Column: Climate change requires shared sacrifice

For hundreds of thousands of years, we humans have been looking beyond our own selves to make sacrifices to improve the lives of our children.

Today, as a society, we can improve the lives of our children — and future generations — by making sacrifices that mitigate the effects of climate change. However, powerful interests that benefit financially from the burning of fossil fuels will try to convince us not to make those sacrifices.

The Earth is a Goldilocks planet that is not too hot and not too cold. A very small temperature range is just right to support human life.

For example, an increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature of only half a degree Celsius in the past 20 years has caused wildfires, storms, droughts, floods and heat waves to be more frequent and more extreme. When it comes to climate change, small global temperature differences have enormous effects.

Climate change is largely caused by greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas, and it stays in the atmosphere for 300 to 1,000 years, according to NASA.

What we do now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will make the lives of our children better — as well as their children, and their children — for many generations to come.

We, as a society, are trying to control the emission of greenhouse gases. But much more needs to be done to keep Earth within the Goldilocks temperature range. In addition, we must realize that controlling climate change requires sacrifices.

A number of bills that mitigate climate change are expected to be introduced in the upcoming legislative session, including the following:

>> Carbon sequestration, which takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by, for example, planting trees and engaging in certain types of agricultural practices.

>> Climate Justice Action Plan to ensure an equitable transition away from fossil fuels.

>> Green constitutional amendment to create an individual right to a clean, healthy environment.

>> Visitor impact fee, which assesses a fee on tourists, with the revenue used for environmental purposes.

>> Carbon pricing to increase the tax on fossil fuels to discourage consumption. The various bills give some or all of the tax revenue back to people, which they can use for other expenses.

>> Decarbonizing electrical production and transportation, to shift these functions more quickly toward renewable energy sources.

These bills deserve to be passed, but the fossil fuel industry and its supporters are likely to oppose them. Any reduction in the burning of fossil fuels would reduce their collective bottom line, which they would rather maintain, even at the expense of the environment.

However, their public statements are more palatable. They say, for example, that legislation to mitigate climate change will be intrusive and pose difficulties for people. They hope that we will ignore the disastrous future that would result from their arguments, which would raise the Earth’s temperature beyond the Goldilocks range.

Instead, we should remind ourselves that we are not doing it for ourselves. For hundreds of thousands of years, we humans have been willing to make sacrifices to improve the lives of our children.

Conditions have changed, but it is still true. We are willing to work to create a livable environment for our children and for future generations.

John Kawamoto is a former legislative analyst and an advocate for a clean, healthy environment.