provided to The Santiva Chronicle
Ariel Hoover, a former instructor at Tufts University in Boston, Mass., in special programs and public school teacher, will give a presentation on climate change perils and solutions at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 21, at The Sanibel Community House, 2173 Periwinkle Way. Hoover currently serves as the chair of the Lee County Chapter of Climate Reality, educating the county about climate change issues and solutions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) came out with its latest report on Feb. 28, written by 270 researchers. They warned climate change may be warming the planet now faster than we can adapt. We already knew from earlier scientists we can’t have an increase of more than two to three degrees Celsius if we want a livable planet, and we are already up to 1.5C. Our current trajectory puts us squarely on track to warm between two and three degrees C this century if we don’t make changes soon.
We are already seeing devastating storms, droughts and sea level rise. Between 2010 and 2020, droughts, floods and storms killed 15 times as many people in highly vulnerable countries in Africa and Asia than in the wealthiest countries, making climate change a social justice and health issue as well. We know, for example, that coastal sea level will rise about a foot or more by 2050. Since Sanibel is surrounded by water that is rising, and rise that can be further exacerbated by storm surge, we must bring down our CO2 emissions, and begin to plan for this on all levels: municipal, individuals and homeowner associations, as well as regionally, nationally and internationally! We have to address the elephant in the room: fossil fuel use! We have solutions already such as electric cars and buses; solar panels; wind power; alternatives to plastic; sustainable agriculture; eating a plant-based diet, as well as planting lots of trees. Now we just need to do them with intention on a global scale.
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