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Thing 1 and Thing 2 Two rarely discussed Climate change actions that could help bend the curve. [1]

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Date: 2023-10-07  

I continue to be increasingly alarmed about the climate chaos that seems to be accelerating nearly unchecked. It reminds me of the movie “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” where in a New York subway train is hijacked for money and after the hijackers leave the train, they override the dead mans switch so it continues to pick up speed, barreling towards a certain bad end unless and until automatic override safety measures kick in. In the case of the climate, it has been hijacked by the fossil fuel industry (primarily), they are holding us all hostage while the temperature rises. In this case however, there are no automatic safety switches to shut this process off- other than earth will eventually start over if we don’t act now.

While it is vitally important that we do all we can to reduce the use of fossil fuels to get back control of the runaway train, there are at least two things that I notice are rarely discussed as actions that can be helpful. They may not be the biggest things, but that does not make them unimportant.

Thing 1: Promote more telecommuting. This does reduce fossil fuel use. Even those of us who’ve taken the step of driving an EV are still chewing up tires (EVs are heavier) and adding to traffic. For what? To sit in Zoom meetings we could have participated in at home? Some jobs involve dealing with people in person, fine, but when that is not a requirement, we ought to incentivize telecommuting.

Thing 2: End the commercial tobacco industry. Tobacco not only kills 480,000 (CDC) people in the US each year; its global toll is around 8 million premature deaths (WHO). The death toll doesn’t stop there. Substantial forest land is cut down to grow tobacco, especially in developing countries. Farmland that once grew crops is sometimes converted to tobacco growing and tobacco companies persuade farmers to switch crops. In countries where there are food shortages. Really.

Trees are also cut down for the paper used to roll cigarettes. Toxic chemicals are used as pesticides and fertilizers which then run into waterways.

Cigarette butts are the number 1 item found littered on beaches. The filters, which are entirely unnecessary, are not biodegradable. The filters are made of cellulose acetate which degrades slowly into microplastics. They contain all the toxins you find in cigarettes: nicotine, formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, cyanide, acetone and a list of other carcinogens and toxins too long to mention.

E-cigarettes are no better. They produce e-waste. They also require lithium which might better be used to manufacture EVs.

Some countries, such as New Zealand, have gotten serious about ending tobacco use, passing a law that will prohibit the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 2009. Cities like Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach have banned the sale of cigarettes entirely. There are any number of other measures that can be taken to reduce commercial tobacco’s toll on all of us. Any of us can participate in a community’s efforts to reduce tobacco sales or usage in public.

I’ve included a couple of links for more information. I do not work for either of these organizations, though I do work for a county health department on reducing tobacco use and head a different nonprofit dedicated to reducing secondhand smoke exposure.

These organizations have good information if you want to follow up for more details.

https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/harmful-effects-tobacco/tobacco-and-environment

https://ash.org/paths-to-zero/

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