You and I have not only heard of climate change. We’re sick of news of yet another record-breaking high temperature, or wildfire, or flood, or hurricane, somewhere in the world. If it’s almost unbearable to us, at the rate that climate is changing, likely it’ll be worse for our children and grandchildren. So let’s give them a climate Christmas present.
This one comes as a challenge to our legislators in Augusta to make a New Year’s resolution for 2024 and beyond. That has already been done in California by Sen. Cortese with his SR-34, earlier this year passed by the California Senate. People there are now getting busy with the tasks necessary to see it through.
Peter Garrett of Winslow, in his leadership role of the Maine chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby travels to Washington, D.C. to advocate for bipartisan solutions to climate change. He is often lauded as one of the most effective bipartisan lobbyists in the country. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
So, here’s a suggested version of a Maine Climate Restoration Resolution that you could copy and send to your senator and/or representative in the Maine Legislature. Don’t be shy. This is a present for your future family and theirs, a climate future for everyone.
WHEREAS, Humanity has an obligation to future generations to restore and maintain a safe climate that ensures long-term survival; and
WHEREAS, The human species has never before lived with a sustained atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration above 300 parts per million (ppm); and
WHEREAS, Today’s atmospheric CO2 concentration is approximately 420 ppm, 40 percent higher than in preindustrial times, resulting in serious and worsening impacts on climate, agriculture and business; and
WHEREAS, The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 stated that the ultimate objective of the convention was to achieve “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”; and
WHEREAS, At that time, the atmospheric CO2 concentration was 350 ppm, which is the maximum level theorized to sustain the ecosystems to which humanity is adapted; and
WHEREAS, “Climate Restoration” refers to the climate change goal and associated actions to restore atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to historic levels in which humans have survived long term; and
WHEREAS, Restoring the atmospheric CO2 concentration to a safe level, below 300 ppm, will require removing approximately 1 trillion tons of legacy CO2 from the atmosphere; and
WHEREAS, Nature has removed roughly 1 trillion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere 10 times in the last 1 million years, with two of nature’s major methods for removing geologic amounts of atmospheric CO2 being photosynthesis in the ocean and by forming limestone; and
WHEREAS, Scientists and technologists have developed and demonstrated methods, including ways to replicate and accelerate these natural processes, that have the potential to be implemented and scaled; and
WHEREAS, Climate justice requires climate restoration because low-income communities are the first and most impacted by climate change; and
WHEREAS, Climate restoration will benefit the people of the State of Maine by reducing losses and damage from wildfires, while producing positive effects on human and ecosystem health, industry and jobs in agriculture and other sectors; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of Maine, that the Senate formally recognizes the obligation to future generations to restore a safe climate, and declares climate restoration, along with achieving net-zero and net-negative CO2 emissions, a climate policy priority; and be it further resolved that the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, while calling on the Bureau of Air Quality to engage necessary federal entities as appropriate to urge the United States Ambassador to the United Nations to propose a climate treaty that would restore and stabilize greenhouse gas levels as our common climate goal.
If each of you cut out this article and passed it on to your legislators, whether or not you voted for them in the 2022 election, it could make a big difference. A difference not just with the words, but with the actions that will surely follow.
May it make for many Merry Christmases for all.
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