A Lamentation in Fire

I’m sitting in my living room in strange, orange-red light. My eyes itch, my throat burns, and my head has a hollow ache. I go to kiss my dog and she smells like campfire. All this, from the heavy cloud of smoke covering San Francisco. 

I can’t help but think of a line from one of my favorite movies. 

In Contact, Jodie Foster stars as a scientist who discovers evidence of an advanced alien civilization. She’s asked at one point, “If you were to meet [them] and were permitted only one question to ask, what would it be?”

She responds: “Well, I suppose it would be: How did you do it? How did you evolve, how did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself?”

California is burning again. A result of a historic heatwave and, in the northern part, lightning storms almost never seen in the area. All this due to extreme weather from Climate Change.

So yeah, I can’t help but wonder: how do we survive this technological adolescence without destroying ourselves?

The truth is, beyond the itch and ache and burn in my head, what I really feel is helpless. And the only thing I know how to do when I feel helpless is to write or cry. So here I am. Writing. To keep myself from crying.

So really, this is a selfish exercise. But hopefully this might help you too. Here we go.

The (Basic) Science

As I understand it, there are some basic scientific concepts we need to understand in order to understand how Climate Change is happening. It starts… with a garden.

The greenhouse. With some panels of glass, we can grow all sorts of plants, all year long, in all sorts of places. A greenhouse does this by harnessing sunlight. Light comes in, heat gets absorbed and then trapped, and the greenhouse is warmed. The glass protects from wind and other exterior elements, and the gardener controls the water and ventilation. The days where it’s hot outside, you can pop open windows and vents and use more water to stop the plants from literally cooking inside. 

Our atmosphere. Earth is kinda like one big greenhouse, and the glass that holds it all together is our atmosphere. But instead of glass, it’s a composition of different gasses. The atmosphere of Earth is composed of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases in trace amounts. During the day, sunlight shines through the atmosphere and Earth's surface warms up. At night, the surface cools, releasing heat back into the air. But some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, keeping Earth a (formerly) cozy 57 degrees Fahrenheit on average. 

Average temperature. Unlike a greenhouse, we can’t add water or pop open some windows to ventilate when it gets too hot on Earth. And right now we’re at 58 degrees, while between 1951 and 1980, the average surface temperature was estimated to be 57°F.  A one-degree global change is a big deal. A one- to two-degree drop was all it took to plunge the Earth into the Little Ice Age. A five-degree drop was enough to bury most of North America under a towering mass of ice 20,000 years ago.

Greenhouse gasses. We know how a greenhouse works to control temperature and grow life, and we know that our atmosphere is made of gas, and that led us to the term “greenhouse gasses”.  Greenhouse gasses is not a political term. It’s scientific lingo used to categorize what comprises our atmosphere. These gasses are naturally occurring, but human activity can produce these gasses as well (more on that soon). 

Carbon Dioxide or CO2. This is the main greenhouse gas on which scientists have been focusing. To quote scientist Robert Dunlop, (who warned oil producers in 1959 of the effects of burning fossil fuels, again—more on that soon), “Carbon dioxide has a strange property. It transmits visible light but it absorbs the infrared radiation which is emitted from the earth.” Basically, it’s super-good at trapping heat. Scientists also care about CO2 because we’re producing a lot of it.

The Historical Context

Industrialization. It’s hard to remember on a daily basis that the way we currently live life is not the way most of humanity has lived. For the thousands and thousands of years, even the most advanced civilizations lived in mostly “agrarian” societies. Which means our food & jobs were organized around natural resources and individual cultivation techniques. But between 1760-1840, Europe and America experienced the Industrial Revolution. Via Wikipedia: 

“This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power and water power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the mechanized factory system.”

Two major things have resulted from the Industrial Revolution:

1. An economic explosion (a good thing)

2. Man made greenhouse gasses, specifically CO2, on a mass scale (a bad thing)  

Even in the 19th century, scientists were starting to get worried about what all the industrial production they were seeing could do to our atmosphere. Since then, scientists from all different political backgrounds, countries, and religious creeds have been tracking the amount of CO2 that our industrial activity produces. 

The Need for Energy

It’s unfathomable to think of America today without massive amounts of energy. Every stage of our life in industrialized society relies on it. The hospital you were born in, the house you grew up in, the schools you went to, the jobs you’ve had—all powered by electricity, temperature controlled water, ovens and microwaves, computers and machines—including the transportation needed to move people and goods around. 

