Can we get it together?
A self-described optimist, University of New Hampshire professor Barrett Rock nonetheless says, “I think it’s going to take some sort of a [global warming] catastrophe to get people’s attention and especially the government’s attention. We need to get the Senate and Congress and the White House on the same page. Unless you legislate these things, the average American is going to think, ‘It is getting warmer, but we have up to 100 years to worry about it and to make some changes.’ We’ve got to take action sooner than when it’s so hot that Providence is gone, and New York is gone, and we’ve got to start making those decisions today.”

Rock recalls being in graduate school when the first Clean Air Act was being debated in Congress in the early ’70s, and how the auto industry predicted dire impacts from the mandate to reduce sulfur emissions. Within three months, the catalytic converted was invented, enabling a doubling of the sulfur reduction required by the act. Citing this example, Rock says, “Legislation will drive innovation. “I know we can beat this, but we somehow have to get people’s attention.”

Certainly, Americans’ dislike for rising gas prices holds the promise of changing behavior. Rock notes how he gets 50 mpg, instead of 15, since switching from a Ford Explorer to a Toyota Prius.

One linchpin is the extent to which big business decides to change course and adopt a new paradigm regarding energy use. Paul Beaudette of Warwick, a national board member of the National Wildlife Foundation, says British Petroleum has emerged as the biggest maker of solar panels, and that Wal-Mart, because of cost impacts, is trying to figure out how to run its stores in a more ecologically sound fashion. A tremendous problem is still posed, though, by how other corporations, including mainstays of the energy business, are more invested, he says, in perpetuating the view that global warming is a myth, rather than adapting to a changing world.

Environmentalist Greg Gerritt, a stalwart of the Rhode Island Green Party, points to how the parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased to 380, from 270, since the pre-industrial era, and how a PPM of 450 would be expected to speed the process of global warming. Since the PPM is growing by increments of two or three a year, he notes, “It’s not very far down the road to be at 450.”

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Considering this, the short-term recommendations of environmentalists are “really not enough to stop the release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and certainly not enough to reduce it,” Gerritt says. He believes a 75 percent reduction is necessary to make a significant difference, “but there’s nobody in policy positions — not even that many people among the advocates yet — who say that needs to be our goal.”

So it goes, as even in the nation’s smallest state, drivers contribute to global warming while racking up a collective estimate of about 23 million miles a day.

Transportation is the largest source of global warming pollution in New England, constituting more than one-third of the region’s releases of carbon dioxide, according to a report by RIPIRG and the Clean Water Fund. Even more worrisome, the report found that such emissions have been growing for decades and are expected to continue if trends toward more vehicle travel and less fuel-efficient vehicles continue.

As the Rhode Island Climate Action Project, the two groups continue to advocate for stronger measures to curb global warming, working as part of a coalition of more than 90 groups, sometimes spreading the message by knocking on doors across the state.

“People are starting to realize global warming is the environmental issue for the next 50 years,” says RIPIRG’s Matt Auten, who has taken part in such efforts. With many more people having come around in the last 10 years, he says, “There is a growing consensus around the problem and the need for action.”

Auten, who also counts himself as an optimist, thinks Rhode Islanders will become more engaged on the issue as they notice thinner ice on ponds in winter and other evidence of a warmer planet. Still, he says, “If we can’t get our elected officials in the political system to do the easy steps, we’re never going to take the bolder steps.”

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Ian Donnis: idonnis@thephoenix.com