The Greatest Environmental Game Changer-Global Warming

• Author: Franklin L. Kury
• Pages: 95-103

95

Chapter 11: The Greatest

Environmental Game

Changer—Global Warming

“Greenhouse gas emissions a re invisible, and the harm t hey do is global and

very long term, maki ng denial relatively easy.”1

When I ran for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1966, pol-

lution of the Susquehanna River and its tributaries was evident to everyone

who looked at the dark color of the water and the dead ish oating in the

river. It was easy to dramatize mine drainage pollution as a political issue

with a photograph that showed me holding a jar of water in each hand, one

with the dark mine dra inage polluted water from Shamokin Creek and the

other with clear water from our kitchen tap. (See photograph in Chapter 2).

e contrast was bold and the message it sent immediate. Everyone knew

that the pollution of the streams came from drainage from coal mines.

A candidate for oce in 2020 would have a much more dicult time

dramatizing t he impact of greenhouse gases, which are colorless and odor-

less. Holding two jars of air, one clear and the other with greenhouse gases,

would show no dierence in color and would not visually ala rm the reader.

It is true that the overwhelming body of cli mate scientists and academic

observers has concluded that climate cha nge is here and that it is an immi-

nent threat to our survival on planet Earth. ere is no doubt about the

science of climate change. e only doubt about climate change is whether

we have the will to take the politica l action necessary to stop it before it is

too late.

Since climate change has now become a political question rather than a

scientic one, this book will not chronicle scientic reports and studies that

document the existence of climate change. e climate change threat w ill be

dramatized t hrough the voices and eyes of people who are not climate change

scientists or academics, but who, through their work and their experiences,

have rsthand knowledge of the harm climate change is causing. e stories

they tell vividly dra matize the climate change crisis and the need for a politi-

1. Paul Krugman, Trump and His Grand Old Party of Pollution, N.Y. T, Nov. 15, 2019, at A-22.