Climate Change

Climate Change

Why Individual Action on the Climate Crisis Matters

By Peter Knapp

The rise of a particular trend, often echoed even by environmental commentators, suggests that individual efforts to combat climate change are both difficult and inconsequential. According to this narrative, individual actions are insignificant in the face of the enormous challenges posed by climate change, and it is only the responsibility of governments and large corporations to implement meaningful change. While this perspective is understandable, given the perceived lack of response from governments and major polluters, the author of the original text argues passionately for the importance of individual action in conjunction with systemic change.

1. Not everyone consumes the same amount; high consumers have a disproportionate impact on carbon emissions compared to low consumers.

The author begins by dismantling the assumptions that underlie the “why bother when I’m one of 8 billion” argument. Contrary to this belief, not everyone consumes the same amount of resources. In reality, the richest 10% of people are responsible for half of the world’s carbon emissions, while the poorest half contributes just 10%. This staggering disparity in consumption patterns means that high consumers, typically found in developed countries, have an outsized impact on the climate crisis compared to the majority of the global population.

2. One less flight or cutting down on flying can have a significant impact on carbon emissions, especially since a small percentage of the population is responsible for a large part of aviation emissions.

The “one less flight won’t help anyone” argument is also challenged. While air travel is often portrayed as responsible for only a small fraction of carbon emissions, the reality is more complex. When considering the total warming potential of aviation, including the impact of contrails, flying accounts for approximately 6-7% of total warming potential. Moreover, flying remains the most unequal form of transport, with only 1% of the world’s population causing 50% of commercial aviation emissions. By questioning the idea that individual choices do not matter, the author emphasizes the significance of cutting out flying as a meaningful action within one’s control.

3. Transitioning to electric vehicles alone is not a sufficient solution; it’s better to explore alternatives like public transport and cycling, which can lead to less demand for car infrastructure.

Regarding the focus on transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs) as a technological solution, the author cautions against relying solely on this approach. EVs still contribute to pollution, including particulate pollution through tires, brakes, and resuspension. Additionally, the production of EVs requires vast quantities of materials, often mined in countries with troubling labor practices and pollution. Moreover, hydrogen, another touted technology, has its own challenges and implications. The author suggests that individual actions like choosing alternatives to driving, improving public transport, or advocating for systemic changes are more impactful than relying solely on EVs.

4. Reducing meat consumption is crucial, as the average meat consumption varies widely among countries and individuals, and the meat industry has numerous harmful effects.

The author also addresses the argument that individual choices concerning meat consumption have little significance given the vast global population. By homogenizing all diets as if everyone eats the same as the average American, this viewpoint ignores the significant variations in meat consumption among different countries and individuals. The meat industry is linked to numerous environmental issues, including land use, water use, antibiotic resistance, animal cruelty, and deforestation. By recognizing how much individuals consume compared to others and understanding that every reduction in meat consumption matters, the author encourages a shift towards more sustainable diets.

5. Individual actions can inspire societal change, especially when influential individuals or celebrities lead by example. While individual actions alone may not solve the climate crisis, they can contribute to systemic change.

The central message throughout the text is that the belief that “one person is too small to make a difference” is a defeatist viewpoint that hinders progress. Individual actions can be catalysts for societal change and can inspire collective efforts to address the climate crisis. Governments are more likely to take action when they see public demand for change. Thus, individual actions to reduce consumption, advocate for better policies, and challenge corporations can have far-reaching effects.

The author acknowledges that systemic change is essential to address climate change effectively. However, individual actions play a crucial role in initiating and influencing that systemic change. By providing examples of influential individuals and celebrities who have made a difference through their individual actions, the author demonstrates how high consumers can serve as powerful drivers for societal change.

