OpEd: 2023 Top 10 Fears Don’t Include Climate Change (Chicago, IL) — Corrupt government tops the list of the 2023 survey of American fears, (60% of respondents). Climate change didn’t make the top 10 fears, yet it’s a more likely threat than world war (#5 with 52%), and it exacerbates pollution of drinking water (#7 with 50% of respondents). Climate change can be overwhelming, and people tell me it’s hard to know what to do. Perhaps it’s easier to disregard things beyond our control.
I recently attended an art exhibit where I met the curator Peter Anostos and chatted about his origin story. When searching for a way to participate in the art world other than as an artist, Peter hosted his first exhibit in his post-college apartment. Since then, he has curated art exhibits in Los Angeles and New York City and leads Art of Life, an art studio and exhibition in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago serving the neuro-atypical and intellectually diverse community. Peter says, “Do what you can with what you have now” meaning don’t wait for more resources, more skills, or an expert to do it for you. This mantra is the key to resilience and applicable to everything that is overwhelming including climate change. Every journey starts from where you are now.
The top two issues for climate change are energy and water, yet Illinois is the only in the USA that prohibits water reuse with a few words in our drinking water code: “No CWS may use recycled sewage treatment plant effluent”. These few words are a barrier to climate change resilience and clean and affordable water for all because water recycling is the natural water cycle. There are many wastewater discharges boarding Lake Michigan (Fig 1) which return water from whence it came as required by the Great Lake Compact, and Chicago combined sewers overflow untreated sewage to Lake Michigan once a year on average. This water is diluted in Lake Michigan where it augments the drinking water supply for 10 million people. Call your state legislator today and tell them that prohibiting water reuse is ridiculous because it’s equivalent to outlawing the natural water cycle. This is what we can do now for the seventh generation because water is life.
OpEd: 2023 Top 10 Fears Don’t Include Climate Change