But it has to come from somewhere. When the Industrial Revolution happened, we got our energy from the ways we were able to with our technology at that time: wood, steam and coal — coal being the favored source of energy. Unfortunately, coal is a fossil fuel. 

What are Fossil Fuels?

Fossil fuels come from the remains of old plants and animals decayed under heat and pressure in the earth that have become various oils, natural gas and coal. These materials are easily combustible, and when we burn them, we get energy. 

Today, we still rely on fossil fuels more than anything for energy. As of 2018, fossil fuels accounted for an 85% share of energy consumption.

But there’s a two-fold problem with fossil fuels:  

1. They’re not “renewable”. These materials were made in the earth over eons of time and massive amounts of heat and pressure. There’s simply no way to make new fossil fuels. The supply is limited to whatever the Earth has right now.

2. Burning fossil fuels creates CO2. According to the EPA, CO2 from fossil fuels have significantly increased since 1900. And the more CO2 in the atmosphere—no matter where or how it comes from—means our Earth, aka our big greenhouse, is going to trap more heat. 

So, we’ve got a big problem here. Because we know we need energy, but our main source of it today is not renewable. And it’s seriously messing up our atmosphere. Leading to the big, misunderstood term… “global warming.”

Confusing Terminology

The history and concepts I’ve covered are pretty basic things that everyone agrees upon. But from here, things start to get a little messy.

The first thing a lot of people get confused about (for good reason) is our terminology. For real, someone call the head of the International Organization of Science People (or whoever is in charge?!) and get a new Marketing Director. We need a better campaign for this stuff. 

To cover the basic terms, you can read this article from NASA, or here’s the gist: 

• Weather: local atmospheric conditions over short periods of time. (Rain, snow, clouds, winds, floods or thunderstorms.)

• Climate: the long-term regional or global average of temperature, humidity and rainfall patterns over seasons, years or decades.

• Climate Change: long-term change in the average weather patterns that define Earth’s local, regional and global climates. *This is due to human & non-human activities.* 

• Global Warming: the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period. *Due to human activities.*

Since the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased Earth’s global average temperature by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, a number that is currently increasing by 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. Our current cozy-ish 58 degrees? It’s getting less and less cozy.

The Main Effects from Climate Change

The trends we’re seeing from Climate Change could lead to problems so catastrophic, it’s hard to even wrap our minds around them. Here are the ones that I personally fear the most. Because nothing says fun, like a big list of fears.

• Coastal flooding. This would threaten approximately 600 million people who live in low elevation coastal zones, which generate approximately $1 trillion of global wealth.

• Drought. This threatens our fresh water and could potentially displace billions who live along the equator, in the warmer parts of our planet.

• Ocean devastation and hurricanes. Our oceans have absorbed 93 percent of the increase in the planet’s energy inventory from 1971-2010. The result? Dying coral reefs and sea life. Also - Maria. Irma. Harvey. Sandy. Katrina. Andrew...

• Wildfires. *waves hand* The wildfires that I am breathing in right now marks the now official “Fire Season” in California this year, weeks earlier than usual. Last year, wildfires in California alone cost $163 million in suppression efforts, and cut off power for over 800,000. Let’s not also forget Australia’s fires this year, incinerating acreage the size of Syria and killing an estimated billion animals. On that note...

• Animal & plant extinction. Recent studies are showing that one third of Earth’s plant and animal life could go extinct due to Climate Change. One. Third.

• …With a pandemic. How will we “socially distance” millions of people who need to flee their homes due to fires, drought and hurricanes? How?

I mean, any one of these issues is enough to make you weep. (I do.) The totality of catastrophe from our rise in global average temperature literally cannot be overstated.

Human vs. Manmade 

But how much of our CO2 production is really affecting Climate Change and causing all these problems? Here’s where a lot of people get hung up. And honestly - for good reason.

Climate Change “Contrarians” get 49% more media coverage than leading scientists. This is pretty staggering, to say the least. If our media outlets at least wanted to present a fair argument, it’d be 50/50. But as it stands, if you’re paying attention to the news, you’re likely to hear more about why man made Climate Change doesn’t exist, than it does. No wonder why the general population can’t come to a wide consensus. 

Thankfully, the scientific community has. You may have also heard that scientific consensus on man made Climate Change is 97% - here’s our government data that gets us to that 97%. If you doubt things from the government (even non-partisan agencies) even some pretty harsh critics on business journals like Forbes admit that at minimum, consensus is at least 80%.

