Class News
29 classmates write about the biggest climate threat where they live
July 31, 2022
In his July 16 email to all classmates (here), Class Secretary Tony Lavely ’64 asked: “What is the #1 climate threat where you live?” Here are the responses, in the order they were received.
The inserted images are taken from the work of Anthony Leiserowitz, Director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. See his climate-opinion maps here.
Frank Basler: (Bridgeport, CT) We live in the South End of Bridgeport, 20-30 feet above sea level. The next big storm is likely to not only flood our basement but well into the first floor! I'm thinking it won't be safe to live here more than five more years. So, I am active in our local Fairfield County chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL), working for carbon tax and dividend legislation. Good question.
Larry Howe: (Highlands Ranch, CO) In Colorado, we’re on a 22-year drought, which greatly increases our wildfire risk across all spaces — the forests and grasslands of the mountain West. Not a surprise. Our cabin in Grand Lake, CO, missed the massive East Troublesome fire two years ago by about 1/8th of a mile, and we’re now watching for the risk of flooding and debris flow after each rain that slides off the burn scar. Fire is a natural event, true, but it is now stretched across almost 12 months each year due to warming, dry climate changes.
Dick Berk: (Philadelphia, PA) Hands down, the most visible climate change manifestation in the middle Atlantic states, and locally for me along the eastern N.J. and Maryland shore, is coastal flooding, especially during the more frequent and stronger hurricanes and nor’easters. Some people think they can beat the problem with better building codes and engineering. All the evidence says this is a losing strategy, especially in the long run. More human arrogance. P.S. The timing of your question is a symptom of the problem. I have attached an old (1999) paper of mine as an example.
Owen O’Donnell: (San Francisco, CA) I live in San Francisco, which has a unique position in California. We are on the coast and have water on three sides of us. Our #1 Climate Threat is probably a drought although our water supply is the best in California, because we rely on a huge dam which has flooded a valley as big as the valley in Yosemite. Our other threat is air quality from wildfires in other parts of California, especially when the wind is offshore and not the typical onshore wind. Over time our biggest threat will be sea rise, but it has not been a big issue yet.
Steve Klingelhofer: (Chestertown, MD) Thanks for another remarkable collection of Class of '64 correspondence. About the #1 impact of Climate Change, here on the Eastern Shore of MD, its undoubtedly rising waters, surrounded as we are by the Atlantic and the Chesapeake Bay. Diane and I live on the Chester River, affected by tidal waters. Over the past 20 years, the combination of ever-larger, more damaging storms and rising waters, we were forced to replace a dock with a much higher stronger one a couple of years ago. Historic places, like Harriet Tubman's birthplace south of us, near a major wildlife sanctuary in Dorchester County inland not far from the Bay, will likely be largely under water soon. And our seafood industry has been already severely affected.
Spike Forbes: (Sheridan, WY) I see the greatest threat as being much the same as with Covid: taking a one dimensional and narrow-minded approach to both the problem and to potential mitigation. The risk-reward calculus is complicated; very expensive or non-implementable strategies are probably not the best ones. Figuring out how to actually get behavioral change on a consequential scale is next to impossible. In the 80's, recycling was going to save the planet; lots of people recycle everything, as I do, but with more than 90% of it ending in landfills anyway, what's the point? Reducing the national speed limit to 50-55 mph would do more to help both emissions and fossil-fuel use than anything else, but it ain't gonna happen. EV usage, even if universal and affordable (neither of which is going to happen), just kicks the can down the road in terms of who gets hurt by the social and economic impacts — the overall BTU usage and fossil chemical usage are probably not much different. Mandating, per China's approach to things, only one vehicle per household would do vastly more. In the short run, as a Wyomingite, we are very tired of being the recipients of all of California's exported pollution, so other than the foregoing, CA in totality is probably the biggest climate threat I see.
