End Of The Status Quo

(Opinion) —Sitting in a primary school classroom in rural Nicaragua during a week of 98 degree days, one thinks a lot about climate change and the future. Just how hot will it get? Will these children be here or will their families need to flee increasing heat, flooding and droughts?

The New Haven Leon Sister City Project – with whom I work – runs women’s rights, public health, and education programs here in two impoverished communities. It was because of growing climate threats here that NHLSCP started ten years ago organizing in New Haven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions there. Of course, New Haven is also very much facing an insecure future.

Part of our work was to organize the New Haven Climate Movement, which recently got the Board of Alders to pass the Climate Emergency Resolution, which recognizes the severity of the threat and calls for reducing carbon emissions drastically in the coming years.

But it’s only a resolution, and the city still needs a concrete plan and resources to reach the goal. Mayor-Elect Elicker had committed to spend 0.1 percent of the city operating budget (about $500,000) to start this critical work.

Of course it’s a tight budget year, as it has been for over a decade, and New Haven has not committed sufficient dedicated staff in this period to to really make an impact.

At the same time new building construction is booming and these construction projects generate millions of dollars of building fees for the city (nearly $7.5 million in permit fees flowing into city coffers so far this fiscal year). This is happening in part because the city’s building, economic development, and planning departments are all working on it. Yet the city is failing to put the same amount of staff and resources into creating a safe and sustainable (“survivable” might be better) future. This carbon intensive construction with ensuing long term energy needs is actually poisoning the future. Whatever you think about growth and economic development, the physics of climate change are crystal clear…and brutal.

Ironically, maintaining the status quo is the surest way to create radical and potentially disastrous change. The past history of leadership focusing on short term needs is what got us into the biggest mess ever.

According to the New Haven greenhouse gas inventory, the New Haven community creates 1.2 million tons of carbon emissions per year. Many economists say that the social cost of carbon emissions (future costs of damage from climate change) is about $100 per ton. This means New Haven has a real climate debt of over $120 million per year and over $1.2B since 2010. These are real costs future generations and people around the world will have to pay. New Haven is already paying some of these costs in flood control, resettlement of families displaced by Hurricane Maria, sea level rise defenses, etc.

We know that not cleaning up after ourselves is wrong – something we all learned in kindergarten. Federal environmental law is also very clear, and even though the English Station power plant has gone through a number of owners, United Illuminating is still responsible for the $30 million clean up. Sadly, greenhouse gas emissions have not yet received that level of legal accountability. We are still responsible.

We are really playing with fire as accelerating climate disasters and collapsing ecosystems keep telling us. The UN scientists are clear: we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.6 percent per year to avoid climate chaos.

Taking action in New Haven will have significant short term benefits, including green jobs, improved public health, energy savings for families, local clean energy production, etc. Inaction is just wrong and is a form of theft, both for future generations and the rest of the world.

Right now, the people of Nicaragua are dealing with increasing heat, dust and flooding. Across Central America many families are fleeing these conditions. These are impoverished communities that did not create climate change. Their carbon emissions per person are one-twentieth of the rate in Connecticut. These are also communities where the average child only completes the third grade, a typical hard-working family earns less than $1,500 a year and hunger is a daily challenge.

The city and Mayor Justin Elicker’s administration need to lead an emergency response by example, and inspire or compel other key local institutions to act. If it is an emergency, as most seem to agree it is, then bold city actions will be key in mobilizing us all to create a safe and healthy future.