And it’s no wonder, because as we can hopefully now see: 

1. we know that our atmosphere acts like a greenhouse

2. we know that CO2 traps heat

3. we know that burning fossil fuels produces CO2

4. and we know that we’re burning fossil fuels at unprecedented rates 

When we see these Climate Change contrarians on our news, we need to remember that they are trying to discredit the majority of the scientific community. Scientists from all different countries, backgrounds, ages and creeds. They disregard the science we can observe in our gardens, and believe in a worldwide delusion or conspiracy theory that anywhere from 80-97% of scientists suffer from. Christians, Muslims, Atheists, Capitalists, Communists, Socialists alike. 

But why?!

I lie awake with this question sometimes. And as I sit here next to my air purifier, whywhywhy? rattles in the back of my aching head. But I know the answer, and you probably do, too. Because it’s the root of pretty much every problem we face. (Ahem, money.)

Think back to that 85% - the world’s energy consumption from fossil fuels. Think of why it’s there. Our industry. And what’s the driver of today’s industry? Corporations.  

Just 100 companies in the world are responsible for 71% of greenhouse gas emissions since 1998, according to The Carbon Majors Database, a report published by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in 2017.

Let that sink in: 100 companies are responsible for 71% of our greenhouse gas emissions from the last twenty years. 

And how have these companies responded to warnings from scientists, as early as the 1960s? I think you can guess. But here is an extremely detailed research project covering how the fossil fuel industry has spent decades and millions of dollars protecting their own interests by actively undermining the American & global faith in the scientific community on the topic of CO2 production and Climate Change. (At least watch the video.)

And look, I get it. These companies employ thousands and thousands of people and have generated trillions of dollars for our global economy. We need reliable energy and huge amounts of it. 

But something has to give here. And since we can’t open up the ventilation windows of our greenhouse atmosphere, that something is our carbon emission and reliance on fossil fuels. Full stop.

Being A Good Christian, aka Caretaker

A 2015 pew research study stated that over one third of evangelical Christians say there is no solid evidence for Climate Change. As a Christian myself, I feel like I have to say something about Climate Change through my religious lens. 

I could write another ten pages on this topic alone, but for me, it comes down to two things: 1) Jesus’ call to love the least of us and 2) our creation story. 

1. Jesus calls us to care for the poor and the most vulnerable. While Climate Change affects us all, it is and will disproportionately affect our most vulnerable populations; I can sit here with my burning eyes and complain, but I don’t have it nearly as bad as the thousands of farmers and migrant workers in my state right now. Globally, we’ve already seen drought play a role in the devastation of the Syrian refugee crisis. Hurricanes & flooding will continue to affect poor people with no such thing as insurance, living in unstable structures. The scale is so large, here’s how I think about it: if man made CO2 makes things only 1% worse, that still means millions of lives and homes—enough reason for any Christian to advocate for the end of fossil fuels and alternative, renewable energy.

2. We are supposed to be “stewards” not “dominators.” Too many of us over too many centuries have misinterpreted our “dominion” over the earth from the Bible. Even if you interpret the creation story in Genesis 1 literally, it’s clear that God’s intention for humanity’s place is to care for creation, not to destroy it. Even super-ultra conservative Christian organizations like Focus on the Family back me up on this. Our environment matters to God. It’s in the founding story of our existence—the fundamental essence of who we are. Our atmosphere is the greenhouse for our God-given garden: Earth. Our destruction of this gift is perhaps our greatest sin.

If you’re a Christian, and still not sold on what I’ve said in this post, I hope I have gained a bit of your trust and moved your heart enough to take the time to listen to this podcast.

So...

If you’re still reading… thank you. I really don’t know what else to say. It’s been seven hours since I started writing this. And I’m still thinking about that question: how do we survive this technological adolescence without destroying ourselves? 

It’s complicated, but we have to ask it. And keep asking it. I know the answer lies somewhere with a mixture of individual actions, corporate responsibility and political change. We need to support local, state, national and international leaders who are taking this seriously and putting it at the highest priority. Instead of pointing fingers, we need to lead by example. And all that starts with... our words. If there’s anything I’ve proven from this unexpected personal exercise of writing this, it’s that even when we feel hopeless, we have so much information, and we always have our words. 

In America, we also have an upcoming election.

Yes, things are pretty grim. But I suppose when I stop to think, I’m not totally helpless. Even if my head still hurts, my eyes are still burning… and my little dog still smells like a campfire when I kiss her. (I just checked.)

 - Tess Canfield, August 2020 via The Latest