Author: Budd Titlow

In the overall history of human life here on Earth, we have never faced more broad-based and existential environmental threats than those posed by the climate emergency and biodiversity loss. On a geologic time scale, we are accelerating toward our own oblivion at laser-focused warp speed. Right now—every day—the world is adding more layers of atmospheric pollution and species disintegration to the enveloping shroud that may eventually doom our own species (Homo sapiens) to extinction. 

These twin towers of environmental degradation are not something that might become a problem in the future—maybe by 2030 or 2050 or 2100. They are problems right now—and they’re getting worse every day that we sit by and pretend that nothing important is really happening. 

But now—with a new administration that will make decisions based on solid science instead of insouciant lies—there is hope. The climate crisis and biodiversity loss do not have to remain problems. In fact—if we focus and work together—both of these conundrums can be well on their way to full resolution in as little as ten years.

If we play our cards right, we can use the perpetual, inextinguishable energy of Earth—the sun’s glorious rays, the wind’s constant breezes, and the water’s endless waves—to work for us all. And, in the process, we’ll leave the polluting fossil fuels right where they belong—buried in the ground, never to see the light of day.

Think about it: Renewable energy here on Earth is abundant and omnipresent. Each time you go outside, you see and feel it everywhere. It’s like an endless symphony written by a master composer and played by a world-class orchestra. The golden rays of streaming sunlight are the strings—always there, maintaining the basic rhythm of the interwoven movements. The wind provides the percussion—rising from gentle whispering breezes of the snare drum to bold resounding gusts of the tympani. Then moving water blends in with the woodwinds and the brass—transitioning from gently lapping melodic notes of the flute to lazy ripples of an oboe’s dulcet tones and concluding with rolling waves of trumpet blasts.

We are right on the cusp of what will be the Renewables Revolution,—providing a mighty parallel to the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution resulted in the transformation of our nation from a rural agrarian society to an urban, manufacturing society. Now we are about to transform ourselves again—from a hard-edged, fossil-fuel driven economy to a softer-sided renewable energy world.

The transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy is already possible. The Solutions Project (www.thesolutionsproject.org) lays out immediate plans for converting each of our states—plus many countries—from fossil fuels to renewable resources. And we can accomplish this at the same time as we create numerous new industries in wind, solar, and water power.

In fact—right now—“Big Oil” has the wherewithal to lead the transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy. They know it’s coming—they’ve known for more than 30 years. They’re already planning for the transition. They just want to delay things as long as possible because—in the short term—they will take a financial hit. But—in the long run—they will actually make more money from renewables than they are currently making from fossil fuel production and processing. The sooner we can make the fossil fuel giants acknowledge this fact and make the switch, the better off we’ll all be. 

Overall, the mighty impetus created by nationwide conversion to renewable energy will bolster every sector of our economy. As the old adage goes: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” This renewable energy boom will create millions of new jobs—leading to increased financial security for everyone. And that’s a “win-win scenario” we can all live with. Plus, our children, grandchildren, and all future generations will look back and be forever grateful to us for being proactive in tackling and resolving our current climate and biodiversity dilemmas.”

So, now—finally—the decision is in our hands. The issue is about preserving the existing quality and character of the human species here on Earth. Will we decide to make the changes that will save our ice sheets, oceans, coral reefs, rain forests, and polar bears? Or will we just watch while our world slides into oblivion—at least for Homo sapiens?

Budd Titlow is a professional wildlife biologist, wetland scientist (emeritus), nature photographer, and author of four books. His most recent book—written with his daughter, Mariah Tinger— is PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change.

In the overall history of human life here on Earth, we have never faced more broad-based and existential environmental threats than those posed by the climate emergency and biodiversity loss. On a geologic time scale, we are accelerating toward our own oblivion at laser-focused warp speed. Right now—every day—the world is adding more layers of atmospheric pollution and species disintegration to the enveloping shroud that may eventually doom our own species (Homo sapiens) to extinction. 

These twin towers of environmental degradation are not something that might become a problem in the future—maybe by 2030 or 2050 or 2100. They are problems right now—and they’re getting worse every day that we sit by and pretend that nothing important is really happening. 

But now—with a new administration that will make decisions based on solid science instead of insouciant lies—there is hope. The climate crisis and biodiversity loss do not have to remain problems. In fact—if we focus and work together—both of these conundrums can be well on their way to full resolution in as little as ten years.

