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October 31, 2022 10:39 AM UTC

BOO! Climate Change is Coming for Your Pumpkin Pie

  • 18 Comments
  • by: PKolbenschlag

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Halloween week has brought lots of scary news for the climate. Two new reports show that the climate emergency is here, the pollution driving it and its impacts are both growing rapidly, and nations all across the world are failing badly to meet the goals necessary to avert worsening disaster, which they themselves set only a few years ago.

A raft of other recent studies and reports has shown that the planet’s vital ecological and other life-sustaining systems may be nearing critical “tipping points” beyond which climate catastrophes spiral even further out of control – shifting ocean currents, plunging some regions into deep freezes and turning others into deserts, dooming millions of species, and pushing parts of the globe past human habitability.

Sure, that all sounds scary you may think. But consider this: Climate change is also coming for your pumpkin pie.  

Pumpkins are a type of winter squash that like to be grown at between 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Rising temperatures could result in less production, threatening holiday tables, farmers’ businesses, and raising more alarms with another victim prey to climate change.

And as to all those spices to make pumpkin pie, faddish and too ubiquitous this season each year, they are not to be taken trivially.

All are important commodities deeply rooted in global cultures, and foundational to the world’s varied cuisines. The nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cinnamon: spices are also facing the brunt of climate change.  

Global heating is already affecting us and impacts will only grow: From the foods we eat, to our time outdoors and soon to all aspects of our lives. Science is unequivocal that to prevent the effects of climate change from getting ever and much worse, we must end our use of fossil-fuels, the burning of which is driving this frightshow of an emergency. 

Another detailed study shows that current technologies and practices exist to slash emissions by 50% or more by the end of this decade. However, this reassuring news is hostage to the study’s nightmarish reveal that intentional disinformation pumped out by Big Oil and other “vested interests,” far worse than any made-up Hollywood villains, is strangling action. And this threatens a real planetary horror-show. So, pumpkin pie and 🎃 jack-o-lanterns, chocolate, and even weather changes impacting little treat-seeking goblins, are not the scariest climate impacts stalking their future. 

The impacts from climate change are, and will be, severe. Increasingly so with each moment of inaction. But for an added 😱 fright, consider the real possibility that U.S. politics may not act as boldly as needed, and more scary yet could stall or even move backward.

Nefariously animated zombie projects may soon be given new life, and vampire dirty power may get resurrected. Tormented schemes from centuries-past could soon appear, to once more haunt the West.  

Horror films are often just repurposed morality tales, and it is usually the choices of the protagonists that bring them to, or spare them from, a frightening end.

Climate change is here. The future if we do not quickly act and urgently to alter our course is truly terrifying.

But the worst parts of this horror-house future is still just a scary telling, a dark prophecy of what best science tells us will come without bold action now. And that’s not just a Halloween fright-tale. Election day is November 8th. Ballots have been mailed. Choose wisely. 

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18 thoughts on “BOO! Climate Change is Coming for Your Pumpkin Pie”

  2. And the #1 problem we face here in the U.S. to address this is…

    Being able to build electrical transmission lines without taking 10 years to get approval.

    The #2 problem is…

    Being able to install wind and solar farms without taking 10 years to get approval.

    We've got the money. We've got the momentum. But we have all these regulatory hoops to jump through that slow the whole thing down to a crawl.

    1. The INFLATION Reduction Act has about $400 billion for clean energy and climate action David.  If Republicans would not fight every proposal that reduces are carbon/fossil fuel footprint, we might get some things done.  Things will totally come to a stop if Republicans take over so GOTV like there will be no tomorrow.

      1. I support the Inflation Reduction Act and the build-out of renewables. Yea Brandon! Yea Colorado Sens Bennet and Hickenlooper! There are many good things in this legislation that can and will help rural communities with energy transition. This definitely includes helping rural electric coops update and get more local renewables on the grid.  I actually work on this stuff as part of my, you know, work. So, yeah, let’s build out 21st Century infrastructure and get people to work doing it. Check. 

         

        How we approach that, and who drives the train, like always – matters. It matters. The environment matters too. Biodiversity. Water quality and quantities (in the US Southwest in particular). And, I think repeating the permitting-bros talking-points is (1) mind-numbingly simplistic and out-of-touch with actually getting things done on the ground without a bunch of blow-back, personally; and, (2) the wrong framing of how to get to the solution entirely. 

         

        The question should be, how can we center those most impacted by the transition to clean energy so they are engaged and involved from conception to build-out and as benefactor (and not just some crumbs after most of the wealth is extracted, per the usual models) to get to where we all need to go.

         

        The question should not be, how can we move through their concerns as quickly as possible to punch-though this project we already designed.  That approach will get resistance and that approach is exactly what the permitting-bros refrain sounds like to those of us who have been through it before. 

         

  3. I disagree.  It's the hegemonic stranglehold the polluters have on our politics and policy.

    Permitting is a red-herring the polluters are hiding behind to lock in their dirty energy infrastructure like fracked gas pipelines, plastic crackers and ethanol. 

     

    2. This is something that really annoys me. When there's problems due to progressive policies, we try to redirect to conservative policies rather than owning the problem and fixing it.

      The pentagon was built in one year from go to occupied. If we truly acted as though climate change was as critical as WWII, then the only permitting requirements we would have would be to make sure the engineering was correct.

