A sunny, pleasant day in Humboldt
County. Sitting in my easy chair in my
living room, a warm fire in the stove, sipping a cup of coffee, and working on
my laptop. Pretty normal, except there
is no electricity in all of Humboldt County, as we'll as most of Northern
California, since PG&E has cut the transmission of power due to the risk
their high-voltage lines might have in igniting fires in the vast rural
mountains through which the grid runs. That decision will hopefully spur the
much needed and serious discussion about climate change. The debate up to now has been mainly about
whether human’s use of fossil fuels is responsible for changes in the global
atmosphere, producing changes in local climate and weather. Many key points have been and are being left
out of the dialogue with regards to understanding when/how/where that change
is, and what are the impacts of that process.
Climate Change is no one thing, but a continuous set of very complex
natural processes, affecting our oceans, the various layers of the atmosphere,
land forms, water and moisture…virtually everything in the inter-relationships
of what we call our global environment.
I recall the old adage “does the flapping of the wings of a butterfly in
the Amazon affect me here in Humboldt County?”
So, let’s assume today’s
predicament is due to global warming. I
drove through Mckinleyville this morning.
Stoplights not working, but somebody had gone out and put up little stop
signs on those little sawhorses. Drivers
were courteous. Everything else was
quiet. CVS was closed and the parking
lot was empty, as were almost every other business in town. All the gas stations were empty, and their
signs advertising $4+ gasoline were dark. The United flight came overhead,
heading to unload its passengers to a dark empty terminal. I drove on into Arcata…the same thing…the
shopping center with CVS and Safeway was empty.
The plaza was void of cars and people.
Los Bagels was open, selling bagels and pastries backed yesterday at
their dark, unlit counter space. Again,
pretty empty and quiet. The happening
place in the area was Toni’s! Packed
parking lot…which is saying a lot…serving food in their unlit space. I didn’t go in to see if they were fully up
and running with a generator or not; but with what money she made today, she
could go out and buy a pretty upscale backup generator system. The mail was delivered, as was the
SF Chronicle, and our hard-wired
landline worked, as did our well phones.
No internet.
What are the ramifications and impacts
of all of this? Emergency services have
back-up, and functioned as usual. I have
a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at 3pm, set up months ago. I drove by the office, and of course they
were dark and closed. I guess if there
were a real emergency, one could get help.
But what stuns me is the so many impacts on just about
everybody…employees called off work, business owners losing sales and business,
those people dependent on the internet for their work being down, folks with
electric cars not being able to charged and go anywhere, and just the general
inconvenience of daily life…hot shower, basic heat (I had both wood stoves
going), inability to cook food and losing food in the refrigerator (I fired up
our generator for a bit to keep the refrigerator and freezer up to snuff),
basic lighting (we have many battery powered lanterns which we use at the
cabin), and for some, no TV!!! I don’t
know what is going on because no internet and news…but we do have our cell phones
and battery radios to sort of keep in touch.
We are used to this because we have our cabin, which has no electricity
or cell service, but everything else, except a flush toilet! We’ve also backpacked and camped out a lot
so it is not really an issue. A lot of
people have no experience with this. My
sister-in-law doesn’t have running water from well when there is no
electricity. So many people have to figure it out…they are on their own.
And then put this in perspective
in the big picture…we still have our house and everything…what about the
victims of hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, extreme snow and rain, drought and
extreme heat…they are also on their own, and many have lost everything. Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Florida, North
Carolina, Louisiana, Texas…Climate change?
What about the rest of the world?
Water, food, employment, energy, migrant displacement…all severely
impacted by climate change. But the most
important point nobody is emphasizing (not the media, the `political
candidates, people in general) is that this is now, and the science says the
weather extremes will continue to get more and more severe. This is much more than rising sea level,
melting glaciers, 2 degrees rise in temperature, etc. Most important is understanding the
interconnectedness of everything, and the enormous future impacts on not just
our environment and all the species living in it, but the economic, social,
political, technological, and moral impacts on not only us and our children,
but on all future generations. Pretty
amazing!!!!!
************************************************************
Here we are, six days later, and
the shit has hit the fan! Everyone is
outraged at the audacity of PG&E…how they handled this whole affair. Starting at the top…PG&E is in bankruptcy
because its transmission line failed and started several of the multi-billion- dollar
fires over the last few years. Instead
of focusing major efforts to upgrade and protect the power lines, the top
management at the time spent billions lobbying and giving huge dividends to its
stockholders. Those executives are
gone…with their million dollar severance and retirement packages, with no
liability for what they created. The new
executives wanted additional bonuses so they can be encouraged to do more than
what their million dollar a year jobs require.
They basically ignored the ratepayers, and didn’t really care about the
various impacts their decisions had on people and communities who had to go
without power. Very bad decisions were
made, and those in charge are saying they are doing the best they can, that
upgrades cost too much money, things can’t be done in time, etc, etc. At least they are not denying that the
changing climate is impacting the weather in California…more dry forests and
grasslands, stronger winds, hotter fires, etc, as well as the fact that our infrastructure…the
grid, is outmoded and in terrible shape.
I can go on and on about corporate power vs. the people, about the quest
for more and more money and profit, etc.
Here is another example to put alongside health care, prescription
drugs, military spending, education, environmental protection, and climate
change.
There are solutions…not easy or
cheap, but a part of the new “green deal” which features local renewables used
locally in small microgrids, along with energy efficiency and smart
technology. The Blue Lake Rancheria, a
band of Native
Americans has worked closely with
HSU and other entities to create such a microgrid…solar and other renewable
technologies, energy storage, and smart deployment all worked very well in Blue
Lake. Their gas station and market were
open to meet the needs of local essential demand, their casino/hotel
accommodated the elderly and people with specific needs, communications
remained intact, and the community was a small bright island in a sea of
darkness. The same folks at the Schatz
Lab a t HSU are building a similar microgram in McKinleyville at the airport,
and are planning others throughout the county.
Local resources meeting the needs of community when power is affected by
flooding, earthquakes, fires, or other events we often endure here on the North
Coast.
San Francisco has been wanting to
buy the PG&E poles, wires, transformers, etc., but the utility claims that
would remove a large segment of their ratepayers, and they could not function
without those dollars. I think what we
will see down the road is the breakup of the mega-giant utility into many
small, local, and manageable entities.
All this is, of course, very political, and the big money players will do
all they can to prevent loss of huge profits from the generation, distribution,
and ultimate selling of electricity.
Renewables, small is beautiful, no nukes, local cooperatives, power for
the people, not profit…all those things that we’ve been saying for years may
soon be on their way.