If we play our cards right, we can use the perpetual, inextinguishable energy of Earth—the sun’s glorious rays, the wind’s constant breezes, and the water’s endless waves—to work for us all. And, in the process, we’ll leave the polluting fossil fuels right where they belong—buried in the ground, never to see the light of day.

Think about it: Renewable energy here on Earth is abundant and omnipresent. Each time you go outside, you see and feel it everywhere. It’s like an endless symphony written by a master composer and played by a world-class orchestra. The golden rays of streaming sunlight are the strings—always there, maintaining the basic rhythm of the interwoven movements. The wind provides the percussion—rising from gentle whispering breezes of the snare drum to bold resounding gusts of the tympani. Then moving water blends in with the woodwinds and the brass—transitioning from gently lapping melodic notes of the flute to lazy ripples of an oboe’s dulcet tones and concluding with rolling waves of trumpet blasts.

We are right on the cusp of what will be the Renewables Revolution,—providing a mighty parallel to the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution resulted in the transformation of our nation from a rural agrarian society to an urban, manufacturing society. Now we are about to transform ourselves again—from a hard-edged, fossil-fuel driven economy to a softer-sided renewable energy world.

The transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy is already possible. The Solutions Project (www.thesolutionsproject.org) lays out immediate plans for converting each of our states—plus many countries—from fossil fuels to renewable resources. And we can accomplish this at the same time as we create numerous new industries in wind, solar, and water power.

In fact—right now—“Big Oil” has the wherewithal to lead the transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy. They know it’s coming—they’ve known for more than 30 years. They’re already planning for the transition. They just want to delay things as long as possible because—in the short term—they will take a financial hit. But—in the long run—they will actually make more money from renewables than they are currently making from fossil fuel production and processing. The sooner we can make the fossil fuel giants acknowledge this fact and make the switch, the better off we’ll all be. 

Overall, the mighty impetus created by nationwide conversion to renewable energy will bolster every sector of our economy. As the old adage goes: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” This renewable energy boom will create millions of new jobs—leading to increased financial security for everyone. And that’s a “win-win scenario” we can all live with. Plus, our children, grandchildren, and all future generations will look back and be forever grateful to us for being proactive in tackling and resolving our current climate and biodiversity dilemmas.”

So, now—finally—the decision is in our hands. The issue is about preserving the existing quality and character of the human species here on Earth. Will we decide to make the changes that will save our ice sheets, oceans, coral reefs, rain forests, and polar bears? Or will we just watch while our world slides into oblivion—at least for Homo sapiens?

Budd Titlow is a professional wildlife biologist, wetland scientist (emeritus), nature photographer, and author of four books. His most recent book—written with his daughter, Mariah Tinger— is PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change.

It’s June 2030 and all I can think about today is—we did it! We really did it!

I’m 83 years old now and—along with a few billion other people—I’m proud to say that I’ve helped save our planet. Just 10 short years ago, it seemed that we might never recover from the ongoing double whammy of a global health pandemic and a worldwide climate emergency.

But now everything is so much better than it was a decade ago. As I look out my office window, I see a crystalline-blue sky, icy clear water in the stream running through my property, and the bejeweled wings of migrating warblers flitting through the surrounding network of inter-connected open space.

Around the neighborhood, I see thoughtfully designed copses of wind turbines silently whirling away on sun-drenched hillsides. Tight clusters of comfortable homes all support tasteful arrays of rooftop solar panels.

Nationwide, the still-burgeoning renewable energy industry gives everyone access to dignified living wages. Social justice and economic equality are now national bywords. No one who wants to work is being left behind. “Medicare for All” now ensures everyone gets the health care they need when they need it.

Low impact highways support a national smart grid of safe, self-driving electric vehicles. Fleets of vertical takeoff and landing, biofueled aircraft now whisk us away to anywhere we want to go.

Looking back, I realize that what we accomplished—as a nation and a world—was a truly remarkable feat. Capitalizing on our 2022 conversion to publicly-funded elections, we were able to finally elect true national leaders with a penchant and a drive for doing the right thing.

In 2025, new President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Alexandria Occasio-Cortez led our forward-thinking, progressive Congress in passing three landmark pieces of legislation. First up was AOC’s Green New Deal which provided the motivation for a massively swift and efficient transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Next came the EO Wilson Biodiversity Preservation Act which—once and for all—placed value on every plant and animal on Earth while mandating protection for rare species and the critical habitats they need to survive. Finally, the Regenerative Agriculture Restoration Act ensured accessible, sustainable food supplies for every American’s kitchen table.

