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January 23, 2009
We need to get ahead of climate change
By Brian Helmuth
It's not often that a biologist gets to interact with members of the Intelligence community, but in 2007 I
was fortunate to have attended a meeting in Washington, D.C., where one of the keynote speakers was
retired Adm. James Woolsey, former director of the CIA and under-secretary of the Navy.
Adm. Woolsey is not, by anyone's definition, a "warm and fuzzy environmentalist," yet the take-home
message from his speech was that global climate change is, or at least should be, among the nation's
top priorities. His arguments (as well as those of others) are straightforward, yet chilling in their
implications.
First, our dependence on foreign oil has obvious implications for our national security. Every time we fill
up our cars, heat our homes or purchase goods shipped from half-way around the world, we are
subsidizing countries that for the most part have, to put it mildly, "issues with the United States."
Second, a centralized power grid makes us vulnerable to acts of terrorism. In 2003 a fluctuation in the
power grid caused a massive blackout, affecting over 50 million people in the United States and
Canada. A far better solution is to have a decentralized, smart grid that will allow us to deploy and use
renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind. Such a system is far more difficult to disrupt, and
has the obvious benefit of not requiring the use of fossil fuels to power new generating plants.
Third, famine and disease lead to political unrest, which spreads throughout the world. The Pentagon
has taken an interest in climate change because environmental disasters breed civil war and terrorism.
As we all now know painfully well, what happens overseas very much affects us here at home.
We as a state and as a nation can no longer think within the narrow confines of our borders, and climate
change is among the best examples of this reality.
According to the South Carolina State Climatology office, the average temperature in our state has
increased approximately 1 degree Fahrenheit in the last 50 years and is almost certain to continue to
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rise. Of course there are a few specific locations where this is not true, but that is why experts prefer the
term "climate change" over "global warming" because we know global climate change is not a uniform
process.
The vast majority of locations around the globe, including those in South Carolina, have experienced
significant increases in temperature over the last 50-100 years. In some places in the Arctic,
temperatures have increased 6-9 F, increasing sea level worldwide (again, including South Carolina)
due to the melting of ice and the simple expansion of seawater as it warms.
In these nearly impossible economic times, it is of paramount importance to consider the security of
people's jobs. Moreover, none of the solutions to climate change will come rapidly. We are not going to
magically wean our addiction to coal and oil overnight. However, the longer we delay in breaking this
addiction, the deeper the hole we find ourselves in.
We cannot fix the problems of today by selling our future, and that of generations to come, down the
river. A continued reliance on fossil fuels such as coal and oil and a refusal to acknowledge the reality of
climate change do just that: They shift the burden from us to those 10 or 20 years in the future. As a
parent, I find that unacceptable.
We live in a time of crisis, but crisis can also breed opportunity for those who are willing to grasp it.
Companies and governments across the globe are preparing for a warmer world by creating and
deploying new technologies, reinventing transportation, and looking toward the future. In most cases,
these innovations save money, often even in the short term and almost always in the long term. Isn't it
about time that South Carolina got ahead of the curve?
Additional Facts
Dr. Brian Helmuth is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of
South Carolina. He can be reached at [email protected].
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