Ingenuity, activism best hopes for climate

The news from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change isn’t great. It is too late to stop these and other dire consequences of global warming, the panel says in its latest assessment report, and we need to focus on how we will adapt to what’s coming as much as we focus on mitigating the impact.

The report was unveiled April 6 in Belgium, and additional details were released Tuesday in a series of briefings around the world.

While many other reports have focused on slowing down or even stopping global warming, this report, the second of four to be released by the IPCC this year, focuses on adaptation. Yes, the global community needs to work together to protect and preserve our world, but we also must work together to find ways to live in it as it changes. Governments and communities and individuals need to prepare for disasters. Health-care workers need to be ready for disease outbreaks and mass-casualty situations. Policymakers need to plan for the worst. And the rest of us? We need to stay informed, do what we can to make a difference, and hope for the best _ even when the prognosis is grim.

As long as people are imagining better ways of doing things, there is hope.

And sometimes, nothing motivates people to apply their ingenuity more than the promise of money and fame. Remember the Ansari X Prize? In October 2004, the X Prize Foundation awarded $10 million to the first team to build a privately owned craft that could fly in space.

Now, the nonprofit educational organization is holding another multi-million-dollar competition: the Automotive X Prize, for a clean, super-efficient car with a fuel economy equivalent to at least 100 miles per gallon. It can’t be a concept car; it has to be a real vehicle that manufacturers want to make and people want to buy. In draft guidelines released last week, the foundation says the goal of the contest is "to inspire a new generation of super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change."

There will be two categories: Mainstream, for cars with four or more passengers and wheels, and Alternative, for cars with at least two passengers and any number of wheels. Fuel sources will include gas, diesel, biodiesel, electricity, natural gas and E85. In addition to meeting fuel economy and emissions standards, cars will be judged on manufacturability, marketability, safety, durability and performance. The competition will culminate in 2009 with two long-distance stage races that reflect real-world driving, including city driving, commuting, hills and varied weather conditions.

Will a car that gets 100 miles per gallon solve the problem of global warming? Of course not. But it could help, and if it also reduces our dependence on oil, all the better.[an error occurred while processing this directive]

As long as people care enough to make their voices heard, there is hope.

Today, people all over the country will join in a National Day of Climate Action, billed by organizers as "the largest day of citizen action focusing on global warming in our nation’s history." More than 1,000 Step It Up campaign events are planned across the country, including several in the area. The purpose of the campaign is to ask Congress to enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions and pledge an 80 percent reduction by 2050.

In Oneonta, events are planned on and around Main Street throughout Saturday, including a bicycle parade, educational fair, rally and conference, plus a movie and discussion at the Teen Center on Academy Street in the evening. In Cherry Valley, there will be a hike to the overlook on Mount Independence.

In Andes, there will be a conference titled "Rural Life in the Catskills: A Forum on Food, Water and Wood for the Future." And in Cobleskill, there will be a vigil at the corner of Union and Main streets.

It’s hard to be pessimistic when people _ not organizers or activists or politicians, but regular people who you might see at work or the grocery store or your child’s school _ are getting involved at the grass-roots level.

When people truly believe they can make a difference with their voices and their votes and their small, everyday actions, there is reason to dream that the world could not only come through this crisis, but become a better place.

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Lisa Miller is a freelance writer who lives in Oneonta. She can be reached at lisamiller44@hotmail.com.