RANDY CRAFT
Perspective

A major personal milestone causes me to reflect on the well-being of our planet. Earlier this year I turned 50 years old.

Many good things have happened during my half-century: the moon landings, the explosion of information and communication capability now possible via the Internet, and medical breakthroughs that have dramatically improved our lives.

More ominous events also occurred. Human population more than doubled to 6.6 billion. Hunger, disease, poverty and war persist. But the threat that concerns me most is climate change.

With gradually increasing awareness, I’ve followed the climate debate over the years. During my days as a college student, relatively little concern was expressed about potential world-wide warming of planet Earth. However, evidence has accumulated over time indicating we humans are causing the global climate to change. Earth appears to be warming largely due to increased carbon dioxide emissions resulting from our excessive fossil fuel use. Though not completely predictable, consequences of human-induced climate change won’t likely be good.

Ironically, the world’s poorest people, those least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, are those most likely to suffer impacts from climate change. Many of these people barely live at a subsistence level, fishing or farming on river floodplains and coastal areas. These areas are threatened by flooding as a warming climate causes the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to melt at increasing rates, leading to higher sea levels that threaten to inundate vast areas of farmland inhabited by these impoverished people. Millions may be forced from their homes and fields, having to seek higher ground. Many will become environmental refugees, fleeing to countries that may not be very welcoming.

Our nation’s failure to lead the world towards climate change solutions would be easier to accept if we were as vulnerable as citizens of developing nations. We would face the same risk of losing our homes, income, and personal security when we choose to continue with "business as usual." However, we will not be as vulnerable as those in other countries. Though the U.S. may face major climate-change-induced calamities, many of us can utilize our financial resources to "adapt" to a changing environment. For example, even if scarcity caused food prices to skyrocket, I and a majority of Americans could probably afford to continue buying food. Many of our brethren in Bangladesh and other developing nations already suffer from severe malnourishment due to food shortages. Without financial reserves, they may have to adapt to starvation.

Some would argue I’m feeling guilty because of my birth into a wealthy standard of living. Nonetheless, I believe along with this good fortune comes a responsibility to act on behalf of our neighbors who are at risk. My good fortune is not a God-given right to more than my share of global resources. I and millions of Americans have probably exceeded our rations given we live in a country where only 5 percent of the world’s human population is the largest consumer of many traded commodities. My point is we all could stand a little less materialism and its resultant release of green-house gases, negative impacts on Earth’s ecological services, and the unfair burden it places on the poor.

In 35 years my daughter will face a 50th birthday. What kind of world will she live in and what threats will humanity face? Will our nation have led the world to a new day where Earth’s fever is breaking, rising sea levels are spoken of in the past tense, and the right to prosperity for all poor people in all nations is sacrosanct? Or will our worst fears about climate change come true, causing my daughter to ask why our generation, though we had ample warning, didn’t do more to lessen the impacts?

My hope is that she will be living in a world that won’t have passed any critical "tipping point" beyond which the planet will be unlivable. I hope she and her generation will have a chance to enjoy all the good this world has to offer, a world where humankind intrinsically recognizes the importance of Earth’s life support systems and cares about the rich and poor alike. It is up to all of us now to give her and her generation that chance.

Randy Craft lives in Lander.