The world’s great challenge

The bad news is that the end of the world seems to be growing nearer. The good news is that a lot of good people are ready to join the fight to head it off.

The events of the past week have done wonders in creating awareness and even understanding of the potentially existential threat posed to life on earth by global warming.The incredible wildfires sweeping the western United States and Canada are having an unbelievable impact on the atmosphere.

Satellite imagery shows the smoke and fires are having a horrendous effect on the world’s upper atmosphere. The images seem to be sending the message that the end times may actually be knocking on our door. Let’s not open it.

The space-based photos suggest the atmosphere over much of the country is undergoing an incredible threat to its existence. So it’s time for the United States to take the lead in developing and helping finance a battle plan to fight global warming.

The events of the last week were unsettling and seem to indicate that the problem of global warming is not something coming in the future. It is here now, the world’s future is at stake and the threat against its people and creatures may indeed be existential. That means if we don’t solve the problem sometime in the next generation or so, the human race and life on earth could eventually be wiped out.

The causes of the problem are well-known to scientists. But the general public is slow to accept the reality that our impaired weather system could be dangerous for all living things.

That’s not surprising. The problem is complex, not easily understood and the likely cost of fixing it could scare many people and fire up the deniers.

One might hope that the threat to living things would bring out the best in us and encourage serious efforts to head off the problem. But the growth of groups like the anti-vaccination people who scoff at the pandemic threat suggests that making a serious effort to fend off the looming pollution threat will be difficult.

Billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos says the solution to the problem may be moving essential operations that present unavoidable problems to outer space. That may be true but such solutions seem unlikely to be possible anytime soon.

President Joe Biden has deemed the bipartisan infrastructure bill essential. But he also wants Congress to pass a separate $3.5 trillion budget initiative that includes climate change and social spending provisions that are anathema to many Republicans.

Biden is pushing for a 50 to 52 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2005. That is a worthy goal and perhaps achievable, but only if the world is willing to make a major commitment in that direction.

The United States is a major contributor to the air pollution problem but in many cases our contribution is indirect. That is, this country buys and consumes many products that are produced in other countries. But the main pollution problem comes at the other end of things, mostly thousands of miles from our borders.

Many of those countries are far less developed and reducing pollution there would be much harder than if the products were manufactured here. If such an effort were possible it would create many high-paying jobs and a sizable boost to our economy but carrying it off would require a huge and seemingly unlikely commitment of wealth, energy and other resources.

One example: over the next generation, if possible, the world should switch from gasoline and diesel engines to electric, both cars and trucks and, if possible, aircraft.

Heading off the looming disaster seems a stretch at the moment. It’s time for world leaders to get started on the problem. We’ve got to give it a try.

Tom Brennan is an Anchorage columnist and author of six books. He was a reporter/columnist for The Anchorage Times and an editor and columnist at The Voice of The Times.