As hurricanes and tropical storms go, Irene wasn't the biggest or most powerful storm.
But, in the view of author and environmental activist Bill McKibben, Vermont had the misfortune of being at the receiving end of what became a catastrophic weather event of the type that climate scientists have warning us about.
“What's interesting about that storm is that it fits precisely with what the climatologists have been telling us to expect,” he said. “It was not an unbelievably powerful wind storm as it swept up the East Coast, but over the waters of New York and New Jersey it encountered record surface temperatures. This allowed it to soak up enormous amounts of moisture.”
Those enormous amounts of moisture - between 8 and 11 inches of rain in a matter of few hours - came down on Vermont when Irene arrived last Aug. 28. The result was widespread flooding that killed six people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
McKibben, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College, spoke to the Vermont House Natural Resources and Energy Committee last week at the Statehouse, where he told lawmakers that storms such as Irene are a direct result of a planet that has grown steadily warmer. Warmer air temperatures mean that more water evaporates in drier areas and then is deposited in wetter areas such as New England in record-breaking amounts, he pointed out.
McKibben has been leading protests against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from northwest Canada to the Texas coast, a project that climatologists say has the potential to quickly and permanently raise the planet's temperatures to uninhabitable levels.
While he acknowledged that the effects of climate change don't recognize national borders and state boundaries, he made it clear that every state can make a difference.
“Vermont, obviously, by itself cannot make this happen,” said McKibben. “By the same token, that argument is true for every single jurisdiction considering this stuff as well. Everyone has the excuse that by myself this will not make a huge difference. If everyone takes this excuse, then nothing will happen.”
“If some places are wise enough to take a leadership position, not only will they be setting themselves up more wisely for the century now dawning, they'll also at least be running the possibility of providing the example to others,” he continued.
McKibben urged Vermont lawmakers to do what their counterparts in Washington refuse - take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help prevent even more catastrophic storms from hitting Vermont - and he was quite blunt about what is needed.
“Make as rapid a transition as possible off of fossil fuel and on to something else,” he said. “There is no Plan B.”
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The Natural Resources and Energy Committee is working on a bill that would require Vermont's power companies to get more of their electricity from renewable sources. Given the disputes that have broken out around the state over the siting of large wind, solar, biomass, and hydroelectric energy projects, this ambition is easier said than done.
But, in the words of committee chair Rep. Tony Klein, “the most poorly sited renewable project is better than a new fossil-fuel [burning] plant.”
Once again, it is up to this state to lead the way on an issue of vital importance.
Vermont, and every other state, needs to focus on the bigger problem of climate change.
Now.