Verde Laguna: Turning lights off — and hope on

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”

— Margaret Mead

Earth Hour started in Sydney in 2007 when 2.2 million homes and business turned their lights off for one hour, to make a stand against climate change. This year more than 1 billion people in more than 100 countries participated in this magic act that, with the blink of an eye, turned lights off from the Great Pyramids in Egypt, to the Acropolis in Athens, St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican and Big Ben in London.

So did people and landmarks in the United States from the East to the West coasts. This was done as a global call to action to every individual and every community to stand up and take responsibility toward a sustainable future.

Why? Because we have a short time before runaway climate change becomes almost inevitable and unstoppable. What does this mean for Laguna Beach? You can go from a simple scene published in the Los Angeles Times on April 2 reporting that the sand at Treasure Island Beach has disappeared, leaving just a rugged landscape of rocks. A scene that can be found all over Southern California beaches where powerful winter storms have swept away a spectacular amount of sand. The ocean may bring some back, but it’s hard to believe there will be enough to eliminate the need for the wooden stairway that has been built to cover an 8-foot gap to the shoreline at the Montage.

Shoreline retreat is occurring along most coasts, where sea levels are projected to rise by 28 to 58 centimeters due to ocean expansion and glacier melt by the end of the century. This will worsen coastal flooding and erosion even further.

Related impacts to climate change in our region had already increased the temperature roughly 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit compared with 1960 to 1980 measures. And by the end of the century, it is projected to rise about 4 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit above historical records. A warmer and drier future means that extra care will be needed; for instance, water is projected to become increasingly scarce.

Today even under normal conditions the Colorado River does not have enough water to meet demand, and the other water suppliers are unable to deliver as expected. The fact is that our water supply is diminishing, at the same time the state suffers floods and droughts. Droughts years have become a long-standing feature of our lives, a process that has been exacerbated by record warming.

Increasing temperatures, droughts and reduction of soil moisture are accelerating the transformation of our landscape.

“The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded by an unprecedented combination of climate changes and associated disturbances (flooding, drought, wildfire, ocean acidification and other global change drivers).” Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

There are studies indicating that in California two-thirds of the more than 5,500 native plant species are projected to experience range reductions up to 80% before the end of the century under projected warming. Over the last years we have seen a rapid transformation, due to vegetation die-off and increase of wildfires that reduces flood-buffering capacity, and then floods. Changes in precipitation and temperature also lead to changes in runoff, which is projected to increase by 10% to 40% by mid-century.

The studies consider both natural and anthropogenic drives of climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions due to human activities have grown since pre-industrial times, with an increase of 70% from 1970 to 2004.

Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased as a result of human activities, and today far exceed pre-industrial levels. The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in 2005 exceed by far the range of the last 650,000 years. There are no doubts that global increases in carbon dioxide concentrations are due primarily to fossil fuel use, and it is likely that the increases in methane and nitrous oxide concentration are predominantly due to agriculture.

Models for the next two decades are projecting a warming of about 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade. In addition to carbon dioxide heat, the trapping effect increase in the atmosphere is gradually acidifying the oceans. The absorption of carbon dioxide results in a decrease in ocean’s PH. This decline that began with the industrial era is projected to increase by 2100 if nothing changes. The consequence: decline in marine life.

There is agreement that with current mitigation policies, green house gas emissions will continue to grow over the next few decades. Projections are that even at current rates, the impact of climate change on the 21st century are likely be larger than those observed during the last 100 years.

I am not pretending this article covers all bases, but instead make a call to our society to take responsibility to respond to climate change. Responding to climate change involves a process that includes both mitigation and adaptation.

Both can complement each other and together can significantly reduce the risks of climate change. The macro-economic costs of mitigation generally can be high, but not higher than the cost of inaction that may be a catastrophic future. Therefore delay is not an option.

At the end, what counts is the message of awareness that has been spread all over the globe, as more people join the effort.

GUSTAVO GRAD is a Laguna Beach resident and certified sustainable building advisor. He can be reached at [email protected].