In conclusion, while individual actions alone may not be enough to solve the complex challenges of climate change, they are far from pointless. The author contends that systemic change begins with individual actions and that individuals can have significant impacts by altering their consumption patterns, advocating for change, and inspiring others to join the collective effort to address the climate crisis. It is not about placing the burden solely on individuals but recognizing that their actions, in conjunction with systemic change, can lead to a more sustainable future.

By Abe Mazliach, ago

She’s on a Mission From God: Suing Big Oil for Climate Damages

By David Gelles Erin Schaff
New York Times
The article discusses attorney Lee Sims’ groundbreaking lawsuit against major fossil fuel companies on behalf of 16 Puerto Rican municipalities affected by climate change-related damages. Sims argues that these companies, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP, intentionally deceived the public about the consequences of their actions while being responsible for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1965. Her case stands out for two reasons: it is the first to apply the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to the fossil fuel industry, potentially resulting in significant financial damages, and it seeks damages specifically for a weather event, Hurricane Maria in 2017. The article highlights the significance of the case and the industry’s concern about the potential financial implications if they are found liable for the damages they caused. Sims’ lawsuit is part of a broader wave of litigation targeting fossil fuel companies for their role in climate change.

By Abe Mazliach, ago

What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance?

By Rebecca Solnit

March 15, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Rebecca Solnit, a writer and historian, is the author of more than 20 books and co-editor of the anthology “Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story From Despair to Possibility,” [__publishing in April_](https://www.nottoolateclimate.com/)_._

In this text, Rebecca Solnit explores a different perspective on the climate crisis and how we should respond to it. She challenges the assumption that addressing climate change means sacrificing abundance for austerity and giving up our conveniences. Instead, Solnit suggests that we should give up things that make us miserable and focus on relinquishing harmful aspects such as deadly emissions and feelings of doom and complicity. She proposes that our current way of living is already austere in many ways, as we are experiencing a decline in confidence, security, social connectedness, and overall well-being. Fossil fuel burning contributes to this impoverishment by corroding politics, causing health issues, and increasing despair and anxiety through destabilized temperature and weather patterns.

Solnit acknowledges the impact of the climate crisis on the younger generation, who rightfully experience anger and grief. However, she emphasizes that a broader sense of helplessness and guilt affects many of us, leading to moral injury. Some people try to avoid confronting this reality by adopting willful obliviousness or numbing behaviors, which result in inaction. Solnit argues that this crisis requires specific action, including a swift transition to renewable energy, improved designs for the built environment, and better care for the natural world.

Despite the challenges, Solnit finds hope in the growing awareness that humans are interconnected with nature and dependent on it. She sees individuals and communities reevaluating their work and lifestyles, considering the sustainability of the environment. Farmers, Indigenous communities, ocean advocates, and others champion the well-being of the biosphere and work towards a better future. Solnit believes that this knowledge and action need to be cultivated and expanded until they become the foundation of how we understand and operate in the world.

To achieve such a transformation, Solnit suggests a change in perspective. Rather than defining wealth by money or material possessions, she proposes redefining it as joy, beauty, friendship, community, and a close connection to nature and sustainable food production. Wealth should encompass security in our environments, societies, and confidence in a viable future. Solnit urges us to reclaim our time and prioritize pursuits that bring true richness to our lives. By focusing less on getting and spending, we can engage in creative endeavors, adventure, learning, building stronger societies, and caring for loved ones, including ourselves. Through her research on how people respond to disasters, Solnit discovered that even amidst death and ruin, joy can emerge when people find meaning, deep connections, and generosity.

In response to the climate crisis, Solnit calls for us to tap into the resilience and spirit that people demonstrate in times of disaster. By embracing a sense of meaning, connection, generosity, and joy, we can meet the immense challenges and make lives better. She believes that this moral beauty already resides within us and is the abundance we need to navigate the climate crisis successfully.

