Marin Clean Energy: Why Now?

Everyone has heard about the dangers of global climate change. The world’s best scientists agree that it’s a gathering threat which we are already seeing — in California fires and midwest floods, in droughts and coastal erosion from rising seas, in more horrific hurricanes and tornadoes, in heat waves and melting glaciers and in loss of species undermining the stability of the entire ecosystem.

Here’s the good news: Marin Clean Energy presents the most effective opportunity for our community to have an impact on civilization’s greatest challenge: the climate crisis.

We know you would like to be able to do something positive in the fight against dangerous climate change. Since Marin county has one of the heaviest global warming footprints in the world, we have an even greater responsibility and opportunity to have an impact. You have heard about changing your light bulbs, driving less, getting a fuel efficient vehicle, shopping for locally grown food, recycling, insulating your home, unplugging your appliances when not in use, consuming less, and other important personal actions that you can and should take.

But did you know that the positive environmental impact of Marin Clean Energy dwarfs all of these personal actions many times over? By switching to renewable, carbon-free electricity, the citizens of Marin County can reduce their impact on the environment over ten times more than all the personal actions they could take individually.

Why is Marin Clean Energy so important now?

Scientists have been warning about dangerous climate change for over 20 years. They have been warning that humans’ burning of fossil fuel, which releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, impairs the atmosphere’s ability to shed excess heat. This causes warming both of the air and the oceans, threatening to push Earth’s climate to extremes last seen millions of years ago and never before experienced by human civilization.

In response, citizens and many corporations have done a great deal to improve their energy efficiency, saving large amounts of money and carbon emissions. Many elected leaders are working to find solutions to this complex challenge. But still we haven’t done enough.

Last September, scientists studying the arctic polar ice cap were stunned by the extent of the meltdown. (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/) Climate consequences that they had warned to be decades or even centuries away suddenly appear to be much closer that predicted.

Dangerous climate change is no longer future tense. The time for urgent action is now. Climate scientists are telling us we have no more than a decade before runaway changes take over. In other words, this is serious. It’s a planetary emergency. It may feel like it’s unfolding in slo-mo, but actually it’s happening very, very quickly, and we must respond -- quickly!

Governments and corporations generally act slowly and cautiously. But nature doesn’t wait for deliberations or election cycles and is telling us very clearly that we must quickly halt and reverse the carbon binge that has fueled civilization for the past 200 years -- or we, our children and theirs will pay for our inaction.

Fortunately, we have all the technology we need to get started today. What is needed is the will to act. It’s time for the second industrial revolution. Modern civilization must free itself from the dirty fuels of the 18th century or risk destroying the very basis for its existence: the relatively stable climate of the last 10,000 years.

As we think globally, we must act locally. Marin Clean Energy is a bold, visionary step towards the clean, more secure energy future that will be in place sooner or later. Given the dire facts, why not sooner? It’s a project that every citizen of Marin can take pride in. Other communities are also working towards the same goal. The San Joaquin Valley, as well as San Francisco City and County are well along with their CCA implementation plans, and a number of other California communities have begun the process.

Marin Clean Energy is both a local solution to the clean energy future, and a model for other regions of our state to follow.

Now it’s our turn to lead.