23 December, 2013
Dear President Obama,
You stand as the most powerful man on the planet at the most pivotal and crucial moment in the history of humanity and in the history of many of our fellow species on Earth. The level of atmospheric carbon was recently measured at 400 parts per million, up a staggering 67% from its sustained 10,000-year, pre-industrial level of 270 ppm. The last time atmospheric carbon levels were this high was three million years ago – 2.8 million years before modern humans’ appearance on the planet. At this time, the Earth “… had much higher sea levels, forests extended all the way to the Arctic Ocean… Today, sea ice is melting rapidly, and in the last decades we have seen the tree line moving north into the Arctic tundra.” (1) We know that carbon is a heat-holding gas, that it acts to reflect the heat coming off off of the Earth back downward, blocking its passage out of the atmosphere. The effects of this trapped heat and carbon are manifesting with growing regularity: in the form of a possibly dangerously disrupted Jet Stream (2), in an increase of atmospheric humidity by 5%, in a rise in the acidity of the Earth’s oceans by an alarming 30% over just fifty years ago, in a warming of the oceans – a phenomenon which allows for swifter movement of tropical storms, in a higher incidence of droughts and heat waves, and in an increase in the range and presence of crop-eating pests as warmer climactic zones expand – phenomena which threaten the global food supply. The previous decade was the hottest on record. And then there is what many shocked and confused people are referring to simply as “weird weather.” I recently found myself in the basement of a building on the campus of the University of Maryland waiting out a tornado warning. The lifelong Marylanders in the room with me all remarked that until very recently tornadoes were unheard of in the state. Of course, this is just one of many, many thousands of such anecdotes accumulating daily in this unprecedented and frightening historical moment.
However, the most disturbing aspects of the the changes currently engulfing the planet are certainly the “feedback loops” which have been triggered by the increased temperatures. Arctic permafrost is melting, releasing plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon; Arctic sea ice is at 29% of its previous density, causing oceans to absorb more heat and sea levels to rise; drought conditions in the forests of the Amazon and Siberia are causing these traditional carbon sinks to release more carbon than they absorb. Some scientists have referred to these feedback phenomena as a “death spiral.”
Despite the extremely dire nature of the problem we face as a species, there does remain a brief window of time for us act to contain the spiraling chaos. As a student of history, you are of course aware that upon the entry of the United States into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced to the nation that we would have to begin to produce domestically tanks and other heavy artillery of war within six months. At the time of President Roosevelt’s announcement, the US possessed no such capacity and most of the public thought him mad. Within six months, the automobile plants of the nation had been converted to tank-producing facilities and the US became capable of acting to prevent the spread of fascism. President John F. Kennedy’s proclamation that we would put a man on the moon by decade’s close was met with similar derision and incredulity. In both cases, “the impossible” became manifest.
What is at stake now is literally everything. To take just one example among many, if the rising oceanic acidity deprives phytoplankton of their ability to survive, we lose an organism which produces 50% of the oxygen we breathe. The list of such threats that seem to be conjured from a dystopian science fiction novel is, unfortunately, voluminous. And so, as a citizen of this republic, I ask you, President Barack Hussein Obama, to chart for us a new and radical course that may transform our nation to a carbon neutral land – the “impossible” made manifest. Through a fierce and radical commitment to transitioning to local-based communities and economies that depend on a tiny fraction of the energy currently consumed, through a transformation of American manufacturing to serve exclusively the production of sustainable energy technology and retro fitting for low energy use dwellings, through the establishment of a new Civilian Conservation Corps, whose mission would be the planting of trees and forests to grow our carbon sinks exponentially, and finally through the acknowledgement that the age of global industrial markets has brought our planet to the breaking point and has run its course. This letter focuses on the cataclysms faced as a result of global warming and climate change; however, suffice to say that the leaking at the Fukushima reactor, the collapse of fisheries to 5 or 10% of their pre-Industrial Revolution levels, and the fact that 200 species a day are going extinct all point to the need for urgent and radical systemic change. An American culture and economy that is local and land-based and that does not poison our home is now the only available choice if we are to survive as a species.
Strangely, we find ourselves at the Zero Hour. Why now? Why is it you, President Obama, who finds himself in the position of power at this moment? I believe it is because your life has prepared you to be the one who can face this challenge with clarity, force, vision and leadership, just as President Roosevelt was the right man at that previous dark, dark hour. I ask you to marshall all of your considerable strength to this calling.
Sincerely,
Dan Hanrahan
Baltimore, MD
(1) Brahic, Catherine. “Climate Change’s Psychological Milestone.” http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_scientist/2013/06/carbon_dioxide_at_400_parts_per_million_the_keeling_curve_milestone_measurement.html
(2) Borestein, Seth. “Weather Extremes Tied to Jet Stream Changes.” http://www.wunderground.com/news/heat-wave-alaska-jet-stream-may-be-blame-20130625
