Friends of Al

What do you instantly think of when someone mentions climate change? Melting ice caps and stranded polar bears? Cracked, dried up riverbeds? Hurricanes and intense weather? I think of something a little different when someone mentions climate change....

 I think of this guy. Al Gore.

Al Gore and climate change go together like peanut butter and jelly. Thinking of one makes me think of the other. Al Gore and "An Inconvenient Truth" must have came out at a very influential time for me. It was 2006, and I was a sophomore in high school. I was just starting to figure out what I wanted to do with my life . I purchased "An Inconvenient Truth" on DVD. I have watched it more than once, and tried to get my friends to watch it with no success. I guess you could say Al Gore convinced me to go to SPEA. Oh Al. I even sported this "Friends of Al" bag as my backpack in high school to show my support. 

Yes, I still have and use this bag.

My autographed copy of "Our Choice"

I even met the guy. Once. For about 2 minutes. He came to the Borders in downtown Chicago for a book signing for his book, "Our Choice." It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving of my sophomore year of college in 2009. I skipped all my Tuesday classes and came home Monday just so that I could meet Al Gore. I was estatic! My dad and I waited in line for approximately 4 hours on that cold November morning. I am pretty sure it was misting. I was so excited as the line twisted and turned, getting me closer and closer to my main man. And then it was over. He signed my book so fast, I have no other memory other than standing at the table. The book signing was eventually interrupted by protesters protesting about Mr. Gore's work. You can see what happened in the video below around minute 1:30. 

Action and Delay
If "An Inconvenient Truth" does not scare you into doing something about climate change, below is something else that can. I did tweet this video earlier, but I feel it is relevant to these readings. It creates a visual for Pacala and Socolow's conclusion that, "in confronting the problem of greenhouse warming, the choice today is between action and delay" (180).

6 Degrees
Even more relavent is the video below done by National Geographic. It profiles what will happen with each degree of warming. One degree may not seem like a lot, but man it sure is. And 6 degrees? We do not want to go there. Both videos were ones we watched while I TAed for E162 Environment and People.

Breaking Climate Change Down

Pacala and Socolow Stabilization Wedges 2004

All of that may seem really daunting. And it is. But what we need to do is create strategies that break it down to make it seem a bit more accommodating.  That is usually how I tackle a big project. I make lists of what I need to do based on importance. What we need to do here is break down climate change to make it more manageable for us to handle. The planet's fate is in our hands! We cannot just attack it in an unorganized fashion.

A perfect example of breaking it down is Pacala and Socolow's Stabilization Wedges. I first read about these in the Human Behavior and Energy Consumption (HBEC) course last semester. Each wedge of the triangle becomes a task on our list of things to do. Each wedge represents an activity that reduces emissions into the atmosphere (175). Some examples of the wedges are CO2 capture and storage, renewable electricity and fuels, efficiency and conservation, fuel-switching, nuclear fission, forests and soil. Once we cut carbon emissions by one-fourth in buildings and appliances projected for 2054, we can cross that off our list. For those of you who are list-oriented like me, it feels really good to finally cross something off once you have accomplished it. So one wedge down, 6 more to go. It is equally important that we keep our list at 7 wedges. We do not want to add more things to our to-do list, we want to finish what we have first. As Pacala and Socolow state, if carbon emissions were to grow 2% per year, then we would need 10 wedges. If carbon emissions were to grow 3%, then we would need 18 wedges (175).

National Geographic

We learned in HBEC that CO2 in the atmosphere can be compared to filling up a bathtub with water. For CO2 atmospheric to level off, "stabilization at any level requires that net emissions do not simply remain constant, but eventually drop to zero," (175). Just like a bathtub is going to keep filling with water unless the water is shut off.

Breaking it Down Even More

While the Stabilization Wedges are large, emcompassing tasks, we can always break them down even further to the mitigation and adaptive strategies Roseland mentions in Chapter 13. Mitigation strategies focus on reduction, while adaptive strategies respond and adapt to the changes that are expected. While the Stabilization Wedges are something that might be handled at a national and global level, mitigation and adaptive strategies can also be applied at a local and personal level. The study by Bulkeley et al. (2009) found that municipal programs seek to adapt and mitigate through changes to the built environment, transportation, and public services.

Mitigation and adaptive strategies reminded me of Gardner and Stern's, "The Short List" of tasks Americans can do to reduce their energy consumption. They address the fact that U.S. households account for 38% of national carbon emissions through their direct actions. And best of all, they break each task down by how much energy is saved. There are two types of tasks they present: curtailment and  increased efficiency:

• Curtailment 
• Curtailment means using less of the existing energy equipment. This is an everyday behavior that costs you time. Additionally, this behavior is not necessarily visible. An example is turning off the lights or your electronics.

• Energy Efficiency
• Increased efficiency involves more energy efficient equipment and installation at a higher initial one-time cost. It costs money instead of time. This type of behavior is more visible, such as purchasing a Toyota Prius.

Gardner and Stern 2008

As you can tell from the table, sure you can turn down your thermostat and save 2.8% of energy every day for the rest of your life. Or you can increase your efficiency by installing attic insulation and ventilation one time and save 5.0%. Overall, in the long run, you will save more energy and reduce more carbon emissions by focusing on efficiency-improving actions. 

So I end today's blog with a quote from Gardner and Stern, reminding you that you too can reduce climate change.

"Research on public attitudes and opinion on climate change and energy conservation indicates that a near-majority or majority of Americans believe that climate change is real, that it is caused by human action, that reduced energy use is part of the solution, and that personal actions can contribute to reducing climate change."

-Gardner and Stern "The Short List"