Bob Hilgendorf: (Santa Fe, NM) I mentioned in our recent zoom event I said that I thought we should have a session in our reunion entitled "Can the Planet be saved, and if so how? " In my Harvard Magazine this week there was a blurb advertising the book, Unsustainable World by Peter N. Memetz, PHD '73. The subtitle of the book is "are we losing the battle to save our planet?" In the book he casts doubt and concludes that given "the narrowing path to sustainability (ie human survival), nothing less than an extraordinary coordinated effort" by civil society, business, and government can turn the tide. Grim subject, but if you could forward to our reunion planners for their consideration I would appreciate it. My own view is that without a strong UN or some kind of world governance body
(not going to happen in our lifetimes unfortunately) the lawlessness and self-interest of most countries will prevail over any common good. China's model of investment in world economies and infrastructure 
rather than arming the world as we do, is worth a hard look. That would also be my suggestion for a topic at our reunion.
Paul Ruden: (Washington, DC) What is the #1 climate threat where I live? The Republican Party.
Bam Alling: (Wilmington, NC) My unpopular response, which will undoubtedly be attacked by many, is "spending huge amounts of money trying to reverse a natural phenomenon." Money that would be better used on human suffering, addressing mental health, and reducing our national debt. Come on liberals, let's hear it!
Richard Peck: (Lakewood, OH) 
Living on Lake Erie, as I do, I’d have to say that pollution of one of the greatest bodies of fresh water on the planet is a concern. We have annual battles with toxic algae from farm runoff on the western shore, which shut down Toledo’s water system for some days a few years ago. Sailing through it, as I have, is to be exposed to the foulest smelling “green paint” imaginable. Next are the zebra snails that have infested here and there killing fish, and lurking are the Asian carp 
that have so far been contained to the Chicago area.
Bill Kridel: (New York, NY) Warm seas. Great Barrier Reef and the Belize Reef. Snowmelt on polar ice cap. Polar bears and seals and narwhals, etc. Heated air in the northeast corridor.
Rick Hatton: (Albuquerque, NM) 
The number one climate threat in much of the country is the warming spiral attributable to carbon emissions. In the west, a major CO2 contributor is the burning of trees by wildfire. Tree loss is a double contributor in that a tree has been a carbon collector during its life. Upon burning, it releases years of stored carbon, and then is no longer available to absorb CO2 and release O2. This is high-school chemistry, which is fortunately not required at Yale. While there are numerous arguments in favor of letting wildfires burn, the massive release of CO2-laden smoke and eliminating trees is not one of them, even where rural human density would permit.
Bill Manuel: (Houston, TX) Top climate threat for Houston: Right now, record heat has to be #1. "That [July] heat forecast comes on the heels of the hottest June on record, with the average temperature in the Houston-Galveston region at 86.7 degrees, above the previous high of 86.2 set in 2011. Across Texas, there were more than a dozen days in which temperatures hit triple-digits, breaking a previous record set in 2009." Close #2 February 2021 freeze and ERCOT power failure. More than half the homes on my street had burst pipes. Not #1 because of the human (government) error component. Close #3 Hurricane Harvey flooding in August 2017. The reservoirs built in the 1940s to protect Houston from major flooding were inadequate for the first time. Water had to be released at the peak of the event with major flooding along Buffalo Bayou. My subdivision was fine but about half the homes in the adjoining neighborhood flooded.
Don Van Doren: (Cerrillos, NM) I echo one of Gus Speth’s points. The number one issue causing climate change among many of our generation is apathy or weak support for the changes that are urgently required. SCOTUS has now made it more difficult for the Executive Branch to effect change. Therefore, the Legislative Branch needs to put laws in place that give appropriate, legal powers back to the Executive. This will take more than dollars to counter the millions spent on stifling the changes that are needed. It means commitment to electing members of Legislatures who will withstand those pressures and many, many informed voters who will continue to support them. 
A tall hurdle, but critical.
James G. R. Hart: (Colorado Springs, CO) Drought. Colorado and SW Wyoming crucial, primary water sources for most of water serving all SW trans-Mississippi states from Nebraska-Colorado-Utah-Nevada-southern California and south. Critical and depleted.
Neil Hoffmann: (Bryn Mawr, PA) So far, we have only been subjected to annual rising temperatures, ever more powerful winds and storm events causing down trees and power outages. People don't seem to relate these scary events to how much they drive their cars and how many airplane trips they take. Confirmed fantasy existence. The best thing that's happened to the country is $5 gasoline. Judging from the number of warnings we now get for tornadoes, that’s an increasing threat as well in our area.