Yes—all in all—times are certainly good now. Much better, in fact, than I could have ever hoped for back in the spring of 2020. My children, grandchildren, and their future generations to come are now—and will be—living comfortably in a welcoming world. Plus—best of all—instead of asking “how could you”, they’re saying “well done”. What could possibly be better than that!

Budd Titlow is a professional wildlife biologist, wetland scientist (emeritus), nature photographer, and author of four books. His most recent book—written with his daughter, Mariah Tinger— is PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change.

The climate crisis is threatening to take food off your family’s dinner table. Unprecedented global warming is causing a catastrophic combination of crop-sapping droughts and farm-swallowing floods.

For the past 10 years, I’ve been working as a food safety consultant in the agricultural industry. In 2015, I teamed with my daughter to publish a 600-page book on the climate crisis. Despite my dual experience in these two arenas, I failed to recognize the strong connectivity between agriculture and the climate crisis. That is—until recently!

The climate crisis is enmeshed in all aspects of our lives on this planet. It’s analogous to heralded California naturalist John Muir’s quote about the web of life: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” And so it is with the climate crisis. When we pull on one strand of the climate web, all the other strands resonate in response. The climate crisis is now affecting everything we do, think, and feel. And this is especially true for world-wide agriculture and food production.

As Lisa Archer and Kari Hamerschlag emphasize in their February 8, 2019 GreenBiz webcast: “The food sector is the single biggest generator of climate-harming greenhouse gases. In fact, agriculture accounts for nearly one-third of our global emissions. This means that—with scientists worldwide confirming we have just 12 years to avoid irreversible climate chaos—transforming food and agriculture is central to addressing our climate crisis.”

So we know for certain that the climate crisis is currently threatening the essential food supplies of our families. But what can we do about it? An array of farming practices—known collectively as Regenerative Agriculture (RA)—is the answer. Actually, much of RA is not really new. In fact, some of the practices harken back to the way things used to be done down on the good ol’ family farm.

In a nutshell, RA involves farming smaller and smarter. Instead of routinely tilling the soil in all fields before each crop season, eliminate tilling completely. Tilling is a major factor in releasing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from agricultural fields to the atmosphere. Instead, emphasize using crop rotation and cover crops.

Also increase the use of organic fertilizers—such as manure and compost—in lieu of synthetic chemical fertilizers. These “old school” practices simultaneously preserve topsoil fertility, biological diversity, and carbon sequestration while minimizing the potential for soil erosion caused by both wind and water.

Regenerative Agriculture emphasizes a speedy transition from our current mega-scale, chemical-dependent food producing methods to healthier, organic, and ecologically-minded farming practices. Archer and Hamerschlag state that making the RA transition will mandate resilient, fair, local, and regional food systems while ensuring good jobs and healthy food for all.

So how do we make the transition to RA a reality? As Archer and Hamerschlag summarize it: Our government must stop giving billions of dollars in subsidies, loans, and research to support large-scale industrial agriculture (in other words, “Big Ag”). Instead we need to expand our support for resilient—local and regional—farmers and ranchers.

To be successful, RA must also emphasize growing crops that are both organically and ecologically sound. Accomplishing this requires healthy, low-carbon, plant-based crop production. Future federal subsidies must then be focused on farms that feature conservation practices that lead to carbon sequestration and better soil health/biological structure.

If wisely and broadly applied, Regenerative Agriculture will help ensure your dinner table remains set with the healthy food your family needs and deserves. Plus, the resultant wide-spread increase in carbon sequestration will help us harness the climate crisis. Now that’s a win-win situation we can all live with!

Budd Titlow is a professional wildlife biologist, wetland scientist (emeritus), nature photographer, and author of four books. His most recent book—written with his daughter, Mariah Tinger— is PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change.

Paraphrasing President John F. Kennedy: We choose to conquer the climate crisis not because it’s easy—but because it’s hard. Because the challenge is one we are unable to postpone or ignore and one we intend to win for the preservation of all future generations of human life on this planet.

The United States is perfectly primed to mobilize the world in resolving the climate crisis. We’ve already proven we can do this. Throughout our history, we’ve successfully mobilized to overcome existential threats—not just once, but many times.

After Pearl Harbor—in a matter of months—we converted our assembly lines and factories to produce bombers and tanks instead of cars and trucks. In the process, we helped save the world from the scourge of Nazi domination. Describing our Nation’s vital contribution to the war effort, Sir Edward Grey —British Foreign Secretary—famously noted: “The United States is like a giant boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it, there is no limit to the power it can generate.”

