Climate and Environmental Apathy Continues in Westchester County
Another attempt in 3 minutes of public comment to get County Legislators to understand we are in a climate and ecological emergency. Here’s what I said on Monday July 15th.
Before I start, I want to mention the irony of Westchester County Government recommending to folks on social media that they switch to a re-useable water bottle. Yet here at the Westchester Board of Legislators, there is a plastic water bottle on every single desk. Some of you have brought re-useable bottles. WHY haven’t you worked to just stop this practice? This is easy stuff! We need to do things that are far more challenging.
That IPCC report that I’ve been urging you to read.
Have any of you read it?
Can I see a show of hands?
A handful of legislators, the ones who were actually listening, shrugged and shook their heads no. Not one person in the room raised their hand to indicate that they had taken the time to read the IPCC report. The short version: the Summary for Policy makers.
Guess what? The IPCC report, that none of you have taken the time to read, doesn’t go far enough. It underestimated many things.
Feedback loops like the melting arctic ice are not included in the IPCC calculations. Dark ocean water absorbs more solar radiation than white ice does. It speeds up warming. Once the arctic ice is gone it will not return. That’s whats known as a tipping point.
Wildfires are another feedback loop and tipping point. Once the trees are gone, we’ve got less capturing of CO2.
Your apathy and inaction help to speed up the time when we hit tipping points.
Many of you no doubt attended a Lights for Liberty candlelight vigil recently to raise awareness about the crisis at our southern border. FACT: Climate chaos is fueling the crisis at our southern border. When you can’t grow food, society collapses. We’ll see that here soon enough. Our food system will collapse, just like Guatemala’s.
If you were wise electeds, you’d be studying how we could be building resilience here in Westchester county. The climate and ecological emergency is escalating faster than you realize. Instead, the business as usual model continues to dominate.
Your inaction threatens all of us.
Study the science. Read the F*cking IPCC report. And if you don’t understand it, ask someone with a science background to explain it to you. There are many people more than willing to help you.
Have a sleepless night as you contemplate the future. Your future. Your family’s future. Not one of us in this room will be exempt from the climate and ecological crisis. We are all in the same boat.
Get up to speed on what is going on.
Start taking meaningful action in alignment with the magnitude of the problem.
I must say, my county government has clearly demonstrated a complete lack of concern about the climate and ecological crisis we are facing. I’ve lost faith in their ability to be role models and leaders. It is time for a change. And change is coming. Physics doesn’t fool around.
