We woke up to a new reality in Ithaca and Tompkins County this week. Smoke from hundreds of wildfires in Canada filled the air, carried south by the jet stream. We’re used to complaining about the gray weather in the Finger Lakes, but this was different. The sky turned yellow, brown, and orange, casting an apocalyptic-like glow across our much-loved landscape, and temperatures dropped rapidly as the sun dimmed.
Schools canceled outdoor activities, the public health department urged people to stay indoors, and masks put away after the COVID pandemic were retrieved. This wasn’t supposed to happen here. We thought we were spared the awful consequences of wildfires spreading destruction, fear, and even death. We thought these kinds of events were confined to the West, not something we had to worry about in verdant upstate New York
Quebec wildfire in June.
We found out this week, however, that smoke doesn’t respect national borders and far-flung catastrophes thousands of miles away can have a terrible impact on our community here. The planet, it turns out, is a small place.
“As Smoke Darkens the Sky, the Future Becomes Clear” — that was the headline of David Wallace-Wells’ New York Times column on Wednesday. The lesson is a simple one: as the planet heats up, the fuel for wildfire dries out, waiting to burst into flames. Wallace-Wells recounts a recent interview with John Vaillant, author of “Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World,” in which he observes ominously that “Fire isn’t going away. We’re going to be burning for this entire century.”
Understanding that we are entering a new epoch, what fire historian Stephen Pyne calls “the pyrocene,” brings new urgency to the task of building electrification and decarbonization. We need to renew our commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Ithaca and Tompkins County and work to make the future less harrowing for the generations to come.
This smoke-filled week has also underscored the importance of getting our elected officials to take action on the key climate and energy issues before them. It’s been especially frustrating to watch the current legislative session in Albany wind down as many crucial bills remain stuck in committee. This is especially true in the General Assembly, where the leadership has sat on legislation that would clearly pass if sent to the floor.
There have been some significant victories, among them the All-Electric Building Act, the nation’s first ban on the use of fossil fuels in new construction, and the Build Public Renewables Act, which will expand the development of publicly-produced clean energy. Furthermore, a dangerous effort to water down the state’s landmark climate law was defeated.
But it remains to be seen if the Senate-approved NY HEAT Act, which would end subsidized gas hookups and reduce utility bills for low- and middle-income families, will be acted on in the waning hours of the General Assembly session. In addition, efforts to end at least some of the $1.4 billion annual tax subsidies for fossil fuels, reduce plastic packaging, divest the state teachers’ pension fund from fossil fuels, make climate polluters pay for the ongoing environmental damage they have caused, and provide protections for environmental justice communities languish in the wings. It is a mixed record at best.
As Philip Kennicott reminds us in yesterday’s Washington Post, “change is possible” and “the world doesn’t need to be this way.” In his words, “The tools we need to reverse climate change are already here, and perhaps even better ones will emerge.” Clearly, the time to put these tools to work is now.
The AEBA would have required all new buildings starting in 2024 to be constructed using only electric appliances for heating, cooking, hot water, and drying clothes; in 2027, the standard would have applied to taller buildings as well.
Rebooting the Future 