Next—holding true to President Kennedy’s words—we engineered a way to send men to the moon. In the late sixties, we also battled with corporate America over toxic exhaust pollution (the infamous “brown clouds”). In the end, we forced the US auto industry to completely retool their assembly lines—producing more fuel-efficient vehicles with catalytic converters that ran on unleaded gas.

Then—on April 22, 1970—the unexpected magnitude of the response to the first Earth Day clearly showed what can be done when the political and social moods of the country collide. Twenty million people came together with a message that said, “Let’s get something done—and do it now!.” The resultant outpouring of federal environmental legislation and regulations proved that Congress was listening to what the people wanted.

In 1976, we battled with the chemical powerhouse DuPont over the hole in the ozone layer. The final verdict was that Freon—the product primarily responsible for destroying the ozone—was banned for good. Finally—in the late 1980’s—we fought with power plants and manufacturing facilities over the generation of acid rain. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Acid Rain Program (ARP) took care of this problem by setting caps on emission of the two main pollutants—nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SO₂).

So, what are we waiting for? The climate crisis does not have to remain an ever-burgeoning conundrum. If we act boldly now, we have the proven skills to reach a rapid resolution.

The solutions are right in front us every day. Earth’s renewable energy is abundant and omnipresent. Every time we go outside, we see and feel it all around us. It’s like an endless symphony written by a master composer and played by a world-class orchestra. The golden rays of streaming sunlight are the strings—always there, maintaining the basic rhythm of the interwoven movements. The wind provides the percussion—rising from gentle whispering breezes of the snare drum to bold resounding gusts of the tympani. Moving water blends in with the woodwinds and the brass—transitioning from gently lapping melodic notes of the flute to the lazy ripples of an oboe’s dulcet tones and concluding with rolling waves of trumpet blasts. Best of all, in the process of switching to renewables, we leave the polluting fossil fuels right where they belong—buried in the ground, never to see the light of day.

We are right on the cusp of what we can call the “Renewables Revolution,”—providing a mighty parallel to the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution resulted in the transformation of our nation from a rural agrarian society to an urban, manufacturing society. Now we are about to totally transform ourselves again—from a hard-edged, fossil-fuel driven economy to a softer-sided renewable energy world.

In fact, the transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy is already technically possible. The Solutions Project (https://thesolutionsproject.org/) lays out immediate plans for converting each of our 50 states—plus many countries—from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

In summary, the Renewables Revolution will bring millions of new jobs along with long-term quality of life preservation. Our children, grandchildren, and all future generations will look back and be forever grateful to us for proactively protecting a livable planet.

Budd Titlow is a professional wildlife biologist, wetland scientist (emeritus), nature photographer, and author of four books. His most recent book—written with his daughter, Mariah Tinger— is PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change.

OK, America—it’s time for us all to wake up and save our planet!

We’re being assaulted by a process that is progressively stealing our precious quality of life here on Earth. And it’s happening right before our eyes.

It sometimes occurs with a ferocity that receives world-wide attention. But it’s usually more subtle—gradually tearing away at our planet’s fabric. Yet, while this whole thing is happening, we just sit around—anxiously watching but doing nothing to stop it, or even slow down it down!

What am I talking about? A deadly virus? Pervasive drug abuse? Creeping communism? The Trump White House?

No—considering the long-term health of our planet—this is far more serious than anything we’ve ever encountered before. In fact, if we allow this to continue basically unchecked—as is currently happening—it could eventually make Planet Earth uninhabitable for Homo sapiens. (Yep, folks—that’s us!)

I’ve been wracking my brain about how to solve this enigma since 2015. That’s the year I started writing my book, Protecting the Planet: Environmental Heroes from Conservation to Climate Change.

Now after three years of watching people—if they do anything at all—just paying minor homage to this vexing issue, I’ve had it!  I’m finally ready to tell it like it is.

From now on, I’m calling this world-wide cataclysm-in-waiting global warming—because that’s exactly what it is!  Every year, global warming—not climate change—is making our world demonstratively less habitable for many life forms—most notably human beings.

The problem is that many people brush off climate change as “just a natural process that is always occurring”. OK, it’s true that—in its history (billions of years)—our Earth has experienced many dramatic climate events. But thousands of years (at least) have always intervened between each of our Earth’s previous extreme climatic periods—Ice Ages (extreme cold) and Green Ages (extreme hot).

