Coasts. Record hurricanes and heat happened in the Pacific and elsewhere. As the climate disaster unfolds, our corporate leadership, under the misguidance of a stubborn climate denier, continues to erase even inadequate fossil-fuel regulations like the burning off of methane released via fracking. Trump has cynically nominated coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to head the EPA and oil lobbyist David Bernhardt to head the Interior Department.
I know some are thinking that this has been an especially cold winter. As the atmosphere and oceans warm, the effect is climate destabilization. The polar vortex, a large expanse of swirling, cold air, is usually limited to the polar regions. Now, more frequently due to human-caused climate disruption, the vortex expands and moves southward bringing arctic temperatures with it. The jet stream and oceanic currents that have driven and defined our weather for most of the last 10,000 years are being altered by the carbon our fossil fuel burning continues to emit.
Though politicians and parties beholden to fossil-fuel corporate interests do everything possible to sow confusion, cynicism and doubt about the peer-reviewed evidence and science regarding the growing climate catastrophe, the effects continue to mount. Military leaders understand the real costs of climate change in expanded wars, refugee migrations based on food and water shortages and temperature extremes, as well as the direct effects on military bases around the world. A Department of Defense report dated January 2019 “provides an assessment of the significant vulnerabilities from climate-related events in order to identify high risks to mission effectiveness on installations and to operations.” According to the report, “about two thirds of the 79 installations addressed are vulnerable to current or recurrent flooding and more than half are vulnerable to current or future drought. About half are vulnerable to wildfires and may then experience mudslides or erosion when rains follow fires.”
Of course the Norfolk Naval facilities are on that list. The report states, “The greater Hampton Roads area is very vulnerable to flooding caused by rising sea levels and land subsidence. Navy Region Mid-Atlantic is working with several academic, local community non-profit organizations, and state and federal agencies to increase understanding of current and future risks to inform discussions on possible adaptation strategies for communities and military bases. In addition, the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach are currently engaged in a Joint Land Use Study to identify specific conditions, including recurrent flooding, coastal storms, and erosion, outside of the military footprint that have the potential to impact Navy operations in the Hampton Roads area.” Our area is one of the most vulnerable to rising seas and extreme hurricanes. Studies by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science predict that water levels in our area will increase by more than a foot in the next 30 years. Some areas already experience regular flooding even when it doesn't rain.
The fossil record demonstrates the longevity of the geological time scale. The sinking of our region called “land subsidence” is due to the effect of the northern parts of our geological plate rising in recovery from being weighed down by glaciers during the Ice Age which ended 10,000 years ago. During that time, coastlines were miles out to what is now sea. The carbon we've put into the air, the poisons we are pumping into deep aquifers and the plastics and toxins we are leaving behind will be here for many thousands of years. We are already locked in, assuming we do nothing different, for a 3 to 7 degree rise in temperature averages in this century. But it doesn't stop there. This may not sound like much, but even 1.5 degrees have resulted in the disastrous effects of more deadly storms and climate disruption. These models, while accurate so far, fail in assuming a steady gradual temperature rise. The geological record demonstrates that this is not accurate and doesn't account for the added feedback accumulation coming from deforestation, methane release and die-offs. In fact, climate change is exponential which accounts for the more rapid than predicted increase in changes we are witnessing.
On the positive side, it isn't just the climate that is heating up. We are seeing massive protests around the world demanding policy changes to address the problem. These include non-violent direct action from a growing group called “Extinction Rebellion” and lawsuits by younger people like “Julia vs US,” a major lawsuit filed by young people against the US government for failing to limit the effects of climate change. This suit is headed for the Supreme Court. With the ascendance of younger social-democrats to Congress we are also seeing calls for a “Green New Deal.” This idea, originally pushed by the Green Party and picked up by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, would boost the economy by converting power grids to sustainable energy, funding de-carbonized sustainable agriculture, and creating jobs through needed infrastructure adaptation. Younger people have much more at stake than older folks like myself. Committed as I am to the issue, I won't live long enough to experience the worst. Younger people will. Along with Medicare for All, a commitment to the Green New Deal will have to be a defining qualification for any democratic candidate running in the next election.
The frustrating part is that we are facing an actual threat greater than any we've ever confronted and more damaging than anything any other country can inflict short of nuclear war. We know what needs to be done to minimize the damage already locked in and prevent worse and yet we are crippled from doing what we know needs to be done. Only one thing is holding us back. It isn't the misinformation and denial or even partisan politics. Even the Green New Deal is being stymied by corporate Democrats. The crippling obstacle that threatens our survival as a nation and as a species is the rule of money -- the undue corporate influence on public policy which includes both our official political parties.
What can we do? Getting involved is a good cure for hopeless depression and cynicism. You can make a difference! Organizations working to address climate policy in the Tidewater, Virginia area include: The Sierra Club. The local branch can be found at the Sierra Club There is also CCAN, or the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Climate Hope Action Network and the Green Party of Virginia with a Facebook presence. If we are to survive this dangerous time, we need to focus on the real, dual crises of money in politics and the unfolding climate disaster.