Tony Thomson: (Norfolk, CT) One of the greatest positive events of my lifetime was the reforestation of New England — this brought back animal diversity — moose now roam NW Connecticut — so do mountain lions — trees make this possible. when I was a kid in New Hampshire, beaver were rare — now we have a beaver pond behind our house — bears raid our bird feeders (or did before we put up a galvanized steel bear pole) — bobcats help control woodchucks in our garden — these things are wonderful! but now we have lost the ash to the emerald ash borer — many hemlocks are sick — outside the woods our fields are full of Lyme disease ticks — these things are due to climate change — and I fear they are the tip of the iceberg — trees can't adjust fast or move — local insect eaters can't deal with the likes of the woolly adelgid on the hemlocks — who knows what will appear next?
Chas Freeman: (Bristol, RI) In response to your question about climate change, our family's remaining place on Poppasquash Point in Bristol, RI has water on three sides. In the water to our east, there are two boulders, one balanced on top of the other tens of thousands of years ago by a glacial moraine. My memories of where the high tide reached on the upper boulder begin seventy-five years ago, when I was four. Over the decades, the sea level has visibly risen about one foot and the rise is accelerating. In a decade or two, the peninsula at whose end we live will be an island. Sometime in the next century, it, along with much of the land around Narragansett Bay, will be submerged.
The increasingly powerful hurricanes that occasionally invade Rhode Island are accelerating the land's disappearance. My family has inhabited this place for centuries. We built our house for future generations to enjoy it as we have. 
But my great grandchildren will see it tumble into the bay. Nothing is forever.
Len Baker: (Palo Alto, CA) The biggest threats are misguided public policies and anti-capitalist narratives. The only way we will solve climate is to price carbon, trade credits over the widest possible domain, and harness market forces to allocate resources efficiently and incent innovation.
Bob Buchanan: (Potomac, MD) Flooding.
Roger Lewis: (Boca Grande, FL) The first snarky reaction to the number one climate threat is politicians. Their doom-mongering and demonization has not yielded a rational and effective policy. 
To quote Ban Ki Moon : “Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth ... these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women's empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.” But since you asked for a local Florida issue, my response would be plastics, ocean farming and reef restoration. Focusing on the biggie: plastics (Dustin Hoffman's road to riches in “The Graduate”) There are a wide variety of estimates as to the plastic in our oceans. Picking one, as of 2021, there are at least 363,762,732,605 pounds of plastic pollution in the world's oceans. Plastic has been found at 36,000 feet (approximately 11km) in the Mariana Trench, meaning not even the deepest part of the world's oceans can escape contamination. And most of the fish we eat have microplastic in their bodies. The higher the fish food chain the more plastic. So, sharks, grouper (a Florida staple) and tuna probably have the most plastic. And there is no policy to reduce our reliance on plastics from everyday use. For example, it is estimated 
that two million plastic bags are used worldwide every minute.
Butch Hetherington: (Hamden, CT) I think we have been lucky in CT with no significant climate change. Probably has been a little more flooding, heat, humidity, and brush fires.
Dick duPont: (Kennett Square, PA) 
I have a hard time seeing past the real issue — 9,000,000,000 humans occupying a tiny planet of fixed dimensions. You quoted, “all climate change is local.” To which I might reply, “yes, very much so — at first.” But later, when frequent tsunamis break upon all our coastlines, more than just the barrier reefs and beaches are impacted. Moreover, if we look back sixty-six million years to the asteroid strike (a grain of sand in the hourglass, geologically speaking), multiple continents were totally engulfed. Then those (and all the rest) were put under freezing, choking darkness for years. An estimated 50 to 75 percent of all plant and animal life on Earth perished in one mass extinction.
