This commentary is by Tyler J. McGuire, a member of the Class of 2025 at UVM Larner College of Medicine. Contributing to this column were Chellie Nayar and Stefie Geiger.
Like many kids who grew up in Vermont, I spent much of my time outside. My family camped with other families most summers. One of our favorite places was Island Pond, where we would walk the paths hooded by the forest’s branches and listen as the loons talked to each other with their eerie calls.
Since then, I have lived in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Southern California, attending college and serving a decade as a Marine, but medical school has finally brought me back home, where I hope to stay.
In many ways, Vermont hasn’t changed from my idyllic childhood memories, but I’m nervous it will.
In recent years, Vermont has not experienced the massive fires and widespread drought that we have seen in the western United States, or the deadly flash flooding we have seen in other parts of the country and internationally. The lack of extreme weather locally has lulled my level of alarm with so many other headline-grabbing events I tend to forget about the threat of climate change.
Then I see statistics indicating that by 2100 our climate in Vermont will be similar to that of Ohio or even Tennessee; or that from 2005 to 2017, the incidence of Lyme disease increased nearly 20-fold, according to the Vermont Department of Health.
I worry about the implications in Vermont when, according to the Nature Conservancy, sea levels in New York City will likely rise 1 to 3 feet by 2080 with storm surges as high as 15 feet and, according to The New York Times, sea-level rise will displace as many as 13 million coastal-residing Americans by 2060.
According to the United Nations Climate Report published on Feb. 28 and reported by NPR, among others, a child today who is likely to live to the year 2100 will experience extreme climate events such as floods, fires and storms at a rate four times greater than we experience today, which is already elevated.
If we allow the temperature to increase by more than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 Celsius), which at this point has a coin toss’s chance of happening, the world will see catastrophic long-term change as ice caps melt and many species go extinct.
Climate change on a global scale is an enormous public health problem. In addition to the uptick in trauma-inducing natural disasters, the World Health Organization reports that increasing temperatures will lead to higher rates of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hantavirus and hepatitis C, and potentially more viral pandemics.
The extreme swings in weather accompanying our warming climate will also hurt food production, causing widespread famine, especially in the poorest portions of our country and internationally.
Climate change is an intense and emotional issue, with ramifications in every aspect of life. In the words of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Gutierez, “Coal and other fossil fuels are choking humanity.”
The encouraging news is that scientists already know what we can do, on individual, community and global scales. Project Drawdown, a nonprofit organization, has conducted extensive research on climate solutions that can help us “draw down” greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and prevent further warming damage. They have shown that reaching this goal is possible, and the solutions — such as greener transportation and energy grids, protecting and restoring forests and wetlands, and better managing our food systems — are within our reach.
Here in Vermont, that translates to a mission for the coming year: Move forward on dramatically reducing the amount of fossil fuels we use. Put together, almost two-thirds of our total carbon pollution comes from the fuels we use in our vehicles and our buildings. The Transportation Innovation Act, the Clean Heat Standard, and the Environmental Justice bill, which are part of Vermont’s Climate Action Plan, all being considered by the Legislature, would dramatically address these challenges.
We have a historic budget surplus, a framework in the Vermont Climate Council (created by the Legislature in 2020) and attentive legislators. We are poised to make impactful strides in cutting climate pollution and investing in equitable energy solutions for our communities if we choose to.
By adopting these ideas, we have the opportunity to ensure this happens, so that our future generations will be able to enjoy Vermont’s natural wonders as I did growing up. We can reimagine the future of our state’s energy consumption and inspire other states to step up to the challenge.
We must convince our legislators that climate change is a priority and pass these bills; our health and the health of future generations depend on it.
