Earth Day Emergency
Another Earth Day has passed as our politicians and media discover the Earth for a few days before moving on to what comes next. In addition to media attention and political posturing, there are scientific predictions of climate cliffs and points of no return, and environmental activists’ anger at everyone and everything that is causing our planet’s degradation and some doom. Two years into the COVID lockdown, many have learned that there are forces greater than human preference and economic need. We live on a crowded, interconnected planet. Climate change, microplastic pollution, biodiversity loss, invasive species and many other environmental problems are all with us and not going away. We’ll never “fix” them, but we can make them less bad.
As someone who has worked in the field of environmental policy since the mid-1970s, I have seen huge progress over the past half century. Toxic waste has not yet been “cleaned up,” but in the United States, most people are no longer in the exposure pathway as they were in 1980. Our air is much cleaner than it was in 1970, although the pollution is still there. Our water is also cleaner than it was in 1972 when the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was enacted in response to Richard Nixon’s veto. We’ve accurately modeled climate change and its impacts: Models from the early 2000s predicted high temperatures, sea level rise, and the extreme weather we’re now grappling with. Through the development of climate attribution science, we are beginning to understand the extent to which extreme weather events are caused by anthropogenic climate change. Countries, cities, states and agencies have set decarbonization goals and begun transitioning to an economy based on renewable resources. About 1 million homes in California have solar panels on their roofs. Walmart is going solar as fast as possible. Solar, wind, battery, heat pump, microgrid and electric vehicle technologies continue to advance rapidly. We may not have reached the desired goal, but we are making progress.
The industry is taking the message, and while the greening continues, most of the changes are real.Trillions of U.S. Government Infrastructure Act Including nearly $300 billion in environmental investments. Notably, U.S. utilities are taking this information and starting to make massive investments in energy modernization. While utility investments will increase our electricity bills for some time, they are critical to decarbonization.According to Kathryn Blunt in Wall Street Journal:
“U.S. utilities are planning the biggest spending increase in decades to upgrade aging grids, prepare for electric vehicles and transition to renewable energy — moves that are expected to expand further raise electricity costs As consumers face historic inflation. The plan proposes spending tens of billions of dollars over the next few years to reduce carbon emissions, in part in response to state and federal mandates and to replace aging infrastructure that is more prone to failure. The Edison Electric Institute, an industry trade group, expects utilities to invest about $140 billion a year in 2022 and 2023, significantly more than in any year since the group began tracking spending in 2000.Executives say these investments are critical to meeting renewable energy goals and enhancing grid reliability because longer power outages and more often. Climate change has increased the need to simultaneously accelerate the transition to carbon-free power and upgrade the grid to withstand severe weather patterns that scientists have linked to rising temperatures, they said. ”
Emission reduction targets set by some governments are already expected by businesses and utilities and are already moving towards compliance. Decarbonization is driving some changes, but many of these investments are needed to make the grid more reliable and able to operate during climate-induced extreme weather events. This is reality, and no amount of disinformation can change it, nor the needs of our climate-challenged planet.
Media coverage of Earth Day is that Joe Biden failed to enact ‘build back better’ so his climate policy failed. That’s nonsensePundits and experts lament that we won’t meet our climate goals on time, and that the damage to the planet will be irreversible as we fall off the climate cliff.The reality is decarbonization It’s a generational change. As we transition to renewable energy, we need to keep the economy running and keep our homes warm in the winter. The political rhetoric of advocates and opponents masked a growing understanding of environmental issues, who were more interested in disparaging their opponents and monetizing their differences than understanding what was actually happening.
The real action is the investment of private companies. General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen are all investing billions of dollars in electric vehicles. Tesla is actually turning a profit. Nearly all large companies are reporting on their environmental and community impacts and the diversity of their workforce and boards. Public awareness of climate impacts, sustainable management and environmental degradation is increasing. The federal government now has a chief sustainability officer at every agency, and is developing new procedures to reduce the federal government’s environmental impact and increase its green procurement practices. Funding to replace lead plumbing is included in the fully enacted infrastructure bill. Compare Biden’s record to the EPA under Donald Trump; that’s a wholly owned subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry.
The cup is either one-quarter full or three-quarters empty. All I know is that the pace of progress is picking up. Some of this is due to public policy—states like California and New York, and many U.S. cities are advancing decarbonization. Due to the objective conditions of climate change and the reality of environmental degradation, industry is investing in decarbonization and climate adaptation. Europe sees that decarbonization is their best way to achieve energy independence and protection from Russian aggression, and they are now seeing this in Ukraine.Mine the University Environmental sustainability is also starting to be taken seriously. A recent email from David Greenberg, director of facilities at Columbia University, underscores the seriousness of the work.according to Greenberg:
“Going forward, we plan to Car parks in transitional Colombia Achieve 100% zero-emission vehicle usage by phasing out internal combustion engine vehicles. The phase-out of university administration spaces will begin between 2030 and 2037 in an effort to meet the university’s greenhouse gas reduction goals, while also aligning with New York State’s actions on the issue. “
Colombia is far from unique. These changes have already begun across the United States. Despite the setbacks, it’s really a matter of two steps forward and one step back, not the other way around. In the United States, the consensus on environmental sustainability is growing. There are theorists who oppose environmental policy, but they far outnumber the pragmatists who see the facts on the ground, in the air, and on the water, and know that we all need to act. Advocates seeking immediate or even rapid change do not understand the nature of political, economic and social change. Often, only negative changes are rapid. Positive change is incremental as we build and seek to understand the full impact of our change. Ordinary Ukrainians have experienced rapid, terrible and negative change. The positive changes of reconstruction will be much slower than the destruction of invasion.
Earth Day should convey a sense of urgency, not a sense of “us” and “them” and good and evil. I realize the media loves heroes and villains. “If it bleeds, it causes” and so on. But as usual, the stakes are too high for the media. The transition to environmental sustainability requires consensus politics, not bitter ideological battles. I answer media inquiries about environmental issues from time to time, and if I make five positives and one negative, I’m usually cited as negative. If I am quoted positive, then two other “experts” are quoted to counter me.
We are far from achieving the transition to environmental sustainability, but the process is well underway in the United States. To achieve this, we need to consider our shared values, not our differences.Speaking of the Cold War and our differences with the Soviet Union, President John F. Kennedy in his start address At American University in 1963, he said:
“So let’s not be blind to our differences — but let’s also focus on our common interests and the ways to resolve those differences. If we can’t end our differences now, at least we can help the world be safe for diversity. Because , at the end of the day, our most fundamental common connection is that we all inhabit this little planet. We all breathe the same air. We all value the future of our children. And we are all mortals.”
Ironically, the sentiments of the past advocating peace with foreign enemies seem so relevant to American domestic politics today. But the truth is, “We all inhabit this little planet.” Let’s make every day Earth Day.
