The sky has cleared, but can we see ahead? Climate change action is needed now

“The fog comes in on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.”

— Carl Sandburg, American poet.

The sky has finally cleared over our region. But unlike Sandburg’s gentle vision, our recent fog — no, call it smog — showed its claws. A toxic blanket settled over us, prompting alerts to stay indoors, avoid exercise, hunker down. The last chapter of summer played true to form in this awful pandemic year.

We were lucky in South Sound. We didn’t lose our homes, our businesses, or our lives to this torching of the West. Not this time. But what’s to come?

It’s been a year for the record books. The area devastated by Western fires is beyond comprehension. In the South, we’ve run out of letters in the alphabet to name this year’s tropical storms. In Death Valley, we set a world record high temperature (we’re number one!), and stations in the Los Angeles basin and in Arizona weren’t far behind.

In 2020, another record was set: the concentration of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, in our atmosphere. Careful measurements have been recorded for over six decades now. The trend is inexorably upward. So is the temperature.

Climate change was once thought to be a problem for our grandchildren. Do we still believe that? How many catastrophes will it take, how many lives lost, before we accept that change is upon us now?

An innovative effort is being made in our community to address this crisis. The draft Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP) is available for public review right now. Then it will be up to policymakers in our county and city governments to adopt the final plan and take action.

The plan proposes specific steps we can take locally to fight climate change. The goals are ambitious. A 45% reduction of our 2015 local level of greenhouse emissions by 2030. An 85% reduction by 2050. Is this even possible?

Recent statewide actions are encouraging. Changes in state building codes will mean better energy performance in new structures. State law now requires a phaseout of coal to generate electricity by 2025. By 2045, 100% is to be generated free from greenhouse gases. A recent state law requires further reductions in the emissions of vehicles sold here. All these are real and significant improvements.

The TCMP is our local counterpart to these statewide efforts. The draft plan proposes over 70 recommendations to stretch toward the goals. These are real-world actions. A couple of examples follow:

• Buildings: The built environment is our largest local source of greenhouse emissions. Retrofit programs for existing structures offer great potential to reduce this impact.
• Transportation: Our second-largest local emissions source. Can we speed up the shift to cleaner vehicles? Can we reduce the miles we drive locally?

What can you and I do right now? The Thurston Regional Planning Council has the draft plan out for public review until Oct. 15. We can read the draft plan, share our comments, and suggest improvements. Use the link: https://www.thurstonclimateplan.com/

What comes next? The plan, once in final form, will need to be adopted by all four jurisdictions if it’s going to be effective. We need to let our local elected officials know we want this plan to move forward now.

Finally, I’m a climate voter. Are you? Let’s use the power of our votes this autumn to elect officials at every level of government who will work with us to meet this crisis.

Cleve Pinnix is a retired State Parks Commission director, a Panorama resident, and a member of The Olympian’s 2020 Board of Contributors. Reach him at cfp.ranger44@gmail.com.

This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 5:45 AM.