I think it was Joseph Campbell who did a TV interview some years back. In it he spoke some about the rush of immigrants across the Mediterranean to Europe. He argued that it wasn’t politics or religion or asylum. It was simply desperate human beings fleeing disfunction in favor of a functional alternative. (Saturation in favor of breathing room — at least for a bit.). My friend, the late Peter Beard (Yale ’62), saw Africa’s elephant problem as a perfect example of population gone wrong, particularly within the national parks. Deprived of their broad territorial needs, park elephants found themselves driven by human expansion into smaller and smaller pockets of protected territory. Peter correctly observed that, when overcrowded, elephants are the only species besides us that have the ability to destroy their only habitat. They soon push every tree down to get at the tender top branches — instead of a tree or two along the way as they wander over their normal vast range. Most of Africa is dry between widely spaced rivers. Without trees to embrace the soil only vestigial grasses remain with no shade. Earth turns to dust — making the area far more susceptible to draught. Horrific die-offs are the consequence (see Peter Beard’s first book, The End Of The Game). Reading all this, you might expect that my “area important to me” will be African savannas, for God knows I have wandered hither and yon over more than my share of those. But, no — that would be hauling coals to New Castle. Besides, it’s already globally warmed to within an inch of combustion. Instead, I picked rain forests — in many ways the exact antithesis, except for the heat. I have spent far less time exploring these fabulous and intriguing ecosystems and the going there is anything but easy. But to me, a hunting visit does not jar with those surroundings whether it’s with pygmy trackers in search of a bongo, or with a documentary photo crew struggling to get it right with plant interdependency — shot under near-impossible conditions. Actually, the latter came to me in spades just the other day as my eldest son, Richard, put me onto a recently released David Attenborough special, rife with impossible-to-get photography that will knock your socks off. And newly learned information about plants abounds. Of course, rain forests are central to overall climate threats in terms of their immensely important role of photosynthesis, but also their ability to gobble up and store excess carbon dioxide. All of these forests have been generally mopping up our human mess for decades — and now is not a good time for us to lose any of that. So, the following pages are offered as one man’s “foray” into the rain forest of Central Africa among the headwaters of the Congo River Basin.
Bob Myers: (Albany, NY) Democrat politicians.
Tim Damour: (Denver, CO) As you may have heard from other Colorado classmates, I would say that wildfires are our #1 climate threat here in Colorado. I will be interested in the other responses.
Tony Lee: (Wayland, MA) When I was growing up, our family vacations were always “at the shore.” First, in New Jersey. Then on Cape Cod. We had a boat with a 25 horsepower Evinrude that I would drive through estuaries and inlets. I also crewed for a friend who owned a sailboat in yacht-club races. I loved the ocean and, after college, joined the Navy and spent three years at sea. Later, with Margie, 
we became windsurfing “boardheads” and windsurfed off beautiful beaches all over the world. Of all the climate change threats, I pay the most attention to rising sea levels. The World Bank estimates that 50 million people will be on the road in 2050 looking for a new place to live. There are more reasons than just rising sea levels for this mass migration, but glaciers are melting and oceans are getting warmer and therefore expanding. And there’s no stopping it! I will be very interested in reading all the responses to your question about climate change. Hopefully you will leave the submittal process open for as long as possible. 
Maybe have a second round. I imagine that classmates will be moved after reading the stories of others.
Andy Harris: (Portland, OR) We in Oregon are particularly concerned with acidification and warming of the oceans, followed by increased, devastating forest fires.
Ed Gaffney: (Albuquerque, NM) DROUGHT is undoubtedly the #1 climate issue in central New Mexico. The Rio Grande is dry in Albuquerque this summer. Water treaties negotiated in years past have obligated us to deliver water to Texas that we do not have. There might be some who would say it is the heat, but without the prolonged dryness, increases in temperature would be much more tolerable because they would be accompanied by more reliable summer late-afternoon storms which would cut late-afternoon heating. Admittedly, this may be "a distinction without a difference."
Tony Lavely: (Atlanta, GA) Until I read Anthony Leiserowitz’s research and posed this question to classmates, I hadn’t really thought of the climate threat in local terms. To be sure, I had written a couple of essays about the climate threat in Massachusetts, California, New Orleans, and the North Atlantic. But those were all prompted by personal connections. I’ve lived in Atlanta for thirteen years, and this area is remarkably free of overt climate threats: no drought, no wildfires, no shoreline, no hurricanes. Perhaps, that is why the area is growing so fast. For the record, I return to Leiserowitz’s research which shows that only 54% of the people surveyed in Atlanta believe climate change will impact them personally.
Note: If you would like to add your answer to the question, please send it to Tony Lavely and we will add it to the article.