Climate change is real. It’s urgent. And it’s about the people and places we love.
7 min readJul 2, 2017
I care deeply about a long list of things: better government, expanded access to economic opportunity, civil rights and social justice, and stronger communities, just to name a few. Mostly, I care about people. So on my list of things to care about, climate has never been high.
Until now.
This week, I had the chance to attend the 35th Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training in Bellevue, Washington on behalf of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers. The training is sponsored by The Climate Reality Project, which was founded by Vice President Al Gore to catalyze climate change action.
My greatest takeaway from this week: climate change is an urgent threat to people: to you and me, to our friends and family, to our health, homes, infrastructure, food, water, and social stability.
What’s the bad news?
A highlight from the training was a nearly three hour presentation from VP Al Gore about the climate change crisis. Here’s the “inconvenient truth:”
- Our planet is warming at an unprecedented rate, mainly due to CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. We are putting 110 million tons of manmade global warming pollution into the atmosphere every single day. That pollution, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), is building up and trapping heat. While there are many sources of manmade global warming pollution, from agriculture, to forest burning, to transportation, the leading cause is the burning of fossil fuels. And fossil fuels still provide more than 80% of the world’s energy.
- Heat is a major problem for weather and consequently for people, animals, crops, and infrastructure. This heat warms our oceans, making ocean-based storms like hurricanes stronger and more destructive. It disrupts the water cycle, causing more extreme floods and mudslides. It also changes precipitation patterns, leaving some places with extreme drought. It also causes melting of glaciers and ice masses, which leads to rising sea levels. This is all really, really bad news.
- Seriously, this is some apocalyptic shit on a global scale. The US has experienced 11 1-in-1,000-year downpour events since May 2010. (A 100-year event means that there is one chance in 100 of an event occurring in each year. A 1,000-year event has a 0.1% chance of happening in any year.) Floods in Texas, West Virginia, Louisiana. Flooding in Manhattan; San Jose, CA; East Pocahontas, Arkansas; Carnation, Washington; Fenton, Missouri. (“Rain bombs” in Arizona.) But these kinds of events are happening in Guangzhou, China; Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria, UK; Nairobi, Kenya; Punta Hermosa, Peru; Gatineau, Quebec; and so many other locations around the world.
- The implications on where and how we live are terrifying. More people around the world will become climate refugees. (Think this is just overseas? It’s not. It’s happening in America, too.) There will be pandemic diseases, water shortages, and food shortages. Climate change and its impacts will most adversely affect low-income people in the United States and around the world (ironically, folks who have contributed the least to the crisis). But everyone will be affected. That’s why the World Economic Forum has identified climate change as the top threat to the global economy.
- But, despite the evidence, many Americans, including our top political leaders, deny that climate change is happening and that it’s a threat. Climate-change denial is the original fake news. Although nearly half of U.S. adults acknowledge that climate change is due to human activity, a similar share says that the Earth’s warming stems from either natural causes or that there is no evidence of warming. And our president has called global warming a “hoax” on numerous occasions. How can we fix a problem that we don’t admit as a society actually is a problem?
So what’s the good news?
Yes, thank God, there is still some good news in all of this, and some major work to be done:
- We’re making serious progress on green energy. Globally, wind and solar have exceeded progress projections. For four days in 2016, 100% of Scotland’s electricity came from wind power. But it’s solar, especially “solar-plus-batteries,” that is “set to begin a dramatic transformation of human civilization.” Goldman Sachs expects innovation and global markets, more than politics, to drive growth in low-carbon technologies. As prices for batteries and solar panels continue to drop, solar penetration rates will ramp up. As the clean energy industry grows, new job opportunities become available. “Wind turbine service technician” is forecasted to be the fastest-growing job category in the US through 2024; solar industry jobs now outnumber coal mining jobs in the US. And more than a half-million Californians are employed by the clean energy industry, about ten times more than the number of workers in the US coal mining industry.
- Companies are voluntarily reducing their carbon footprint. Companies like Starbucks, Microsoft, and REI are all powered by 100% renewable electricity. A longer list of corporations have reached targets of sourcing 50% or more of their energy from renewables.
- Local acts of political leadership matter. Immediately after President Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, leaders of other American cities, states, universities, and businesses reaffirmed their commitment to the agreement, declaring “we are still in.” American state governments are making commitments to produce and use more renewable energy. Washington State has committed to producing 15% of its energy from renewables by 2020. California aims to reach 50% renewable energy use by 2030, and may even aim to reach 100% by 2045. New York is aiming for 50% renewable energy by 2030 and Hawaii is seeking 100% renewable energy by 2045. Cities have a role to play, too. A handful of US cities are already using 100% renewable energy, and 29 are committed to getting to 100%. My home city of San Francisco is considered a model for local climate leadership. Our Mayor Ed Lee recognizes climate change as “one of our world’s greatest economic and health risks.” San Francisco has achieved significant Climate Milestones. Recently, Mayor Ed Lee announced that San Francisco reduced citywide emissions by 28 percent since 1990, “even while our population has grown by 19 percent and our local economy by 78 percent.”
- In spite of our president, the world is more united on climate change than ever before. The historic Paris Agreement brought together 195 countries with the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions planet-wide and getting to net zero carbon emissions by the second half of this century. Countries like China and India are on track to overachieve their 2030 emissions targets.
What can you do?
I’ve been asking myself this question for the last week, with increased urgency. What should we normal people be doing to help protect the people and places we love from the real and urgent threat of climate change? Here are some suggested actions, large and small:
- Talk to others about the problem. We have to find ways to convince others in our communities that climate change is real, that it’s urgent, and that it affects the people and places we love. I’m not saying you need to evangelize to climate deniers. It might be even more helpful to help educate your friends, family, and neighbors; these are folks who’ve likely heard about climate change and accept the science, but don’t yet understand its urgency. If you’re interested, The Climate Reality Leadership Corps training helps you learn to speak out on climate change. But you don’t need formal presentations or tons of statistics to have influence over others. Educate yourself about climate change. Talk about the problem to others. And talk about it often. And talk about it in language that is grounded in caring about people.
- Pressure political leadership at all levels. This is the most important thing to do. This could mean calling up a representative, showing up at a local town meeting, writing an op-ed about a specific policy, or joining a Climate March.
- Help your company reduce its carbon footprint. Using 100% renewable energy or setting up an internal carbon fee like Microsoft may be too ambitious for many organizations. But businesses large and small can take actions like increasing building efficiency, offering commuter benefits to reward green commutes; using more renewable energy; or buying carbon offsets.
- Put your money where your values are: switch to green electricity, buy efficient appliances, and consider environmental impact in your diet and transportation choices. In your area, you may have the option to choose your electricity supplier and buy renewable electricity directly from a power company. Reducing consumption of meat (“weekday vegetarianism, anyone?) and taking your bike or the bus more often are small ways to reduce your carbon footprint, too. Consider also divesting from companies that contribute significantly to the climate change crisis.
