We Can Live Without Pollution Dominating Our Lives
By Athena Christodoulou/ CSolPower LLC co-founder and past president of the New Mexico Solar Energy Association
Latest submittal to Albuquerque Journal, October 6 and printed on October 10, 2024
As a teenager I never rebelled. So why have I become a rebel as a grandmother?!
Hello, my name is Athena Christodoulou, NM Senate District 21 candidate.
I’m a retired Navy commander and raised my hand to support our Constitution. I’m an environmental and energy engineer and design solutions to the problems we humans have brought upon ourselves. Especially toxic air pollution and the current climate crisis. And I’m a Christian. All tell me to protect lives. People need clean air in order to live and thrive.
Do you want to continue breathing toxic air? Fossil fuel emissions account for 90% of air pollution contributing to over 7 million premature deaths a year.
Shall we address the climate crisis? If you have eyes to see, it’s evident most recently in the death of UK billionaire Michael Lynch; record 110+ straight days over 100F temperatures in Phoenix; and Hurricane Helene’s apocalyptic destruction in Appalachia. And let’s not forget, our legislature approved $50 million during July’s special session for rebuilding the climate fire and flooded Ruidoso. No money to finish the pool at North Domingo Baca or affordable housing?
In rebellion, I live a modest fossil-fuel-free life. I drive, cook and heat cleanly with solar and electricity. Our energy costs are less than our telecommunication fees. I say we CAN live without these polluting products dominating our lives. I’ve done it for a year now, with one exception. I confess. I took an airplane from San Diego back home, one time. We don’t and won’t have to stop cold turkey, if we begin serious reductions today.
People are moving to Albuquerque to escape the extreme weather elsewhere and find new professional opportunities as our economy embraces new industries like film, manufacturing, and tech transfer. Parents choose to move to NE ABQ for the quality schools, low crime rate, and opportunity to have a quiet community to raise their children. Retirees choose to move here hoping their kids and friends will visit for our balloon fiesta, beautiful sunsets, and cultural richness.
I have the unique experience and expertise to enable a smarter, economically stronger, and safer NM. In addition to being an engineer, I’m a former teacher and PTA parent, successful tech entrepreneur (just sold my energy storage company), Moms Demand Action Gun Sense candidate and served as committee analyst for our legislature.
I’ve also told EPA, Air and Water Quality boards and other organizations about my rebellion. I’ve encouraged them to do even more to protect our air, water, and land. It has reached the ears of the Permian Basin oil and gas industry. It is pouring money into my opponent’s coffers and their PACs are spreading lies in my district – one getting no special money from their operations and full of hard-working families, retirees, and individuals trying to thrive. In recent mailers to my neighbors they claim I will bankrupt NM. I certainly won’t, so, maybe this is a projection of their intention?
How many more New Mexicans will be left uneducated and forced into the extractive industries? How many more burgeoning entrepreneurs unfunded? How many more kids gunned down in school? How many more wildfires choking our lungs, torrential rain causing burn scar floods, or dry wells from drought? How many before we act?
You can do something today. Tell your friends about me and my efforts. Encourage them to vote for me in this fall’s election. But by all means, please vote! And if you happen to see my name on your ballot – Athena Ann Christodoulou – fill in that oval next to it. (G+HS𝜋 athenafornm.org)
Clean energy, diversified economy the path to a new economy for New Mexico
For the General Election 2020 & 2024, updated May 2024
Growing up in Southern California in the 1960s, I was constantly aware of the environment, and of how human actions can impact it. In fact, it was the unrelenting smog in Los Angeles that convinced my mother to allow my father to pack up the family in a wood-paneled station wagon to move across the country to North Carolina. The move meant my father had to use his retirement money to establish his surveying and engineering business, but the payoff was a cleaner, healthier environment for his family.
A lot has changed in the last half-century, but frustratingly, we face many of the same environmental issues. Our nation has had a dismal response to the growing climate crisis, largely guided by protecting the fossil fuel industry at all costs. Unfortunately, these policies have brought us to the place we are now — a full-blown climate emergency.
Why do I say we are in an emergency? As a tech entrepreneur and engineer, I believe that science should govern our assessments of a situation. So let’s examine some facts:
- 2023 was the HOTTEST year on record, and the preceding decade was the warmest decade on record, according to NASA data.
- According to the Union of Concerned Scientists report Confronting Climate Change in New Mexico, we are getting more fires, more drought, and seeing a drastic increase in the number of natural disasters in the last few decades. These changes could even threaten the existence of our signature green chile crops.
- Even the scientists in Fourth National Climate Assessment in 2018, released under the Trump administration, concluded that there is a climate crisis in the U.S., with fossil fuel emissions being the main culprit, calling climate change an “existential threat to humanity.”
- The facts are clear: We are past the denial stage and must move to ACTION. And the good news is that recent actions in our state show that change IS possible. The 2019 Energy Transition Act charted a new course for New Mexico, requiring that the state generate 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045. And this summer, the Public Regulation Commission issued their decision to go with all renewable energy for the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station near Farmington. No new gas or old coal for New Mexico!
As we all cope with the new reality brought on by COVID-19, I have chosen to see this experience as a wake-up call. We have all been forced to live life differently, demonstrating our capacity to make immediate and dramatic collective action for the benefit of humanity. And this rethinking of our actions has improved our carbon footprint. According to a report published by Nature, daily CO2 emissions decreased by 17% by early April 2020 compared with the mean 2019 levels.
This proves that if we act decisively and quickly, we can have a real impact on our future. How can we act? Personally, I made a pledge in 2017 to be fossil fuel-free by 2023, and thanks to an all-electric car and nearly all-solar home creating “beneficial electrification” (using electricity to power something otherwise powered by fossil fuels), I am well on my way to that goal. I ask you, what individual actions are YOU willing to take to save our planet?
I am excited about the possibilities when our state can transition to new growth industries, such as renewable energy, film production, technology transfer and tourism, creating a new economy for New Mexico.