Hope After Outrage and Despair
8/10/21
Noel Morin
Outrage and Despair
Photo by Megan Lee
The IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report, released on August 9, is the most significant global climate report in a decade. It was based on over 14,000 studies written by over 200 scientists from the international community and approved by 195 governments across the globe. The report reiterates what many climate scientists and advocates have been calling attention to for decades - global warming is a threat to the health and well-being of our planet, that burning fossil fuel is a root cause, and that climate disasters that we have been seeing with increasing frequency and intensity will only be exacerbated unless we act with urgency to reduce global-warming emissions.
The report also includes a stark warning - that some of the most serious climate change impacts are irreversible! We're now hitting tipping points that many have long feared will trigger egregious permanent changes to our environment.
Here are notable themes from the report.
Human-induced global warming is causing climate change and disasters, e.g., flooding, extreme heat, megadroughts, and wildfires that we've been experiencing across the globe.
Global warming will accelerate and exceed the feared 1.5°C and 2°C thresholds.
Many changes, including melting ice sheets and sea-level rise, are irreversible "for centuries to millennia."
The full impact of human-emitted greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere is yet to be experienced.
While it is already dire, we can avoid even more serious climate impacts if we ACT with urgency to significantly reduce our emissions.
You can view report headlines here.
“When your bath is overflowing, you first turn off the tap.”
Hope
The report is also a call for urgent action, not PLANS and TALK, but ACTION. We're at a point where we now not only must deal with reducing and sequestering emissions; we also must make changes to adapt, e.g., changes to help communities avoid the consequences of rising sea levels, lethal heat, drought, and loss of habitat.
We must dramatically reduce emissions. We can do many things to achieve this, but we must focus first on interventions that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions most efficiently and effectively. Since the extraction and burning of oil, coal, and natural gas contributes most to atmospheric carbon dioxide and significantly to methane, it makes sense to reduce the use of these fuels. When your bath is overflowing, you first turn off the tap.
This task is difficult since we depend on fossil fuels for just about everything - electricity, transportation, food production, consumer goods, concrete and steel, and many other essential things that enable our economies and life in general. That said, there are many alternatives to fossil fuels and technologies that rely on fossil fuels, e.g., renewable energy solutions, zero-emission transport, and green hydrogen. The development and adoption of these alternatives have been accelerating; the problem is that the transition is happening too slow because of pressure (corporate and political) to preserve the status quo.
In addition to overcoming these pressures, changes in habits and behaviors are required. An important barrier is economic - fossil fuel alternatives and fossil fuel-dependent technologies have historically been more costly for companies and consumers. However, innovation, competition, economies of scale, and consumer demand for cleaner alternatives have dramatically improved costs.
Market-Based Solutions
One way to speed up our drawdown of emissions is to create economic incentives to shift from high carbon (planet-damaging) solutions to low carbon options. By putting a fee (carbon price) on fossil fuels, we can create this economic incentive. Combine this with a rebate check to households (funded by the revenue collected) and we have a market-based solution that reduces emissions and helps households weather price increases for things like energy and fuels and transition to cleaner (low emission) solutions.
Importantly, carbon pricing generates a system-wide creative tension. It encourages families, businesses, and governments to shift to more cost-effective low-carbon products, encourages conservation and waste reduction, promotes technological innovation, and stimulates green industries and jobs.
How Effective is Carbon Pricing?
One way to better understand the impact of various climate solutions is to model their effects on long-term emissions and global temperature rise. There are a few modeling applications available. A relatively new one - En-ROADS - offers real-time what-if analyses of various solutions, including combinations of solutions.
You can learn more about En-ROADS and the effectiveness of different climate actions in this 15-minute video by one of CCL's leaders, Dr. Lisa Delbuono. In the video, Delbuono demonstrates how a price on carbon is key to reducing emissions and managing global temperature rise.
Encourage Carbon Pricing Today!
You can help encourage our leaders to support a carbon price. Citizens’ Climate Lobby provides you with an easy way to do this. In no time, you’ll be able to send an email to your senators and representatives. (If you prefer, you can also call them.) Visit the links below to see how easy it is to send messages that can encourage your Member of Congress to support carbon pricing.
I’ve contacted my Members of Congress. What else can I do?
There are countless things that everyone can do to contribute to solving the climate crisis and helping humanity adapt to inevitable climate change impacts. The following are some that I recommend:
Take action at home. Find ways to reduce energy consumption (turning off unused lights, using more energy-efficient fixtures and appliances). Avoid plastic. Recycle and upcycle. Swap out gas lawn equipment with electric (your ears and lungs will also appreciate this). Reduce food waste, buy local, reduce meat consumption.
Ride/Drive Green. Increase your transportation efficiency - combine errands, drive like you have a mug of coffee on the dash, remove unneeded items from your car, share your ride. Make your next car electric. Walk and bike. Use mass transit.
Invest in renewable energy. Start with a solar water heater. If you can, get solar PV installed on your rooftop. Support community solar, wind, geothermal, and other local renewable energy projects. Invest in renewable energy companies and divest from fossil fuel corporations.
Save and grow forests. Plant trees. Support efforts that reduce deforestation. Invest in and support reforestation and afforestation efforts (check out Terraformation). Get the Ecosia browser app.
Learn and talk about climate change. There are many online climate education resources available. Join the Climate Reality Leadership Corps. Importantly, talk about the climate crisis with your family, friends, and neighbors. Everyone cares about ensuring a clean and liveable world. Talking about climate change, its causes, and what we can do about it will help more people do something about it.
Make it your business. If you are employed or an employer, you have many opportunities to contribute to decisions that can have a direct or indirect impact on the climate crisis. Minimizing air travel, encouraging remote work arrangements, reducing the overall carbon footprint of products and services, making workspaces and businesses more energy-efficient, and reducing waste are some examples of climate actions that can be accomplished.
Be political. Vote for officials who take the climate crisis seriously and take an interest in policies and legislation that will help the environment. Join CCL so you can contribute your voice to our efforts to create the political will for serious climate policy.
Helpful Links