The number of years during which our Earth has been currently warming is a vastly smaller time period. In fact, humans first started earnestly pumping carbon dioxide (CO₂) into our Earth’s atmosphere in the mid to late 18^th Century—coincident with the onset of the First Industrial Revolution.  Since then, we’ve been rampantly dumping more and more molecules of CO₂ into our air. The result is that—over the past 250+ years—our only planetary home has been warming much faster than it ever has before.

In fact, CO₂ emissions have been increasing with exponential rapidity since the turn of the millennium. Don’t believe it? Then consider this fact. Nine out of ten of our planet’s hottest years on record have occurred since the year 2000. (The year 1998 was the tenth.)

Many scientists believe our planet is warming hundreds of times faster than it ever has before. As award-winning author—Kim Stanley Robinson—writes in the January/February 2019 issue of Sierra Magazine: “The changes are occurring so rapidly that they have forced scientists to come up with a new name for this unprecedented epoch—the Anthropocene, the ‘human age’”. Now that’s just plain scary!

So why should we worry right now? Let’s review the ways.

By 2050—in human years, that’s just half a generation—here’s what could happen to our Earth. Our primary ice sheets—in Greenland and Antarctica would mostly melt away. Also, the majority of the world’s glaciers would be gone forever. (How can we have a Glacier National Park if we have no glaciers?)

The sea level rise resulting from these world-wide melting events would inundate much of the world’s coastlines—including large portions of such major U.S. cities as New York, Boston, Miami, Norfolk-Virginia Beach, and Charleston (SC). This unprecedented flooding would force the relocation of tens of millions of people—many in countries where there are no places to relocate.

Next, the persistent warming and acidification of our oceans would wipe out all of our magnificent coral reefs. The marine biodiversity of our saltwater systems would also plummet—meaning the extinction of many species that are vital to the health of our ocean ecosystems as well as our planet.

Finally, devastating natural events—hurricanes, tornadoes, torrential rains, prolonged droughts, immense wildfires—would all continue to increase in number and intensity. These could result in death and destruction at a scale that the world has never before imagined.

Natural disasters will force people to take extreme measures to maintain a modicum of their family lifestyles. We’ve already seen this happen in countries like Syria where a drought was so widespread and overwhelming that the people had no choice but to revolt against Bashar al-Assad’s government. Of course, the horrible atrocities—including the use of deadly nerve gas against Syrian families—are still continuing in 2019.

Here’s how Kim Stanley Robinson describes what is happening to our planet: “If we continue to burn ancient carbon, strip-mine the soil, and raze forests, we could be headed for the sixth great mass extinction event in Earth’s history.  (Blogger’s insert: Remember, the fifth great extinction—65 million years ago—wiped out the dinosaurs.) If we ignore the consequences of manmade changes, then famine, war, and pandemics could result from wrecking the Earth’s life-support systems. It can’t be emphasized enough just how awful a bad Anthropocene could be.”

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you that global warming is real and it’s happening at a rate so alarming that we absolutely cannot continue to ignore it. So now, let’s talk about how we can solve it.

The easiest and most effective solution is this: Implore our Congress to do the right thing for our Earth and enact a tough carbon fee. Formally promulgating a stiff and binding carbon fee—one that immediately socks it to the pocketbooks of fossil fuel executives—will be the first cog in the gears that will drive our total conversion to clean, renewable energy.

A nationwide, high-end carbon fee will whack anyone or anything that is still either finding, producing, or distributing fossil fuels. This means that the cost of doing business for Corporate America—most notably Big Oil—will quickly and significantly increase. Soon, the continued production and distribution of fossil fuels will become unprofitable.

Once enough money is lost, the fossil fuel giants will lead the charge in switching our country to clean, renewable energy. As wealthy and experienced business owners, these folks are not going to just sit idly by and watch as their capitalistic coffers dwindle away. No—they’re going to jump on the renewables bandwagon and they will sit as close to the front as they can!

The real beauty of this is: We already have most of the tools in place needed to accomplish this transformational switch in energy supplies. It all starts with our Earth’s bounteous and never-ending sources of solar and wind power. Next, most of the production facilities and transmission grids we need to service our whole country—as well as a host of the world’s other countries—are already in place.

Need proof that this is the case? Just go to The Solutions Project (www.thesolutionsproject.org) and you can see it all for yourself.

So, how can we all take part in this process? It’s really quite simple. Sit down tomorrow and write letters or e-mails—as you prefer—to all of your state and federal legislators. Tell them that it’s imperative to immediately enact a stringent carbon fee—one that has sharp teeth and will take huge bites out of the backsides and bankrolls of our country’s fossil fuel executives.

