Joe Biden is taking heat after his comment in the last presidential debate about the need to “transition away from fossil fuels.” Trump seized on the moment, saying that will be very interesting for voters in Texas and Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, all big oil producers. Trump has gone on to hammer away at the statement in his rallies.

However, what this says is that Trump is woefully ignorant about climate change. Trump has undoubtedly been presented scientific information about the climate crisis, but like many other issues of significant consequence, he has chosen to ignore it.

The statement may have been more than Biden intended to say in the debate, but the statement is in fact prophetic. Any scientific projection of the climate and its impact on our lives makes it clear that we as a nation and as a globe must transition away from the use of fossil fuels, and the sooner the better.

If we are not willing to move away from burning oil and gas and coal, and transition to renewable energy sources, we will bring an end to life as we know it for our children and grandchildren. As a species we will survive, but there will be fewer of us and the quality of life will be significantly diminished. This is no longer a scientific debate and it certainly should not be a political chess piece.

Trump has repeatedly questioned and even denied the climate crisis, and as he has done with so many crucial issues, he has turned it into a test of loyalty. “You can follow the scientists or you can follow me.” How dangerous and how shortsighted.

One type of denial used by Trump and others is to ignore climate science and instead focus on the weather, like Senator Inhofe who brought a snowball to the Senate chamber and wondered how it could be snowing during the warmest year on record. How sad. The average global temperature is not the problem. That’s the warning signal. The consequences of the temperature rise are what matter.

Trump rails against the Green New Deal, an aggressive plan to address the climate crisis within the next few years. Biden has not endorsed the plan, but I suspect he knows we as a nation are not ready for it. We do not yet have the courage to fully embrace what science says is thundering toward us, nor do we have the will to do what is necessary to slow it down.

As a nation we are like characters in a horror movie ignoring all the obvious warning signs, and instead walking foolishly into the danger. We have been getting warning signs since 1972 when the world’s governments gathered in Stockholm to address the growing environmental threat. The US essentially ignored the agreements that came from that gathering as well as three treaties written 20 years later in a UN meeting in Rio de Janeiro when the warnings were even more dire. Not until the Paris climate agreement did the US agree to collaborate with 196 other nations to take the necessary steps to slow the threat to our planet. Then, of course, President Trump terminated our collaboration with the rest of the world. Again, how dangerous and shortsighted. Fortunately, several states and major corporations continue to abide by the guidelines of the Paris agreement despite the Trump administration.

I want to take the warning signs seriously, but like most people, I don’t want to disrupt my life in order to make the kinds of changes necessary. Also, as only one person with a small network of friends, I often feel helpless with only a limited amount I can do. This will take a big effort, a national and global effort.

Until we have a president and a congress willing to collaborate with business and industry to make the needed changes, we will continue to careen toward disaster. Until we “transition” from fossil fuels, we will continue to exacerbate the problem and speed up the ominous consequences. Our politics will have to become something more than a means for getting and retaining power, business and industry will have to focus on something more than profit for the shareholder, and we as a nation will have to humbly say to the rest of the world, “We need each other for this.”

Biden is right. We must begin the transition. Now. Many of us may not live to see the disastrous consequences if we don’t, but our children will.

This article was printed in the Abilene Reporter News, November 1, 2020