1965, the year I was born.
"This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through . . . a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”
-President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, in a Special Message to the U.S. Congress, 8 February 1965.
1988, the year I graduated from college.
"The Earth is warmer in 1988 than at any time in the history of instrumental measurements. There is only a 1 percent chance of an accidental warming of this magnitude.... The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now."
-Climate Scientist James Hansen, NASA, testifying to the U.S. Congress, 28 June 1988
1991, the year I gave birth to my daughter.
“Global warming is not yet certain, but many think that to wait for final proof would be irresponsible. Action now is seen as the only safe insurance.”
-Royal Dutch Shell, in their film “Climate of Concern”, 1991
Royal Dutch Shell Oil company produced and publicly distributed a 28-minute film called “Climate of Concern,” warning of the realities and dangers from increasing manmade greenhouse gas emissions. Nonetheless, after the production of this film, Shell Oil company did nothing to heed its own warnings about the dangers of burning fossil fuels; instead, the company joined lobbying groups that campaigned to mislead the public about global warming and consistently participated in efforts to thwart climate change mitigation legislation and regulation. The film can be viewed on Youtube.
2001, the year I designed my first super-insulated, passive solar home.
“Concentration of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, have increased substantially since the beginning of the industrial revolution. And the National Academy of Sciences indicate that the increase is due in large part to human activity. … The policy challenge is to act in a serious and sensible way, given the limits of our knowledge. While scientific uncertainties remain, we can begin now to address the factors that contribute to climate change. … Our country, the United States, is the world’s largest emitter of manmade greenhouse gases. … This is a challenge that requires a 100 percent effort; ours, and the rest of the world’s.”
-President George W. Bush, in a public press release, 11 June 2001
2007, the year I attended “Heating Up the Energy Debate,” the 43rd Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College as a chaperone to my daughter’s high school physics class.
Speakers James Hansen (then NASA chief climate scientist) and Stephen Chu (then head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) warn that time is running out. They say we have perhaps a decade to make massive changes in order to reduce CO2 emissions and global warming, or we will face consequences that cause devastating harm, changing the climate and life as we know it.
“The right rallying call is for a “Green New Deal.” The New Deal was not built on a magic bullet, but on a broad range of programs and industrial projects to revitalize America.”
-New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, 7 January 2007, “A Warning from the Garden”
2007, the year Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
"This is not a partisan issue, this is a moral issue. And our children are going to be demanding this."
-Former Vice-President Al Gore, addressing a joint Congressional hearing on climate change, 21 March 2007
2009, the year my daughter graduated high school.
“[The climate crisis] is the most daunting problem human beings have ever faced … Finally this year it looks like there will be a serious effort by Congress to put a cap on the amount of carbon going into the atmosphere.”
-Bill McKibben, co-founder 350.org, speaking at the Center for American Progress, 14 April 2009
2014, the year my daughter graduated college.
“ … climate change isn’t an issue, it’s a message. It is a message, telling us that our system is failing, that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the way we’re organizing our economy and thinking about our place on the planet.”
-Naomi Klein, author of “This Changes Everything,” 22 September 2014
2018, the year I left my architectural practice to focus on the compounding and intersecting issues of climate change, injustice and inequity.
“Our goal is to treat Climate Change like the serious, existential threat it is by drafting an ambitious solution on the scale necessary - aka a Green New Deal - to get it done.”
-Representative-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in a tweet, 13 December 2018
2019, the year I attended the Climate Reality Project Leadership Corps training (and millions around the world participate in climate strikes and ongoing climate justice activism).
“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
-Activist Greta Thunberg, addressing the United Nations, 23 September 2019
“The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity (IPCC 2019).”
-William Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas Newsome, Phoebe Barnard, William Moomaw and 11,258 scientist signatories, BioScience, 5 November 2019
In my lifetime, the growing threat of climate change caused by human-induced greenhouse gas emissions has become an existential crisis. For decades people have publicly sounded the alarm, but their warnings have been ignored, dismissed, trivialized or denied. We are now experiencing widespread destruction of life as we know it. The planet may soon be uninhabitable for much of humanity—if not all. It is unconscionable that those with the power to do so still fail to act in accordance with what must be done to save our home.
Time is running out. Please speak, act and vote as if our lives depend upon it.
My daughter and her friend, October 2007, attending a lecture about climate change at the 43rd Nobel Conference.