By Abe Mazliach, ago

How the ‘electrify everything’ movement went mainstream

How the ‘electrify everything’ movement went mainstream Author: chuck URL: how-the-electrify-everything-movement-went-mainstream “Building electrification,” once a subject embraced only by energy and climate nerds, is going mainstream. In 2019, Berkeley, California passed the nation’s first ordinance [banning new buildings from hooking up to the natural gas system](https://www.berkeleyside.org/2019/07/17/natural-gas-pipes-now-banned-in-new-berkeley-buildings-with-some-exceptions). A [report](https://buildingdecarb.org/resource/innovation-acceleration) published Wednesday by the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to getting fossil fuels out of buildings, estimates that one in five Americans now reside in a place that encourages or requires landlords and developers to eschew gas. Sales of electric heat pumps grew 15 percent last year, with shipments outpacing those of gas furnaces for the first time in at least 20 years, according to [data collected by the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute](https://www.ahrinet.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/December2022StatisticalRelease.pdf). The Inflation Reduction Act, which contains [billions of dollars in tax credits and rebates](https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/electrification/climate-bill-could-spur-market-transformation-in-home-electrification) to help people swap gas heaters, dryers, and stoves for electric appliances, is likely to accelerate the trend. According to the coalition’s report, 98 municipalities and four states — California, Washington, Maryland, and Colorado — have adopted electrification policies. The Building Decarbonization Coalition’s report outlines three things needed to ensure electrification succeeds. Because going electric can incur high up-front costs, more funding must be directed to low income households to ensure the transition is equitable. Even climate-forward states still have policies and subsidies that favor gas, and should adopt reforms that align with their emissions targets. Lastly, the group argues for a nationwide phase-out of gas appliances, similar to the one California has adopted, to give the industry a clear timeline.
By Abe Mazliach, ago

CBS News poll analysis: Amid concern about extreme weather events, most want Congress to fight climate change

Author: CBS News
URL: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/extreme-weather-opinion-poll-2023-1-10/
As Americans look ahead, more than half are pessimistic about the prospect of extreme weather events and climate, particularly those who report having faced more extreme weather in their local area in recent years. They say this experience with extreme weather has led them to be more concerned about climate change.

And climate is an issue most Americans want to see addressed by political leaders: a big majority want their representative in Congress to *support* efforts to fight climate change, rather than *oppose* such efforts.

Some see climate change as a more urgent issue than others. Younger Americans, in particular, place a lot of importance on tackling climate change — it’s among the top priorities they want this Congress to focus on. The percentage of those ages 18-29 who say it should be a “high” priority is the highest of any other age group.

By Abe Mazliach, ago

The U.S. Has Billions for Wind and Solar Projects. Good Luck Plugging Them In

The U.S. Has Billions for Wind and Solar Projects. Good Luck Plugging Them In.

Author: Brad Plumer

Wind and Solar Projects

An explosion in proposed clean energy ventures has overwhelmed the system for connecting new power sources to homes and businesses.

Plans to install 3,000 acres of solar panels in Kentucky and Virginia are delayed for years. Wind farms in Minnesota and North Dakota have been abruptly canceled. And programs to encourage Massachusetts and Maine residents to adopt solar power are faltering.

The energy transition poised for takeoff in the United States amid record investment in wind, solar and other low-carbon technologies is facing a serious obstacle: The volume of projects has overwhelmed the nation’s antiquated systems to connect new sources of electricity to homes and businesses.

More than [8,100 energy projects](https://emp.lbl.gov/queues) — the vast majority of them wind, solar and batteries — were waiting for permission to connect to electric grids at the end of 2021, up from 5,600 the year before, jamming the system known as interconnection.

PJM Interconnection, which operates the nation’s largest regional grid, stretching from Illinois to New Jersey, has been so inundated by connection requests that last year it [announced a freeze on new applications](https://insidelines.pjm.com/ferc-approves-interconnection-process-reform-plan/) until 2026, so that it can work through a backlog of thousands of proposals, mostly for renewable energy.

