This year is set to be either the second hottest or the hottest year on record. San Francisco and a considerable swath of the rest of California, home to the world’s fifth largest economy, had opaque red skies at mid-day this month as a result of the wildfires raging there. Someone cut a video of drone footage with the “Blade Runner” film score and it was hard to believe that this was real life. One of my agency’s clients, a small, artisan winery, lost all of this year’s grape harvest to smoke damage. The two states north of California, Washington and Oregon, are battling their own out of control and life-threatening fires that have killed 35 people and that number is rising (“The West is burning and Trump doesn’t care,” Sept. 15).
As I wrote this, two Atlantic hurricanes were bearing down to batter the Gulf States of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Another one was set to batter Bermuda.
Meanwhile, our country still leads the world in COVID-19 cases as the battle with this pandemic rages on, just as the wildfires do, and hurricanes and worsening seasonal flooding, along with atypical tornadoes and — guess what? Scientists say that climate change has and will increase the possibility of future and additional deadly pandemics. In just the past 50 years, animal biodiversity has decreased by 70%.
On top of that, in this pandemic year, many people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic shut-downs. In July, I participated in training to become a climate reality leader, learning from former Vice President Al Gore (via Zoom) and many other experts and architects of a more sustainable future. It was then, in the course of doing one of the seminar assignments, that I was reminded that in May of 2019, The Maryland Clean Energy Jobs Act passed to become law without support of Gov. Larry Hogan. The bill’s intent is to create tens of thousands of clean energy jobs while growing the network of clean energy available to Marylanders. The legislation mandates that 50% of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2030.
The bill will vastly grow Maryland’s solar economy and wind based offshore power resources. The bill was supported by more than 640 community, labor, faith and environmental groups across Maryland.
The passing of this bill puts Maryland in a group of only nine states (including Hawaii, California and New Jersey), with renewable standards at 50% or higher.
So there it is — a bill that is currently in place here in our very own state to provide both very badly-needed jobs and to transition to clean energy (which with the current technology has actually become less expensive than petroleum or coal-based energy). One of the two-pronged solutions to put Marylanders to work and to increase our state’s capability for clean energy are already in place.
But there has been little news on this initiative since it was passed in 2019. Why isn’t this bill part of a more comprehensive recovery plan for the state?
On a larger scale, a Green New Deal for the United States that would create jobs and stimulate the economy post-COVID-19 would lay a road map for a cleaner, more sustainable future. We must encourage all candidates running for office to make climate change a main topic of discussion. Without taking serious and intentional steps toward mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss, our future could make 2020, in retrospect, look like “not that bad of a year."
Beth Bell, Baltimore
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