4 Reasons To Have Climate Hope For The Holidays

Here in Georgia, fall colors are starting to dominate the treescapes. It also signals one of my favorite times of the year – college football, basketball, cooler temperatures and my wife allowing chili and soups on the menu. It is also a transition to peak holiday season. On this lazy Sunday morning, I polled my social media platforms for writing topics. My friend and colleague, Dr. Amanda Townley, wrote something that really inspired me. Townley, who becomes the new executive director of the National Center for Science Education in December, asked me to write about climate hope for the holidays. Challenge accepted. Here are four reasons for hope this holiday season in the midst of headlines about rapidly intensifying hurricanes, sea level rise, flooded cites, and drought.

The First Global Stocktake

The Paris Agreement is a global effort to reset our carbon emissions. Unless you are living under a rock or in a haze of ideological misinformation, it is clear that increasing greenhouse gas emissions are changing our climate system. Such changes are impacting weather, sea level, agricultural productivity, national security, water supply, public health, infrastructure resilience and more. As a part of the Paris Agreement, a Global Stocktake was created to calculate how much progress countries are making in cutting greenhouse emissions and standing up financial mechanism to support adaptation or resiliency. The effort will be a highlight of the Conference of the Parties (COP)-28 in December. Last month in Washington D.C., I was part of the Firestone Policy Forum hosted by the Environmental Law Institute. We discussed this very topic.

A United Nations website writes, “….We know we are not on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius….Governments will take a decision on the global stocktake at COP28, which can be leveraged to accelerate ambition in their next round of climate action plans due in 2025.” Where’s the hope Dr. Shepherd?” The Stocktake, which is a 5-year climate checkup, is one of the most comprehensive assessments to date and provides a way to assess where things stand. It allows countries to provide an update to Nationally Determined Contributions and plans for how they will ramp up their actions. The updated NDCs must be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change within two years. I will be watching the COP outcomes in the United Arab Emirates because we should get a roadmap for the next phase of actions on the global scale.

The Forthcoming Release Of The U.S. National Climate Assessment

Here in the U.S., the results of the fifth National Climate Assessment are forthcoming. According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program website, the report is, “The US. Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and adaptation across the Nation….interagency effort that brings together hundreds of experts from federal, state, and local governments, as well as the academic, non-profit, and private sectors.”

Isn’t it just another report, Dr. Shepherd? Yes, it is, but the hope for me lies in the affirmation of the scientific process. Through all of the innuendo, coordinated disinformation campaigns, and a generation of “social medial climatologists,” the science process remains strong. Recent studies confirm that climate models have been accurate and predicted many things that we are now observing. This 2021 National Geographic headline speaks for itself, “How climate models got so accurate they earned a Nobel Prize.” The good news is that sound science, even with the questions that remain (and yes there are some), must continue to inform policymakers, industry, and stakeholders on how we need to move forward.

The Tide Is Turning On Renewable Energy

I see this in my own experiences as electric vehicle driver. Even one year ago, I could visit fast charging hubs in my area and have no wait. Oh, how things have changed. Virtually every time I go to one now, they are full. Bronson Griscom, a climate scientist at Conservation International told Bruno Vander Velde in a blog post, “The IPCC found that solar panels are about nine times cheaper than in 2010; the same goes for the batteries required to store renewable energy….Prices are diving, and demand is rising faster than most models anticipated.”

A recent International Energy Agency report found that countries are moving rapidly towards climate-friendly technologies. A press release for the reports says, “Driving greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s energy sector to net zero and limiting global warming to 1.5 °C remains possible due to the record growth of key clean energy technologies, though momentum needs to increase rapidly in many areas, according to a new edition of the IEA’s landmark Net Zero Roadmap.” The roadmap even lays out a pathway to net zero emissions by 2050. I was a NASA scientist for twelve years, but this is not rocket science. The hopeful nugget is that we know what to do. Emissions reduction and other mitigation strategies will play a big role as well adaptation measures for impacts already locked into the system.

The Youth

I recently was a keynote speaker at the Youth Climate Summit organized by the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. The youth were clearly in command of this conference and had clear objectives in mind. While they were interested in the science and impacts of climate change, they were also laser-focused on the solution space at the local, national and global level. Our youth are not hampered by the biases, and misinformation that plague many adults. Irrespective of their politics, culture, geographical context, faith, or other marinades, they understand the implications of climate change. Beyond getting it, they are engaged even when they may have moments of despair or fatigue. And to be clear, it is not fair to put the burden on them. We got them into this mess, and they recognize that they have to be force for change in the midst of climae delayism. It’s time to help them.

As the holidays approach, be thankful for Earth. It sustains us. It is our home. We don’t have a plan B or rental option so let’s collectively be good stewards of it.

Denial of responsibility! TechCodex is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.