Fewer than one-fifth of solar and wind proposals actually make it through the so-called interconnection queue, [according to research](https://emp.lbl.gov/news/record-amounts-zero-carbon-electricity) from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The landmark climate bill he signed last year [provides $370 billion in subsidies](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/02/climate/manchin-deal-emissions-cuts.html) to help make low-carbon energy technologies — like wind, solar, nuclear or batteries — cheaper than fossil fuels.

But the law does little to address many practical barriers to building clean energy projects, such as [permitting holdups](https://thebulletin.org/2023/02/cutting-the-red-tape-for-cleaner-energy-the-pros-and-cons-of-permitting-reform/), [local opposition](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/climate/wind-farm-renewable-energy-fight.html) or transmission constraints. Unless those obstacles get resolved, experts say, there’s a risk that billions in federal subsidies won’t translate into the deep emissions cuts envisioned by lawmakers.

A potentially bigger problem for solar and wind is that, in many places around the country, the local grid is clogged, unable to absorb more power.

That means if a developer wants to build a new wind farm, it might have to pay not just for a simple connecting line, but also for deeper grid upgrades elsewhere.

These costs can be unpredictable. In 2018, EDP North America, a renewable energy developer, proposed a 100-megawatt wind farm in southwestern Minnesota, estimating it would have to spend $10 million connecting to the grid. But after the grid operator completed its analysis, EDP learned the upgrades would cost $80 million. It canceled the project.

A better approach, Mr. Gramlich said, would be for grid operators to plan transmission upgrades that are broadly beneficial and spread the costs among a wider set of energy providers and users, rather than having individual developers fix the grid bit by bit, through a chaotic process.

As grid delays pile up, regulators have taken notice. Last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposed two major reforms to [streamline interconnection queues](https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/ferc-proposes-interconnection-reforms-address-queue-backlogs) and encourage grid operators to [do more long-term planning](https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/ferc-issues-transmission-nopr-addressing-planning-cost-allocation).

If the United States can’t fix its grid problems, it could struggle to tackle climate change. Researchers at the Princeton-led REPEAT project [recently estimated](https://repeatproject.org/docs/REPEAT_IRA_Transmission_2022-09-22.pdf) that new federal subsidies for clean energy could cut electricity emissions in half by 2030. But that assumes transmission capacity expands twice as fast over the next decade. If that doesn’t happen, the researchers found, emissions could actually increase as solar and wind get stymied and existing gas and coal plants run more often to power electric cars.

By Abe Mazliach, ago

Everything you need to know about the wild world of heat pumps

technologyreview.comby Casey Crownhart

We’re entering the era of the heat pump.

The concept behind heat pumps is simple: powered by electricity, they move heat around to either cool or heat buildings. It’s not a new idea—they were invented in the 1850s and have been used in homes since the 1960s. But all of a sudden, they’ve become the hottest home appliance, shoved into the spotlight by the potential for cost savings and climate benefits, as well as by recent policy incentives.

The hero in a heat pump is the refrigerant: a fluid that moves in a circuit, soaking up and releasing heat as it goes. Electricity powers the system, pushing the refrigerant around the cycle.

As the refrigerant moves through the heat pump, it’s compressed and expanded, switching between liquid and gas forms to allow it to gather and release heat at different points in the cycle. (If this is enough detail for you, feel free to skip to the next question. Otherwise, join me on a journey inside a heat pump to understand how this all works.)

In the first stage of its trek, the refrigerant flows through a heat exchanger, past that outside air and warms up enough to start boiling, changing from a liquid to a gas.

The second phase of its journey is a trip through the compressor. The compressor squeezes the refrigerant into a smaller volume, increasing its pressure and boiling point (this will become important in a minute). This also warms it further, so by the time the refrigerant is past the compressor, it’s warmer than the room indoors.

The third leg of the refrigerant’s journey takes it through another heat exchanger. But by now, the refrigerant is a warm gas, above 100 °F, and it’s flowing past a relatively colder room. As it transfers some of that heat into the room with the help of a fan, it starts turning back into a liquid.

