Getting Real On Climate Change Mitigation

Our outlook on climate change was so much more hopeful back in 2015. Obama was still President. Science-denying Trumpism was a distant specter. Pandemic was only hypothetical. And by December of that year the United Nations Climate Change Conference resulted in the Paris Accord – 196 countries agreeing to a landmark reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit the increase in average global temperature to under 2 degrees Celsius. We’d dodged the proverbial bullet, or so we might have thought at the time.

Sadly, we all know what the next six years wrought: Trumpism, our departure from the Paris Accord, pandemic, four of the hottest global average temperatures on record, and a steady uptick in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (now at around 415 ppm – well over the 350 ppm deemed to be “safe”). The good news, however, is that the Biden administration brought the U.S. back into the fold of Paris Accord signatory nations. And the silver lining of the pandemic was that we learned how quickly an economic downturn can positively impact the atmosphere. Perhaps another positive over these ensuing years is that extreme weather incidents have made the fact of climate change even more undeniable.

Perhaps this last point is the most encouraging one for my way of thinking. You see, of late I’ve felt about our response to climate change much as I felt when the Iraq War seemed to be marching on endlessly. With respect to the Iraq war, it seemed that America needed to really deeply feel the horror and loss of it before arriving at the conclusion that enough was enough. Similarly, I’m wondering whether Americans need to really experience the chaos and devastation of climate disruption prior to our ever agreeing to changing our fossil-fuel thirsty ways.

Has that time come? Glacial melting, sea level rise, unprecedented wildfire activity, thawing permafrost, droughts here and flood-inducing rainstorms there, massive hurricanes along the coasts, and massive tornadoes sprouting like mushrooms all across the Plains and Midwest – are these enough of a wakeup call to those of us who’ve lived in denial of climate change for so long?

Yes, we need a national plan to modernize our energy infrastructure in order to utilize more sustainable sources. We also need some form of a carbon tax. We’re presently subsidizing the cost of fossil fuel by paying separately for the aforementioned havoc wreaked in the form of property loss and loss of life. If we were to price these externalities into the cost of fossil fuel, we would begin to make more economically informed and appropriate choices as to how and when to spend our money.

And this is where I feel that I can really add something to the conversation. You see, it is my perception that many of those who are 100% certain of the reality of climate change still believe that all we have to do is power everything with “clean” energy and we’ll be good to go. Rather than our materialistic lifestyle being seen as a fundamental part of the problem, it is merely viewed as needing a tune-up – a carbon tax here, a clean energy breakthrough there, and we will all live happily ever after.

So, to those of you for whom the subject of climate change is finally gaining traction – fantastic! And for those of you who can only reflect upon technological solutions to what is fundamentally a problem of consumption – look deeper! Think about it: If the current standard of living of the average Westerner becomes 50% more carbon efficient even as the number of people actually living that lifestyle doubles, then we are no better off than we are at this moment. If everyone’s carbon footprint is cut in half, but world population doubles, then we are still merely treading water. Remember, we’re at over 400 ppm atmospheric carbon dioxide and we need to start bringing that measure DOWN! Let’s begin taking a long, hard look at how we’re living our lives.

 

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Image of storm front courtesy of the author.

Copyright 2016 and 2022 by Mark Robert Frank