Shall we be optimistic or pessimistic? It depends on what we and concerned people throughout the world do to put a lid on climate change. Heat over 90° is pretty dangerous, especially to those who must work outside; but just think, in the worst scenario below by the end of the century, of over 160 days a year of temperatures over 90°… up to and including over 105°!
Chart from Chester County Climate Action Plan draft – 2021, page 69:
We keep hearing that climate change and so many other problems are reaching a “tipping point,” that is, the time when even a small extra burden precipitates a disaster.
Think of the vital bridge that collapsed recently in Genoa: at that instant, one more car drove onto the structure or one more little cable rusted through, and that was it.
Climate scientists tell us that if the Arctic ice melts and the permafrost thaws, so much more heat will be absorbed by the open water and so much more methane will be released to the atmosphere that nothing we do after that will make much difference.
September 8 is designed as a national turning point, when so much public attention focuses on fossil fuels and other energy and environment issues that office-holders in our democracy realize that the time has come to act, or else. We need to turn back from the tipping point!
This is why it is so vital for you to join many co-sponsoring groups here in Chester County.
So be at the historic Court House on Saturday Sept. 8, 2 p.m.! See details in our environment calendar above.
See the overall rationale for the national movement here from 350.org.
Chester County Environment Alliance 