This editorial first appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on November 7, 2021--

When a child isn’t going to bed on time, it disrupts the entire family. So the family — and no one else — has a responsibility to organize a solution.

When snowy streets aren’t being plowed, it disrupts the entire city. So the city — not individual families, but the city as a whole — has a responsibility to organize a solution.

When a group of people is being systematically disenfranchised, it disrupts the entire country. So the country — not individual families or cities or states, but the country as a whole — has a responsibility to organize a solution.

And when human industry is causing the world climate to change at an unprecedented rate, it disrupts the life of the entire planet, and so the planet — not individual cities or states or countries, but the planet as a whole — has a responsibility to organize a solution.

That is the task that will be taken up, or rather will be continued, at an international conference right here in Pittsburgh in September.

The conference is actually two intertwined events: a meeting of the Clean Energy Ministerial and the Mission Innovation summit.

But the upshot is that dozens of energy ministers, and other public- and private-sector leaders, from the most powerful countries in the world will descend on Pittsburgh to make global plans to transition away from carbon-emitting fossil fuels.

There’s a lot of skepticism about any big plans that are truly global in scope.

It can seem like the United States is giving up her sovereignty.

It can seem like non-elected global leaders are appointing themselves to micromanage regular people’s lives.

And it can seem like those most likely to be harmed by a massive transformation of the world economy, the global poor, will be left behind (and without a seat at the table), as always.

These aren’t irrational fears — especially that last one.

We would urge the summit participants to craft policies based not just on abstract data but on the real good of the real people whose lives they, for better or worse, hold in their hands.

That means foregrounding basic rights, justice and equity.

But at the same time, basic rights depend on having a habitable planet, and stewarding the planet well is part of our shared obligation in justice — not just to “the environment” in the abstract but to one another because we all share this environment.

Each generation’s relatively short time on Earth is not to be spent like a Viking raiding party, taking what we can and everybody else be damned; it’s to be spent more like a caretaker who inherits a great good from the past and is tasked with bringing that good into the future.

And in a time of global crisis, like it or not, that requires a global effort.

Pittsburgh should be honored to host one of the next important moments in organizing that effort — and to serve for world leaders as a good example, although far from a perfect one, of what a transformed economy can be.

(Reprinted from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.)

NewsClips:

-- PG/AP: Pittsburgh To Host 2022 Meeting Of World’s Energy Ministers

-- TribLive: Pittsburgh To Host Global Climate And Energy Meeting Next Year

-- NextPittsburgh: Pittsburgh Delegation Shares City’s Successes At UN Climate Summit In Glasgow

-- Inquirer Guest Essay: Climate Change Is Raising Energy Bills, Especially Among Those Who Can Least Afford It - Maryrose Myrtetus, Philadelphia Green Capital Corp; Clara Lyle, Penn’s Weitzman School of Design Master’s Candidate

-- LA Times Guest Essay: On The Climate Crisis, Delay Has Become The New Form Of Denial - Penn State Professor Michael Mann

-- MCall Guest Essay: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Will Haunt PA Long Into The Future - Republican Sen. Doug Mastriano [Who Tried Repeatedly To Overturn 2020 Election Results]

-- LancasterOnline Editorial: Must Continue Meaningful Action On Climate Change 

-- The Guardian: Half World’s Fossil Fuel Assets Could Become Worthless By 2036 In Net Zero Transition

-- The Guardian: Richest 1% Will Account For 16% Of Total CO2 Emissions By 2030

-- Financial Times: Finance Coalition Has Up To $130 Trillion In Funding Committed To Hitting Net Zero

Related Articles:

-- 18 Lancaster County Farms And Businesses Receive PA Solar Center Solar Energy Leadership Awards

-- 3 PA Universities Recognized In EPA’s Top 30 College & University List Of Green Power Users  [PaEN]

-- PA Interfaith Power & Light Holds Virtual Building Toward A Just Future Conference Focused On Climate Justice Nov. 14

-- DCNR Blog: Carbon Capture A Tool To Address Cause Of Climate Change

-- Guest Essay: Making Sense Of A Volatile Energy Market - By Ronald Fisher, Executive Director, The Energy Co-op

-- House Committee Meets Nov. 8 To Consider Resolution To Kill Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Regulation, Even Though Time For Action Has Expired

[Posted: November 7, 2021]

11/8/2021