Community Corner

Bedminster Resident Rallies Area to Take Action on Climate Change

A local woman is in the forefront of a movement to get New Jerseyans to take action on launching a new economic green revolution.

On the very night the New York Times published a lead article on the draft report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that concluded  with 95 percent certainty “that humans are the principal cause" of the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that could have “profound” consequences, about 80 concerned New Jersey residents packed an auditorium in Mountainside Aug. 20 to hear Dr. Alan Robock explain the science of climate change.   The program was presented by New Jersey Organizing for Action, which is part of a national effort to educate and energize voter action on issues including gun control, health care, immigration and climate change.

A driving force behind the rally was Kristi MacDonald of Bedminster, an OFA volunteer.

"The target of the event and the ongoing initiative is voters in the 7th District as Leonard Lance, our congressman, and other government representatives have a negative voting record on legislation to limit climate change," MacDonald told Patch. "We hope to educate voters on the issues so they will then influence their representatives."

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Alan Robock, a professor of climate science at Rutgers University and a lead author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, was tasked with delivering the message in Mountainside. He explained that humans' burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause of the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and that these gases retain heat from the sun like a back yard greenhouse. Higher temperatures, he said, mean more energy in the atmosphere, and hotter air can hold more water, which causes rising average world temperatures, melting ice, rising sea levels, more volatile weather with severe storms and droughts, more wild fires and ecosystem changes.  

Robock also emphasized the severe impacts of increased global warming on human society and our metropolitan area, including future flooding of low-lying areas in New Jersey and Manhattan. 

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The event, which MacDonald said brought in about 80 people and soon will be available in video form on YouTube, featured other speakers as well: economist Harriet Shugarman; Christine Guhl, organizing representative of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign New Jersey; and OFA Training Coordinator Beth Kelly.  

Shugarman told the audience that allowing carbon to continue to be dumped into our atmosphere has significant and real costs, including rising food prices due to farming area droughts, increased medical bills from increased respiratory and infectious disease and higher insurance rates because of severe storm damage. 

She pointed to last year's Superstorm Sandy, noting that repairs because of the weather event are estimated at $65 billion. With more energy in the atmosphere, she said severe storms are expected to occur more frequently in the future. In answer to that, Shugarman advocated transitioning to renewable energy and greater energy efficiency.  And she said our hope lies in renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar, which compete directly with fossil fuels and can be less expensive in some areas.

 

Sierra Club's Christine Guhl described the effort to implement development of wind turbines off the coast of New Jersey to replace coal-fired power plants in the state.  Last year, coal-fired power plants caused 74 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions from power generation, she said.  

 

Beth Kelly of the OFA talked about President Obama's climate plan, which was announced last June.  The plan calls for developing and implementing federal Environmental Protection Agency carbon pollution standards for new and existing power plants, doubling production of clean energy in the U.S. by 2020 and manufacturing buildings, appliances and vehicles that waste less energy.  

These changes, according to Kelly, will help preserve the atmosphere in the way that the federal Clean Water Act helped restore the nation's rivers and streams  and prepare the U.S. for the impacts of climate change in a world working to reduce carbon emissions.  She said the president's plan will also spur the country’s commitment to industries expected to generate economic growth, increase exports and allow the U.S. to retain our its status as a world economic power. 

 

Organizer Kristi MacDonald said she believes many U.S. residents agree that climate change should be a priority for the president and the Congress, but an energized public movement has not developed to convince lawmakers on Capitol Hill to take action.  Without public action, she said, "the essential and common sense actions in the president’s plan will continue to be thwarted by Congress, [which] has actively resisted taking action."

MacDonald said OFA is working to organize and energize the public to inspire Congress to lead the world on climate change and the forthcoming economic green revolution.  

"Four former Republican EPA administrators endorsed Obama’s climate plan in a column published in the New York Times on Aug. 2 entitled, 'The Republican Case for Climate Action,' stating that the plan contains 'achievable actions that will deliver real progress,'" she said.

The Mountainside event, which was just a first step in the OFA's efforts to inspire action throughout Somerset, Union and Hunterdon counties on climate change, said MacDonald.  

"Next, we have a meeting scheduled with [U.S. Rep.] Leonard Lance on Sept. 4 at 4:15 p.m. in his Flemington office," she said. 


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