Climate Crisis

For the Climate Moment talk in August, I introduced the concept of “Degrowth” as and organizing principle for human society and shared a link to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2024/06/in-defense-of-degrowth

Here is a link to previous Climate Moment editions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCt7LPRITZv7rF_1vMzOCDGZbqTE6g-I5

#climatechange #climate #climatemoment #degrowth

[Transcript]

For our climate moment. This month, I am going to introduce the concept of Degrowth. Now you’re all familiar with the growth economic model. So what is a Degrowth economic model? Well, let’s first look at the metrics. The main metric for growth is GDP–how fast the economy is growing.  For Degrowth, the main metrics are human well-being and living within planetary boundaries, so we balance human well-being with those how we’re doing on living within planetary boundaries.

Well, how are we doing right now living within planetary boundaries with our growth model? The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has developed a dashboard and identified nine distinct planetary boundaries and measures and reports them.  Right now, of those nine, we are exceeding planetary boundaries on six of them.

The “growth” model has us exceeding the carrying capacity of the earth. And the Degrowth economic model would have us start to live within the carrying capacity of the Earth and not exceed those boundaries.

Recently, I was at a sustainability and climate conference, and there was a VC speaking, and I asked him what he thought of that Degrowth economic model. He looked at me and said, “Good luck with that.” So, some people are quite dismissive of that, especially in Silicon Valley, which is grow, grow, grow. But meanwhile, in other places, like, say, that tree-hugging institute, Harvard, there is a recognition that we do need to start to live within the planetary boundaries.  Just last June There was an article in Harvard Business Review called In Defense of Degrowth. I will put this link into the chat for you and you can review that and learn more about Degrowth.

That’s the Climate Moment for the month. Thanks.

Since we’ve been experiencing record breaking heat this summer, I dedicated this July 2024 edition of the Climate Moment to heat and how it affects our weather. I presented this Climate Moment talk to my Provisors Palo Alto 1 group on Friday, July 12, 2024.

#climatechange #climate #climatemoment #heatwave

Transcript

Since we’ve been hearing a lot about heat in the news lately, this month’s Climate Moment is the heat edition. This chart here shows the average monthly temperature of the atmosphere [surface air measured at 2m.] And you can see over the last 12 months that the red line on the top has been over 1.5 degrees C every single month. On average, it was 1.64 degrees C. Now, you might know that 1.5 degrees C is the Paris Limit. So already for the past year, we have been over the Paris Limit.

But that’s not the whole story. The bigger story is the oceans, because most of the energy that’s being trapped in the earth is going into the oceans. And now you can see here, this is a chart of the northern hemisphere oceans. And you can see how much heat is being trapped there. And that is still going up.

Now, you ask yourself, how do we turn that around? Well, the way to know that is by something called Earth’s Energy Imbalance. And this is the amount of energy coming in from the sun and then being radiated back out into space. And that yellow line shows the amount coming in. The red line is the line going out.

And ideally, you want them to be the same or zero imbalance. But you can see now that over this last 20 years, it started a little under a half a Watt imbalance, and now it’s up at 1.4 Watts imbalance. So, it’s getting bigger and it’s going to continue to get bigger as long as we continue burning fossil fuels, emitting CO2, and then trapping the heat in the system.

And until we stop burning fossil fuels, the weather forecast is… more extreme heat and bigger and bigger ocean storms. That is my climate moment for the month.

I am grateful to Keley Peterson, group leader of ProVisors Palo Alto 1, for permitting me to inform our group about the latest state of the climate crisis with tips for what our members can do to address the crisis.

[Transcript]

Do you think we are already at 1.5C heating?

Scientists projected we would hit 1.5C average heating by 2030.

This July, Aug and Sept have been the hottest in the last 100,000 years. And Oct is already shaping up to be one of the hottest ever, too. Scientists predict that this year will be our first year of 1.5C heating and are already hypothesizing we may be at a staggering 1.8C heating by the end of the decade.

What can I do? People have been asking this. Everyone should be thinking to do two things now: Mitigate and Adapt.

Mitigation is what you could and should be doing now to slow down the crisis, both individually and systemically.

Adaptation is what you will be compelled to do as mother nature imposes the crisis on you.

Mitigation is proactive. Adaptation is reactive but can be proactive if you start building resiliency now.

Who will mitigate and who will adapt?

All of us will have to adapt.

Mitigation is another matter. Not all will, but the more of us who do, the better things will be in the long term.

Mitigation on an individual basis is simple.

Number 1: Don’t burn fossil fuels. Replace all your fossil fuel appliances and vehicles with electric ones.  Want to do more? Don’t eat beef and pork—the two food industries with the most carbon emissions. Just those two things and you’ve done great!

See – I told you—easy peasy.

Look, there are plenty of people who prefer denial. But I bet just as many want the truth, painful as it is. We deserve a shot at rising to the occasion.

Next month I would like to review some of the tax benefits available to you in the inflation reduction act to electrify your home and transportation.  In fact, if there’s a CPA you know who already has a handle on that, then please let me know.

And, Remember, most of us live in California, with the fifth largest economy and with a platform the world turns to for leadership.  We have the resources, the knowledge and more political will than most places. We must demonstrate that decarbonization can be done, and then the rest of the world will follow us.

Thanks.