      With the funding now passed and the people Biden has in place, I view by far the biggest obstacle to reducing our carbon footprint is all the extraneous permitting requirements. And the liberals supporting those requirements who refuse to face that all of this involves trade-offs.

      1. We need fast build-out of renewables. But the answer is not "streamlining" input of front-line and impacted communities, nor cutting "red tape" that protects the environment. Google, for instance, "biodiversity crisis" and "megadrought" and then convince me that not centering full consideration of these matters is somehow just bad progressive crickets politics. 

        I may be back later to talk about community input, frontline comunities, sacrifice areas, and environmental justice. 

      2.  

        Thank you for that. The military-industrial complex, WW2 and its aftermath the Cold War, are great examples. Oh, the things we have learned and continue to learn (coff..coff. lead..coff..coff..PFAS)! 

         

        Did you know, for instance, that we have learned many things in 70 years? We have even passed NEW laws! Yes, those include laws to protect things like the waters of the US, and Tribal sovereignty. 

         

        Did you know that as far back as the 1960s and 70s we passed laws to allow impacted communities, like the ones run over by weapons programs and flooded by TVA dams, to have some–small, usually insufficient but some–community input?

         

        And, yes, that through the hard work of many activists over years we have made some of those citizens, taxpayers, impacted Americans’ ability to inveigh on those decisions more robust? This has resulted in things like cleaning up toxic legacy pollution, protecting some of our most iconic waterways, and all sorts of outcomes most of us appreciate today. It is truly a lengthy list, those results that some citizen and community input can impart on a project. 

         

        My take is that anyone who wants to repeat the boilerplate, substance-free permitting-bro refrains ought to be able to list specifically who they think should have less say in their own future, and what other vital national resources (like biodiversity and water quality, for instance) should make way.

         

        And what exactly is ‘critical energy infrastructure’? Is it a pipeline across farmland so a gas company can keep fracking? A “carbon-capture” scheme to make the books look better for a plastic cracker? 

         

        This talking-point-level mumbo jumbo, awarded by this commenter as the #1 impediment to climate action is empty and meaningless without detail.

        Its genesis is industry, and its subtext is that impacted Americans, communities, and the environment need to get out of the way to “get the job done.” 

        Myself, I can look at our history and say I know better. 

         

         

        1. I'm not proposing we revert back to not taking into account the impact of development. What I am proposing is they reduce it down to what makes sense, understanding there's trade-offs, and that time to completion is critically important when it comes to mitigating climate change.

          Yes there were a lot of really bad side-effects from the all out build everything as fast as possible in WWII. Thing is, we barely won that war. If we had not focused solely on building everything we needed, the result could well have been a lot worse.

          I don't think you're willing to even see that there are trade-offs here, much less accept that less review and a much faster process, while it means we would then have some bad side effects, can be worth it to reduce CO2 quicker.

    3. It only takes a little time spent fighting with the OilyBoyz to learn that truth, Pete. 

      Davids' comment about a ten year approval process seems like a personal problem. Maybe the process could be streamlined if industry didn't spend sooo much effort attempting to avoid compliance.

      How many times did citizens and environmental groups ask for protections that ultimately wound up being a positive for the industry? The EPA methane rules and multi-well drill pads are just two examples.

      Is it "progressive policies" or industry non-cooperation that is the problem? It seems like everyone has a bit of a problem with regulations in their own industries, but not so much others.

      How about we do away with building codes? I could make a lot more money if the community would let me build second rate houses and sell them to you. And it would really save me money if I could just leave the scrap and trash on the site.

      Regulations are not the problem industry claims…they are just a convenient boogeyman.

       

       

      1. How many times have front-line and impacted communites heard it Duke? >> You need to sacrifice for the "greater"-good.<< The term "national sacrifice area" is a real thing, and real fact, and a real memory. 

        Uranium, oil shale, Jordan Cove pipeline, DAPL, Keystone, fracking, weapons plants, PFAS… 

        Maybe industry could spend some of those never-before-seen-profits to actually engage and invovle communities if they are truly interested in helping w/  transistion, rather than all that money on consultants and lawyers to blow smoke up their butts and then sue them when they don't say thank you?  

      2. First off Duke, I specifically said above to retain the engineering requirements. Yes you absolutely want to make sure something is built properly.

        And yes, give the O&G companies an inch and they'll take a mile.

        The point remains, all the permitting requirements do not understand that there are trade-offs and in protecting the environment, we're delaying addressing climate change.

        This article dives into it a lot better than I can.

        As to PKolbenschlag's statement that we need fast build out, but can't streamline all the impact permitting issues. That statement makes no sense as the only way to have a fast build out is to reduce the time impact of all that permitting.

        This is no different than saying of course we need to eat more dessert and lose weight.

  4. Oh no! Not my cinnamon and cumin! Cardamom, too, is insanely expensive – more so than steak. And hard to find in any form. Now I know why.

    A few years back, some useful herbs were endangered. There was an “eyebright” herb shortage. Couldn’t find it anywhere.  Eyebright is one of the most useful herbs for all types of eye infections, but also vulnerable to development and climate change. You’ll still pay a premium price if you want to treat your eye ailments with this herb.

  5. Folks can make a perfectly good pie with butternut squash instead of pumpkin, but I would literally and figuratively die without some of the spices mentioned here.

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