Finally, in the fourth stage, the liquid refrigerant will go through an expansion valve, releasing the pressure. Just as squeezing a material heats it up, expanding it allows it to cool down again, so now the liquid is back to a low temperature and ready to absorb more heat to bring inside.

There are heat pumps running everywhere from Alaska to Maine in the US. And about 60% of buildings in Norway are heated with heat pumps, along with 40% in Sweden and Finland.

Today, a mixture of chemicals referred to as R-410A is one of the most widely used refrigerants in heat pumps. In addition to being slightly less harmful for the ozone layer, R-410A has a lower boiling point than R-22, meaning it can absorb more heat at lower temperatures, boosting efficiency in the cold.

Other components have improved as well. New compressors used in heat pumps today can get refrigerants to higher pressures using less power. There are also new so-called variable-speed compressors that allow heat pumps to ramp their power up and down. Finally, the heat exchangers that transfer heat between the air and the refrigerant are getting bigger and better, so they can move heat around more effectively.

Heat pumps’ real climate superpower is their efficiency. Heat pumps today can reach 300% to 400% efficiency or even higher, meaning they’re putting out three to four times as much energy in the form of heat as they’re using in electricity. For a space heater, the theoretical maximum would be 100% efficiency, and the best models today reach around 95% efficiency.

Up-front costs for heat pumps are a major barrier to adoption: purchasing and installing a single unit today can cost between $3,000 and $6,000, and larger homes often require multiple units.

In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act offers a 30% tax credit on the purchase price of a heat pump, with additional rebates for low- and moderate-income households. For some households, the funding could cover 100% of the cost. Rewiring America has a calculator to help people determine what IRA subsidies they qualify for.

New designs, like self-contained window units from startup Gradient, could cut down on installation costs. Other companies, like Midea and LG, have also started offering small, portable units. These new options could allow heat pumps to break into new spaces, like older apartment buildings where installation might otherwise be expensive or impossible.

Global heat pump sales grew by 15% in 2021. Europe has seen some of the quickest growth, with 35% sales growth in 2021, a trend that’s likely to continue because of the energy crisis. North America still has the largest number of homes with heat pumps installed today.

By Abe Mazliach, ago

‘Face it head on’: Connecticut makes climate change studies compulsory

theguardian.com

December 17, 2022

Enshrining the curriculum in law insulates the subject from budget cuts and culture wars related to the climate crisis.

  • Author: the Guardian
  • Category: article
  • URL: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/17/climate-change-studies-connecticut

Starting next July, Connecticut will become one of the first states in America to mandate climate change studies across its public schools as part of its science curriculum.

The new law passed earlier this year comes as part of the state’s attempts to address concerns over the short duration – and in some cases, absence – of climate change studies in classrooms. The requirement follows in the footsteps of New Jersey, which in 2020 became the first state to mandate K-12 climate change education across its school districts.

Connecticut state representative Christine Palm

who is vice chair of the Connecticut general assembly’s environment committee, first launched her legislative efforts to pass a climate education mandate in 2018. Through various surveys and petitions, Palm found that to many students and educators, climate change education is either not being taught at all in schools or not being taught enough.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a set of K-12 science content standards, are currently adopted by Connecticut and include standards pertaining to climate change studies which more educators will rely on as the requirement kicks in next year. So far, only 20 states and DC have adopted the NGSS.

A global survey conducted last year amongst 10,000 children and young people across ten countries, including the US, found that 59% of respondents were very or extremely worried about the climate crisis. Over 50% reported feeling emotions including sadness, anxiousness, anger, powerlessness and guilt. Seventy-five percent of respondents said that they think the future is frightening.

“We absolutely have got to face it head on, and it starts when children are very young. We need to arm them with the tools to be part of a solution to a problem they had no hand in creating.”

By Abe Mazliach, ago