This week, as delegates meet in Paris for an international conference on climate change, let’s think about what we in eastern North Carolina can do to combat climate change. Last year the EPA unveiled the Clean Power Plan, a comprehensive approach to controlling the pollution responsible for climate change. It was immediately met with hostility from climate (change) deniers, including the McCrory administration, and with praise from conservationists, even though the plan more or less reinforces political and economic trends in electricity generation that are already underway. North Carolina has no coal resources. All of our coal and natural gas has to be imported from out of state. We do have plenty of sun, efficiency technologies and offshore wind, which can easily move us toward using less imported resources. Private utilities like Duke Power have completed shutting down a large portion of their dirty coal plants due to pressure from North Carolina residents.

Climate change is already having a huge impact on our area. Many forests in mainland Dare County are already dead because of salty storm surges. In a nightmare scenario, a combination of sea-level rise and a few powerful hurricanes can destroy enough of the Outer Banks that what remains of Pamlico Sound would become much more salty and we would start to experience tides for the first time. It would wash away marshes, destroy the tax base of Hyde and Dare counties and alter sensitive fisheries.

What do we have to gain by sticking our heads in the sand? Fossil fuels pollute our air and kill our rivers, all while contributing few jobs to our region. On the other side, we have valuable real estate, important wildlife resources, tourist destinations and a thriving renewable energy industry that would benefit from taking action on climate change.

We need leadership from our public utilities, our elected officials, our communities and our churches. We need action on all fronts: transportation, power, forestry and agriculture. We have stuck our heads in the sand for over 25 years on this issue. The tide is coming in and if we leave our heads in the sand for another year, we will get washed away.

Attila Nemecz is president of Pamlico-Albemarle Wildlife Conservationists.