Climate Column: The great unifier
NATASHA JULIANA
ARGUS-COURIER COLUMNIST
November 3, 2022
For decades, we’ve been told that talking about climate change is divisive and polarizing, a Thanksgiving dinner table taboo that’s better left untouched. What happens if we challenge that assumption and start getting curious?
Say your uncle loves fishing – what has he noticed out there on the river when it is low and warm? Maybe your brother is an avid skier – did he see that new study by Lawrence Berkeley Labs that predicts most of the snowpack could disappear from the Sierras in the next 25 years? If grandma retired to Florida – how has her community faired through this year’s intense hurricane season? If dad lives in the Sacramento Valley – is his house staying cool enough on those 112 degree days? Perhaps your niece is a birdwatcher – what stories can she tell you from the field?
“No matter what you love, it’s not going to get better if we can’t get better on climate,” shared Rev. Jason Hubbard with the United Church of Christ.
Unfortunately, there are loads of opportunities for heartfelt conversations about how the changing climate is directly impacting the people and places we love. If we take the discussion out of the world of political pundits and television talking heads and into our kitchen table chitchat, we might find we have more in common than we’ve been told.
The same goes for our long list of active local clubs with diverse focuses but a common interest in being of service to the community and contributing to a better future. Rebuilding Together Petaluma makes critical home repairs for neighbors in need, including energy and water efficiency measures which reduce utility bills. Petaluma Bounty is growing community food security by feeding people and regenerating soil. Releaf Petaluma wants to plant 10,000 trees, sequestering carbon and creating much needed shade and habitat. The United Anglers of Casa Grande High School has built a state-of-the-art conservation fish hatchery and rescued thousands of coho salmon and steelhead trout threatened by the drought.
All of these organizations, and so many more, are seeing their missions take on a whole new level of importance with the extreme weather fluctuations, cost of living increases, and ecosystem degradation associated with this historic moment. Ten years ago, we might not have recognized the connections across causes, but through the current lens of escalating climate change, they are now unified.
When we think about the work ahead, it can be entirely overwhelming. In the next decade, we are tasked with decarbonizing our energy supply, transforming our entire transportation system, improving all of our buildings, fixing our food system, reducing our consumption rates while cleaning up industry, and restoring ecological balance worldwide. I’m exhausted just writing it down.
But the funny thing about an issue that encompasses pretty much everything is that you can cultivate solutions in every arena. Everyone can participate in whatever capacity available to them and in whatever field interests them.
How will you use your power at this critical juncture? Now is the time to be brave enough to reach across the boundaries we’ve built and recognize climate change as the great unifier.
“One of the ways you can be powerful is to move this conversation into the passions of the people you know and disagree with,” encouraged Rev. Hubbard. “There is no way to succeed without uniting with the people you think are on the other side.”