I guarantee this will get the renewable energy ball rolling—big time. And the rest will follow suit swiftly and forcefully. In fact, I firmly believe that—if we set our collective minds to it—our complete and total transformation to clean, renewable energy can happen within the next five years.

As Kim Stanley Robinson concludes in his Sierra piece: “There is, just barely, time remaining to initiate a good Anthropocene. It is still physically possible to create an octopia—the ‘optimal place’—on Earth. … Hope resides in this underappreciated fact of human nature: People are often at their best in the midst of crisis and emergency.”

So, what the heck are we waiting for? The recently introduced Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2019 is a start. But it’s not nearly tough (read expensive) enough.

Let’s go for it all and pass a carbon fee that hits Big Oil really hard—and right away. For far too long, the fossil fuel executives have gotten exactly what they want, when they want it. It’s high time for us to wrest our world back from their vice grips!

What have we got to lose? Oh yeah, just our place on the Planet Earth—that’s all!

A professional wildlife biologist/wetland scientist (emeritus) as well as an award-winning writer and nature photographer, Budd Titlow is the author of four natural history books, including his latest—Protecting the Planet: Environmental Heroes from Conservation to Climate Change.

Like the “unsinkable” Titanic, the United States has just hit a melting iceberg and is about to turn nose up in the water. It’s now past time for us to wake up, smell the carbon emissions, and immediately start transitioning our energy development, production, and use policies. Otherwise, we will soon become an also-ran—falling way behind Communist China as well as many other countries—in the race toward a Global Clean Energy Economy.

This is true for several reasons. First and foremost, as we write in our recently published book, PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, implementation of a carbon fee on all CO₂ emissions and uses is the easiest—and by far the most effective way—to reverse the ongoing trend of annual global temperature rise. And rising it is—16 out of the past 17 years have been the hottest ever recorded on Earth. To date—while the U.S. Congress and several states have often debated a carbon fee—they have yet to take any action.

Now let’s take a look at the country we consider one of the greatest threats to our economic and socio-political wellbeing—China. As recently highlighted in episode 8, Season 2 of the National Geographic Channel’s Years of Living Dangerously (YLD), China is currently implementing a carbon fee through a national cap-and-trade program and will be producing at least 20 percent of its energy from non-fossil fuels by the year 2030. Also by 2030, China plans to add more solar and wind power to its energy reserves than exists collectively in the world today.

Meanwhile—under the new Trump Administration—we are preparing to expand our dependence on coal mining and coal-fired power plants. This despite the fact that coal is no longer a viable commodity in today’s world economy. Trump is also championing more oil and gas development—notably featuring the dirtiest crude on Earth which is being tediously squeezed out of Canada’s Alberta Tar Sands.

As we write this during the 100 days of Trump’s Presidency, our new leader has already brought back two previously “dead in the water” oil pipeline projects (the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines) and called for massive reductions in funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) air and water pollution control programs. This latter action will—of course—lead the way for more power generation from the mining and burning of coal. To top things off, Trump has just filed executive orders to get rid of President Obama’s ambitious Clean Power Plan while also rescinding our commitment to the historic Paris Climate Agreement that the U.S.—along with 195 other countries—signed in December 2015.

So while China is showing the world it knows how to efficiently and permanently cut back its CO₂ emissions, the Trump Administration is—in terms of power production and generation—leading the U.S. back into the Stone Age!

What can we do about this? For starters, we need to resist Trump’s attempts to undo the climate change successes of the Obama Administration. We need to reach out to our legislators and insist that the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Climate Agreement are kept while the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines remain defeated. Then we need to ramp up and keep the hammer down on our transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources. As China and many other countries (including all of Scandinavia, plus Slovenia, Poland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the UK) are demonstrating, a carbon fee—either implemented through a cap-and-trade program or as a direct additional cost to emitters—is the best way to accomplish this. Charging fees for existing CO₂ emissions and uses will force our utility companies to either switch or make way for new companies that feature only renewable energy resources—wind, water, and solar power.

In summary, we can’t afford to fall further behind in the Global Clean Energy Race. We must heed the old Chinese proverb that reads: “Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.” We must quit standing still and immediately start moving forward toward full reliance on carbon free energy sources. Otherwise, we must hope that there will be enough lifeboats for us all when our ship finally goes down!

Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger are professional environmental scientists and co-authors of PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change.