Is it Time for a Matriot Act?

22 Oct Is it Time for a Matriot Act?

Yesterday (Oct 21) the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Council released a report stating that the climate crisis poses a national security threat. While this isn’t a new realization, what is new is bringing this idea more prominently into public awareness.

The reasons are many. Global tensions between countries will increase, as some nations are more deeply impacted by climate, while others continue to contribute to its causes. Hotter countries closer to the equator and those affected by fires and floods will produce increased climate refugees (climagees) pouring into countries that don’t have room to accommodate them. Dwindling resources of land, food, and water, as well as the minerals necessary for solar panels and batteries will increase competition over goods. Some of these scarcities can lead to failed states in the most volatile areas of the world.

Last time we had a major threat to national security, the government passed the USA Patriot Act. This act, initially enacted after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, allocated unseemly amounts of money and stripped many of our civil liberties in a nationwide campaign against terrorism. One could argue whether or not it was moral or successful, but the point I want to make here is that when we perceive a threat, resources can be commanded to address it.

The “Patriot Act” was originally estimated to cost taxpayers $40 billion, with the actual cost far exceeding that estimate. (Taxpayers were not allowed to vote on this issue.) What could a similar investment do to ensure ecological conservation, energy efficiency, and a green economy?

The threat to the biosphere through climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution of the air, land, and sea is not only a national security threat but a global one. It is a threat to the future well-being of humanity, along with at least a million other species threatened with extinction. This threat to Mother Earth requires an equal amount of attention, research, money, and strategic planning to defend against it.

I suggest that the citizens of America propose an alternative USA MATRIOT ACT, collectively created, for the purpose of protecting the climate, the biosphere, and our essential natural resources from environmental collapse.

The USA Patriot Act stood for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.

I suggest that the USA Matriot Act can be an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening All by Making Alternative Tools Ready to Invest in Our Transformation.

A transformation of how we live is indeed necessary. The economy and job market can prosper with green jobs to retool transportation and city buildings, build and install solar farms, creating not only an economic boost but a vast improvement in the quality of life through greening our cities, restoring the oceans, and cleaning our air (worldwide deaths from air pollution per year exceed that of the entire pandemic).

Paul Hawken in his epic new book, Regeneration: Solving the Climate Crisis in one Generation, states that it would cost each person $1 per day to “completely rid the U.S. economy of fossil fuels and operate it on renewable energy.” (p. 153). A few pages later he reports that the banking industry has invested $3.8 trillion in oil and gas since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015, more than enough to retrofit every building in America to be a zero-waste structure, with the energy saved exceeding the fossil fuel investment by a factor of ten.

Climate change is not an enemy to shoot at with guns and bombs but a global threat that is imploring us to cooperate, collaborate, and innovate. Its solutions, rather than a sacrifice, make life better for us all in every way. Cleaner air, greener cities, quieter electric cars, healthier farming practices, increased wilderness protection – these are all side benefits to addressing the climate crisis.

Paul Hawken suggests, with exquisite scientific detail, how the earth regenerates when allowed to do so, with countless carbon fixing ecosystems that can draw down our carbon while we work to eliminate carbon emissions.  We can do this, but it’s going to take a major act of congress to implement these policies.

A Matriot Act could spell this out. Isn’t it time we gave something back to our mother?

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