How sad that Connecticut, a supposedly progressive state could not get the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) to a vote.
As a 47-year-old adult, I am simply appalled how our generation has failed the call for the last 30 years to wake up to a simple fact that our western style consumer society is finally at the verge of causing a planetary collapse. We are, and I include myself in this, failing our children with our narcissistic pursuits cowardly acting as though it’s normal to have hellish wildfires and extreme weather disasters on a daily basis.
According to the NASA website climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/, 97% percent of climate scientists who actively publish articles in peer reviewed journals agree that humans are the primary cause of the climate crisis. But what does the Connecticut General Assembly and Gov. Ned Lamont do with that information? They pass marijuana legalization and pat themselves that Philip Morris, a known promoter of cancer, is moving from New York City to Fairfield County bringing some 200 jobs. Where is the moral leadership?
I would like to direct this particularly at Senate President Martin Loony for failing future generations of Connecticut by his complete lack of understanding on the science of the climate and buying the Republican talking points that this is a tax. You should have acted on behalf of the disenfranchised instead of protecting the powerful gas lobby! If you truly understood the science, you would have brought this up for a vote. You could have rallied your colleagues and treated this most pressing emergency with the urgency and moral leadership that is required.
The way this bill arose was to charge the suppliers, not the consumers. The money from this fund would have gone back and fixed the inequalities which equate to higher asthma rates, lack of public transit and urban congestion. This would have also helped to promote green jobs that can help simultaneously grow our economy and help to revitalize our urban areas.
And regarding the science, the United Nations Scientists say we have less than a decade to get the climate crisis under control before it’s catastrophic though many already consider it catastrophic. If we also consider the permafrost located in our polar regions that store mass quantities of carbon dioxide and methane, a much more ominous gas that is being released due to the cycle of warming, it truly may be too late. But does that give us the adults an excuse not to at least try and leave the planet habitable for future generations? We are all going to face our own demise, do we act like sane rational adults, or do we act like cowards?
Finally, I would like to ask my Republican brethren with a humble and genuine plea to please study the science from peer reviewed data not promoted from the fossil fuel lobby, and think of your family. The Democrats have proven to be incompetent and most climate activists would not waste their time by asking you to even think about this subject. I disagree though.
If we have any chance of acting with moral leadership on this most existential issue, we will need serious, thoughtful dialogue from both political parties. You need to come back to the pragmatic days of William Buckley when being a conservative didn’t mean having to buy into the anti-science freak show that passes as the Republican party today.
Joseph Hoydilla lives in Middletown.