No guarantees humanity will survive climate change

Editor,

Do You Believe it Now?

“We are the first generation to feel the effects of serious climate change and could be the last generation to do anything about it.” I read this statement recently and it is becoming more evident almost daily. Another statement often heard is “we can’t afford to pay for fighting climate change.” How can we afford NOT to take action when the damage from climate change is billions and approaching trillions of dollars..

I believe that the United States needs to think of climate change as World War III. To win WW II we had to engage our entire national efforts and economy to defeat fascism. I believe that we need to change to entirely renewable energy sources within 20 years. We can lead the world in this and show the way. It is an enormous challenge but not for a country that marshaled all its resources to save the world 75 years ago. Our military is more than capable of providing basic protection and major parts of it might be repurposed to help achieve a number of the changes needed. It will be expensive but we already need massive infrastructure spending which would have to be incorporated into the plan. The work needed would create decades of work for our companies and citizens. Texas should be a leader in this process; a recent study has determined that using wind and solar alone can supply all of Texas’ electrical energy needs.

Human activity has greatly affected life on earth (and most of that in a couple hundred years). Hundreds of species of animals and plants are disappearing daily due to climate change and human encroachment. Earth’s history has seen a number of these mass extinctions due to one factor or another. This mass extinction goes unseen by most people. Our biosphere is under attack—and this one’s on us. There is no guarantee that the human species will survive all this and — maybe it shouldn’t.

Dick McBride

San Marcos