Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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S<br />
218 postscript: a disclosure<br />
ei<strong>the</strong>r Tennessee or Arkansas without getting his feet wet. Water <strong>to</strong><br />
cool power plants stressed by high demands for air-conditioning<br />
was in short supply. Driving across <strong>the</strong> Midwest in August, I read<br />
newspaper s<strong>to</strong>ries <strong>of</strong> shootings over trivial arguments in which<br />
heat was said <strong>to</strong> be a fac<strong>to</strong>r. Scientist James Hansen testifi ed <strong>to</strong><br />
Congress that summer, saying that <strong>the</strong> nation was seeing <strong>the</strong> fi rst<br />
tangible evidence <strong>of</strong> <strong>climate</strong> change. Climate skeptics greeted his<br />
testimony with scorn, but fewer do <strong>to</strong>day.<br />
No one can say with certainty that <strong>the</strong> summer <strong>of</strong> 1980, or that<br />
<strong>of</strong> 1988, or <strong>the</strong> recent droughts in <strong>the</strong> Sou<strong>the</strong>ast or Southwest, or<br />
Katrina, or <strong>the</strong> fl oods in Iowa in 2008, or any number <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
wea<strong>the</strong>r events are <strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> anthropogenic <strong>climate</strong> change.<br />
But <strong>the</strong> odds that <strong>the</strong>y are rise with each increment <strong>of</strong> temperature<br />
increase, and <strong>the</strong>y are certainly consistent with what can be<br />
expected in years <strong>to</strong> come.<br />
After <strong>the</strong> summer <strong>of</strong> 1980, <strong>climate</strong> change was important <strong>to</strong> me,<br />
not because I’d thought a great deal about it in an air-conditioned<br />
<strong>of</strong>fi ce but because I had fi rst felt it viscerally and somatically. My<br />
interest did not begin with any abstract intellectual process or<br />
deep thinking but ra<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> felt experience <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> thing, or<br />
what <strong>the</strong> thing will be like. That summer is recorded both mentally<br />
and bodily in memories <strong>of</strong> extreme heat with no respite.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> summer <strong>of</strong> 1988 our organization, <strong>the</strong> Meadowcreek<br />
Project, Inc., sponsored <strong>the</strong> fi rst conference ever on <strong>the</strong> future <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
banking industry in a hotter world. Then-Governor Bill Clin<strong>to</strong>n<br />
cosponsored <strong>the</strong> event, which included bankers from Arkansas,<br />
Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma and <strong>climate</strong> scientists such as<br />
Stephen Schneider and George Woodwell and energy expert<br />
Amory Lovins. The point <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> event was <strong>to</strong> advocate changes<br />
in banking practices <strong>to</strong> minimize <strong>climate</strong> effects and encourage<br />
lenders <strong>to</strong> recognize <strong>the</strong>ir self-interest in avoiding loans for energy<br />
ineffi cient projects. One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> bankers, Bill Bowen, said that “if<br />
half <strong>of</strong> what I’ve heard is correct, what I’m doing is criminal.”<br />
I responded by saying something <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> effect that more than half