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Climate Change’s Sea Change
 I went to a conference on climate change and the northern forest yesterday in Concord, NH. The organizers expected 100 people; three hundred and fifty attended. The scientists on the panels – people such as John Aber, Steve Hamburg, and Cameron Wake, who have been studying climate change for 20 years – were delighted by the turnout. Six months ago you could have held that same conference in a Prius.
Former NY Gov. George Pataki (R) was on a panel discussing his role in founding the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Under Pataki, NY passed a series of progressive laws encouraging the use of alternative fuels, including making it illegal for oil companies to prohibit their franchisees from carrying alternatives, such as bio-diesel, ethanol, and someday, hydrogen. Pataki comes at it from a bifurcated good for the environment/better way to make money perspective. The climate situation has finally grown serious enough to be both irrefutable and good way to make a buck. Unfortunately, in America, that’s the only way anything will ever be done about it.
The northern forest is changing, species are dying, and less desirable, warmer climate trees are moving in. Hotter summers, longer mud seasons, and less snow have already doomed the sugar maple in NH. Eric Kingsley, VP of Innovative Natural Resource Solutions told the audience, “If you have kids and you want them see maple syrup being made, you better take them this year, next year at the latest.” It’s grim, and since CO2 takes 100 years to cycle atmospherically, no one alive today will be alive to see it revert to the status quo ante. If it ever does.
Climate change should be front and center for candidates in the NH presidential primary. Conservative estimates put the loss to the NH forest products industry at $3.3 billion over the next century. But the most chilling news about global warming is that even if we were to implement mitigation policies tomorrow that make the Kyoto Protocols read like an Exxon press release, serious damage has already occurred. There are consequences we can’t avoid, and if we do nothing, it’ll only get worse. If you live in NH, here’s a good place to start.
~Jack McEnany
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