A call to action for the climate crisis

Russell Kilday-Hicks is a climate activist from San Francisco State University and vice president of the California State Employees Association. This is a letter he sent to fellow CSEA members.

Dear State Employee Colleagues,

Please allow me a few minutes of your time to call attention to the looming crisis for our children and grandchildren and point out a small action we can take together to tell the future we cared. It is time to use our collective power to address the insanity of short-term financial gain while slowly cooking the planet with catastrophic consequences for the future.

Of course it is always best to address any crisis at the root, but, while the political will is growing exponentially as awareness of the crisis increases around the world, we are still short of figuring out how to live completely without fossil fuels. In the meantime we need to stop the insanity of investing in the infrastructure that, if actually used, could put all of life at risk.

The overwhelming scientific evidence is piling up daily. There has been a shift from dire predictions of “in the next century” to “in the next 20 to 30 years.” Two recent scientific papers in the journals Science and Geophysical Research Letters as well as reports from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and NASA all point to mounting evidence of global change on a much sped-up timetable. Among the evidence in the NAS report are the polar vortex, forests devoured by infestations and historic fires, the sudden crash and disappearance of Arctic ice with rising sea levels of increasingly acidic water, and abnormally heavy rainfalls in Europe with serious water shortages in Australia, the Mid-East, and the U.S. Southwest and Mexico (especially including most of California).

The fossil fuel industry continues to have its collective heads in the sand in their self-serving denial of any crisis. Apparently, current and future profits are what is important, no matter the costs. Taking action to address this crisis is both a moral and financial imperative. Future profits in fossil fuel investments depend upon the continued “harvesting” of stored resources deep in the earth. Regardless of the monetary “value” of that energy, we cannot afford to burn it. The planet cannot afford it. Only when you “externalize” costs, push the consequences of burning that carbon onto the future, can you calculate “profit.” The most powerful industry in the world is telling us there is nothing to worry about, but even they are beginning to worry. Major economic players have weighed in here, including former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, and Bloomberg. As the economist Douglas Dowd says, you can’t have a healthy economy without a healthy environment.

CalPERS’ investments in the top 200 fossil fuel companies made with our retirement contributions amount to an estimated billion dollars. This is in our names, with our tacit permission. CalPERS’ current policy of “engagement,” asking corporations to voluntarily address the crisis, isn’t working. The companies that provide our nation’s energy need a wake up call. They need to be told that selling out our children’s future for today’s gain is unacceptable.

Let’s do what we can and join with increasing numbers sending the message that it is time to look at the larger picture, to consider the world we are leaving our grandchildren and their children’s children. Join with me in asking CalPERS to implement a full reinvestment policy away from fossil fuels and, over the next five years, to completely dis-invest all monies in fossil fuels and, instead, invest in sustainable alternatives: hydro, wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, etc.

We ignore the harsh reality of global catastrophic climate change at our peril. Morally, we cannot afford to continue pushing the costs of our ways onto the future. We are not asking to “give away the store”; this transition can be done in a financially responsible way so that our retirement funds can continue to be secure. Sign the petition now and then help spread the word. If all of us speak up now future generations will hear us. Peace.