Climate Change Mitigation: Overturning Our Civilization’s Apathy
When I did my interview on climate change at the (Libertarian think-tank) CATO Institute a few years ago, I correctly predicted I’d find dismissive attitudes on the subject:
* The problem isn’t that bad
* Technology will probably be developed that will allow us to avert a true catastrophe
* The full severity of the problem won’t be here for decades
* Other problems are of equal or greater importance
* There’s nothing we can do about it anyway
Now, of course, the CATO Institute has a vested interest in denying the urgency of climate change mitigation; in fact, that’s what they do for a living: argue against anything that stands in the way of the individual’s “right” to make as much money as he possibly can.
But as we’ve all observed, even average people, i.e., those without an axe to grind, have a tough time getting on board with the notion that we have a true emergency here, and that only a full commitment on the part of our civilization can save us from the consequences.
Sure, some of the most visible people in the arena of public policy and the environment calling for a World War II-style attack on the problem, including New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, Bernie Sanders, sustainability legend Bill McKibben, climate scientist Michael Mann, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, and business mogul Ted Turner. But they, and the others of us who feel the same way, are finding it quite difficult to establish agreement that humankind, in fact, does need to be in an emergency mode, and focus every resource we can into making sure that we avoid the full brunt of the disaster.
Many of us have speculated as to how this is possible.
In her paper “Leading the Public into Emergency Mode — A New Strategy for the Climate Movement,” Margaret Klein Salamon, PhD, the Founding Director of “The Climate Mobilization” explains this in terms of human psychology and social anthropology. She writes:
The psychological capacity for both normal mode and emergency mode arose over hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution. Individuals and groups who usually manage broad and diverse interests, but are able to snap into intense focus when in danger, have the best overall survival prospects. The challenge is when to enter emergency mode, when to continue business as usual, and how to trigger a switch in mode.
Indeed. But how is this done, especially in the environment of present day U.S. politics with voters’ near universal rejection of the goodness of government? When FDR explained the attack on Pearl Harbor and got us into WWII, we trusted that what he was telling us was rooted in the truth, and that our involvement in the war was necessary to our survival. Nowadays, we observe that our candidates’ positions are based on nothing more than their own ambitions.
Having said that, we just saw how the unpredicted success of the Bernie Sanders campaign, including a credible leader who promises to implement change, can turn mass dissatisfaction, anger, and despair, into mass engagement. (Note for those outside the U.S. who may not be following all this too closely: Sanders would almost definitely have become the 45th U.S. president if the Democratic Party, of which he was unfortunately a part, hadn’t gone to great lengths to sabotage his bid.)
So as not to give anything away, Salamon lays out a detailed set of steps by which the “normal mode” gives way to the “emergency mode.” This is an extremely interesting and important read.
Craig,
Had Bernie Saunders been nominated, Donald Trump would be a shoe-in for President !
Only a small, vocal minority of Americans, indeed anyone, will vote for an old, angry, condescending, finger-wagging, preacher, with totally unworkable and unacceptable policies.
Domestically, Saunders would be a disaster, while abroad he would destroy what remains of US Prestige and influence.
Oddly enough, the general public are no enthusiastic supporters of a bunch of extremist advocates who have cried “wolf” some many times and at the best have only ever produced a tali wagging golden retriever!
Joe Public is not adverse to sensible environmental action, but he’s grown very wary of hysterical prophesies from totally incompetent, unqualified advocates that would destroy the economy in the pursuit of some ill-conceived politically motivated ideology.
At some stage, you must consider possibility the fault lies in the singer or the song, and stop blaming the stupidity of the audience.
This is hard. Really hard. And, one of the least productive strategies for leading people is to keep telling them that they are stupid and that they are wrong – even if one or both happen to be true.
The way to address climate change and climate change mitigation, the way to get things done, is to devise and champion specific, productive, positive actions. If you want to get people to do something, you merry well better have something concrete in mind that you would like for them to do.
At SolRio we are working to reduce CO2 and mitigate drought in the Southwest which is significantly driven by climate change. Our approach centers on large, regional scale desalination powered by renewable solar energy – in essence turning the sunshine we have into the water we need.
We seek to utilize the existing grid connection and seawater inlet-discharge systems at the disused San Onofre nuclear power plant. This existing infrastructure will support a 1.1 billion gallon per day desalination plant. The fresh water produced will flow to the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) at Diamond Valley lake. Energy for the plant will come from solar farms and grid storage battery systems distributed across the Southwest.
Swapping new, desalinated water for water MWD currently draws from the Colorado River and from California’s Central Valley, and swapping that water to upstream users, will deliver water as far away as Las Vegas and even Denver.
The project’s large solar generation and grid storage systems will help CAISO manage the grid. When wind and solar generation in California falls off, electricity from the desalination project solar farms in other states can be diverted to the grid to meet demand and the desalination plant throttled back. Our project will aid a more renewable grid, lowering CO2 footprint of regional energy generation. At the same time, it creates water we need in an increasingly hot, increasingly dry region.
A specific, large scale climate change mitigation project like ours can bring diverse communities together and produce real results because it serves real needs of real people over a large, regional area. Not everyone in the Southwest is a climate change advocate. But everyone here needs water.
Randy,
Thank you for your very interesting and pertinent contribution.
Love the idea of refurbishing an d adapting old infrastructure with new technology ! Production of water is not hampered by the problems of intermittent power generation in the same way as industrial power on demand requirements.
Although I’m not familiar with your project, I certainly will make time to become acquainted with your organization. I must applaud your practical approach.
I look forward to hearing more about your project(s).
marcopolo,
There is more information about our organization and how we can turn our sunshine into water on our website:
SolRio.org
Randy,
Thank you, I’m already accessing your very interesting site.