[ [link removed]{{user.id}}&utm_source=alert&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=email&t=1008&tkd=6503928&akid=13313%2E6503928%2ESty0R9 ]DONATE
[ NRDC ]NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)
Dear NRDC Activist,
The winter storms that barreled through Texas and other states last week
are another devastating wake-up call: The climate crisis is here, and we
are not prepared.
As snow fell and temperatures dropped below zero in Texas, more than 4
million people lost power, and nearly 15 million have lacked safe water.
Families were burning whatever they could find to keep their children from
freezing; heating rocks over fire pits to take inside for warmth; dying
from carbon monoxide fumes after leaving cars running for heat; and
risking contracting COVID-19 by gathering in makeshift shelters rather
than freezing at home.
Low-income communities, Black people, and Latinos in the state have
suffered most, in yet another manifestation of the environmental injustice
that inflicts the greatest harm on the most vulnerable people.
[ [link removed] ]The climate crisis is here.
[ [link removed] ]Learn more about the devastating impacts communities are facing in
Texas — and how you can help — on NRDC's Instagram.
What's happening in Texas is part of a larger story about the mounting
costs and widening dangers of climate change. Here's what you need to
know:
* While it might seem counterintuitive, scientists see a strong link
between the harsh winter temperatures and the warming of the planet.
Higher temperatures are disrupting the jet stream, allowing arctic air
to make its way farther and faster southward than normal, bringing icy
temperatures that can make winter storms more devastating.
* Climate-busting fossil fuels were to blame for the vast majority of
power outages in the state. About 80 percent of the power outages in
Texas were caused by systems that rely on gas, coal, or uranium, which
provide about three-fourths of the state's electricity. [ [link removed] ]Read more.
* Texas gets about a quarter of its electricity from wind turbines.
While some turbines froze last week, when properly equipped, wind
turbines perform well in cold temperatures, as they do in Canada,
Sweden, and for that matter, Iowa.
* The extreme cold and power outages froze and burst water pipes and
shut down water treatment systems, leaving millions of people without
safe drinking water. This latest tragic example reveals once again a
disastrous lack of preparedness to deal with drinking water
emergencies in the United States. The same thing has happened over and
over in recent decades — in Louisiana, Puerto Rico, California, Ohio,
and elsewhere — after hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other
disasters, with low-income communities and communities of color
hardest hit. [ [link removed] ]Read more.
* The outages also caused a tremendous spike in health-harming,
climate-warming air pollution. With no power, oil refineries along the
Gulf Coast burned gas to prevent damage from taking place in their
processing units, sending thousands of tons of dangerous pollution
into the atmosphere. In Houston last week, energy facilities burned
off over 703,000 pounds of pollutants like carbon monoxide, benzene,
hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide.
This disaster underscores the need for the U.S. to invest even more in
clean and reliable renewable energy and to prepare our energy and water
infrastructure for the effects of climate change. We know we need to cut
our use of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas in half by 2030, and stop
adding more carbon pollution to the atmosphere altogether by 2050, to
avert the worst of raging wildfires, floods, storms, and, yes, frigid
blasts of arctic air, going forward.
To prevent massive power failures and resulting devastation to vulnerable
communities in the future, we must also invest in a smarter, more
resilient electric grid in Texas and across the country that can withstand
the extreme weather fueled by climate change.
In addition, states' repeated failure to ensure access to safe drinking
water during emergencies proves that our water infrastructure is not
equipped to withstand the impacts of climate change, and current emergency
response plans are inadequate. We need a massive, systemic overhaul.
President Biden has committed to combating climate change, improving
America's infrastructure, growing our clean energy economy, and ensuring
clean and safe drinking water for all. Last week's storms demonstrate yet
again the urgency of that work.
We need systems that are built to survive severe weather — including
hurricanes, flooding, and winter storms — and that have the flexibility to
deliver additional power when demand spikes due to heat waves and arctic
blasts. We have the technology to do it — now we need to put it into
action.
[ [link removed] ]Read more about the devastation in Texas, what it means for our climate
future, and how you can help, in my blog post on NRDC.org.
Thank you for fighting alongside us for a just transition to clean energy
and a safer, healthier, and better future.
Sincerely,
[1]Mitch
Mitch Bernard
President, NRDC
[2]Mitch
The mission of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is to
safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural
systems on which all life depends.
[1]Charity Navigator
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
