By Tony Hagen • editor@newjersey.sierraclub.org
It’s a crazy world when billions of people are allowed to make individual decisions about how much to produce and consume and what size carbon footprint they can leave upon the planet. People have always thought technology could outpace the problems we create for ourselves. It turns out that this was just a jingle invented by Madison Avenue. Technology is now outpacing us.
A few years ago, we thought warehouses were our biggest problem in New Jersey. Now, data centers have taken over as the Sauron/Voldemort du jour. What will we see tomorrow?
Regulate Business
You can’t stand in the way of business, but you can regulate it. There are too many private interests with enormous amounts of capital with which they can fight you, from giant corporations to individual investors, who, in the aggregate, may include somebody in the house or apartment across the street from you—maybe all of your neighbors.
This year, the Sierra Club has supported various pieces of successful legislation that have hemmed in data centers’ power to destroy our landscape and pollute our air and water. We continue to fight for clean energy—bona fide clean energy—such as solar and offshore wind.
Offshore wind in New Jersey has been severely knocked about by the Trump administration, which promotes the lie accepted by so many that it harms ocean creatures, pollutes the environment, and isn’t economical. The extreme politicization of the energy industry is forcing us into a much broader reliance on fossil fuel and—ugh!—nuclear power.
A lot of us are OK with these compromises. America is still a country where everybody pretty much does their own thing. But the planet is telling us in not-so-subtle ways that it can’t take much more of this. Wildfires in Canada have made our air unbreathable for two years in a row. Europe has endured one extreme heat wave after another, and the “blue” Danube is running dry.
Thirty-five years ago, I lived in Japan, and the summers there were hot and muggy but not like they are now. Over there, a huge industry has sprung up to deliver heat-relieving products, from moist neck towels to liquids you can spray on your clothes to make them feel cooler. Guides will tell you not to visit Japan until October, at the earliest.
I went to Greenland this summer, leading the wave of what will surely become eco-tourist refugees. North of the Arctic Circle, it was 48 degrees and very pleasant compared with New Jersey’s on-and-off, 90-degree/100-degree heat waves this summer.
However, Greenland won’t be a cool country for much longer. Already, warming temperatures are contributing to intense fog, which is making it more difficult for Greenland Air to land and take off on time. Greenland Air already has one of the worst departure records in the world. Percentagewise, double-digit cancellations are normal.
I got caught in this trap when my plane was canceled, along with many others, in mid-August. I spent four more days in Ilulissat than I needed to.
Ilulissat, by the way, is close to the Sermeq Kujalleq, considered one of the world’s most productive glaciers in terms of icebergs discharged. It has receded more in the last 20 years than in the previous 100. Our administration in Washington doesn’t want you to know this, though, as they have “cleansed” much information from governmental websites, suppressed environmental reports, and redirected activities and funding from so many worthwhile investigations and studies. It is shameful myopia.
Stronger Leadership
I believe many of us would curtail our production and consumption habits if we had stronger leadership that didn’t make it sound like a free-for-all is the only reality. No sensible individual pollutes his own world and compromises his own interests. So why continue to abuse a planet that so clearly depends on our good stewardship?
The Sierra Club is filled with outdoor enthusiasts who have noticed these changes and have committed to doing something to slow or prevent the decay. You can get involved, too, either by donating or lending a hand. Perhaps you have unique talents that are going to waste. Perhaps you have more money than you could spend in your lifetime. This is your opportunity to put some of that to work for the benefit of future generations who may include members of your own family.