JUNE 8, 2007- Solaris hill
It’s a Green,Green, Green,Green World
by Nancy Klingener
What a difference 11 months make. On June 30 of last year, I wrote a big take-out in Solares Hill on global warming, the threat it poses for the Florida Keys, and the notable lack of local interest in the issue.
The issue was timed to coincide with the showing of “An Inconvenient Truth” at the Tropic. It included lots of information I consider hair-raising: the fact that tide gauges show Key West harbor has risen a foot in the last century, the fact that pine rocklands, already squeezed out by development, now face the added threat of groundwater salinization from rising seawater.
And of course, the damage that hot water does to the coral reef, besieged by bleaching and disease. Scientists are still debating whether warmer seas lead to stronger hurricanes, but it’s definitely a debate that matters to us.
I chased down old studies and talked to people who pay attention to such matters. According to some of the nation’s leading environmentalists on this topic, the Florida Keys are ground zero for global warming.
When the paper hit the streets, I waited totourism-industrial complex’s Enemy No. 1. Or maybe there would be a response from public officials, who might realize that fights over parking spots and tattoo parlors are, compared to this issue, minuscule potatoes. A few people said nice things about the issue but the reaction was, for the most part, a big nothingburger.
It’s a different world now. Not only is the Bush Administration (!) talking about ways to limit carbon emissions, but the state of Florida is acknowledging and facing the issue (CFO Alex Sink, in a Leadership Monroe graduation speech at Hawk’s Cay, called the Keys “ground zero”). The state has created a Web site with information on the issue, www.floridaclimatechange. com. Keys Energy Services recently passed a resolution to consider climate change in all its future actions. And just this week, Florida’s Public Service Commission rejected an application from Florida Power & Light to build a coal plant at the edge of the Everglades.
The credit, I suppose, goes partly to Al Gore, whose movie penetrated the popular consciousness in a way that environmental groups and scientists had failed. I imagine the Bush administration’s plummeting popularity, and therefore influence, also helped. The new Democratic-controlled Congress has been taking the issue on. Locally, most of the credit goes to ordinary citizens like the folks from the Green Living Energy Expo (GLEE) whose annual event was a blockbuster, and Jody Smith-Williams, who organized a green energy film festival at the Tropic Cinema.
Jody asked me to moderate a panel discussion as a finale to the film festival. I agreed, but figured it would be attended by a half-dozen of the usual suspects. I was wrong. The Carper Theater was mostly full and we had an interesting discussion that drew from a variety of people.
Which isn’t to say we’re any better off when it comes to global warming. As Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy put it at a recent Sanctuary Advisory Council meeting, our carbon dioxide levels are higher today than they were yesterday, and they’ll be higher tomorrow than they are today. The needle is still going in the wrong direction. I’m not driving a hybrid and I’m still running the air conditioner in my house.
The next challenge is for the good folks at GLEE and elsewhere — who are entitled to a good long rest, but won’t get it — is to translate the new public awareness and support into real action. The village of Islamorada is getting energy- saving light bulbs. We all should, especially big companies and public agencies. The city of Key West buys vehicles like it’s going out of style. They should be hybrids, or at least the most eco-friendly models available.
Yes, we are a tiny community and our actions will not make a real difference in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But we have a real opportunity to lead here, to show other communities on the front lines how to cope with our new warm world. It could even become a selling point in our tourist industry — come visit Florida’s greenest island, stay at ecofriendly hotels, figure out how to have a carbon-neutral vacation.
Reading and talking about climate change can be a depressing, if not terrifying experience. It’s nice to feel hope for a change.