Dear Friends,
So often taking action on climate change is depicted as giving up the things we love, when in fact, climate change is wreaking havoc on the things we love and the way we live. Climate action is our best chance at saving the things that matter most: our jobs and economy, our families’ health and safety, and, yes, our favorite foods.
Climate change hurts our jobs and economy. When it’s too hot to work outside safely, productivity drops precipitously and hours are reduced or cut completely. Think of the livelihoods that have been affected in tourism, recreation, farming, construction, fisheries, and forestry just due to excessive heat. Other climate-fueled natural disasters, like stronger hurricanes and wildfires, also directly harm our ability to do our jobs, and our economy at large.
Climate change endangers our families’ health and sense of safety. Extended heat waves, cataclysmic rain floods, increased mosquito and tick-borne diseases, higher levels of asthma and allergy afflictions – real threats to us and our children today that are likely to worsen.
And it’s hampering things we enjoy – travel and outdoor entertainment, for example – and decimating some of our favorite foods. We’ve written about coffee, olive oil, and chocolate – this month we learned that vanilla and ketchup are also on the potential “endangered” list, sending shivers down our spines as we contemplate cakes and barbecues without these staples.
The best response to these threats and losses? Climate action – investing in the steps needed to stop climate change from getting worse and to adapt to the changes already in motion.
Here’s the good news: The Inflation Reduction Act – the nation’s more extensive climate legislation, passed two years ago in August – is producing significant results. It’s reshoring manufacturing, stimulating new jobs in rural America, and saving Americans money on energy. So far, the IRA has paid out $8.4 billion to help us invest in our homes’ efficiency (which will save us money in the long term). It has strengthened our manufacturing base to levels we haven’t seen in decades, bringing good-paying jobs and clean technology projects to communities around the country, including many localities that lost fossil fuel production. It’s just the beginning, and while there’s still some pushback, opposition among conservatives is dissolving as the economic benefits become clearer.
So next time you hear a snarky comment about renewable energy, or EVs, or the IRA, remind yourself (and maybe the speaker) that these new technologies, and strong policies to support them, are our best ticket to a better future.
Sincerely,
The C-Change Conversations Team
Notable Quote
“Two-thirds of the world’s largest cities are located within a meter of sea level. What happens when sea level rises a meter or more, as it’s likely to this century? We can’t pick up Shanghai or London or New York and move them.”
– Katherine Hayhoe, climate scientist at the Nature Conservancy
News of Concern
Let’s repeat: climate change is wreaking havoc on the things we love and the way we live. And it’s costing us a lot of money along the way.
Take for instance the $227 million crab industry in the Bering Sea, an area warming four times faster than the earth’s average. A new study links the deaths of billions of crabs to warming waters, and indicates how rapidly ecosystems in the Arctic are changing.
Or consider summer hot spots we love to visit, like Italy and Greece. The Mediterranean has been battered by extreme drought, heat, and wildfires and countries are worried their tourism industries will crumble. Indeed, the hot trend in travel is “coolcations” to more northern areas to avoid the unbearable heat. This shift is a real economic concern for countries that have depended on tourism income for so long.
Climate change is also disrupting travel closer to home, with Amtrak reporting major climate-related delays and cancellations. Like other areas of our economy, our train infrastructure wasn’t built to handle the stronger downpours, high winds, and heat waves that climate change is serving up.
How about the summer activities we cherish, like outdoor concerts and festivals? Artists are postponing and canceling shows as severe weather becomes more frequent – and insurance for these events becomes more expensive. It’s not just a bummer for concertgoers, it’s a loss of income for all of the people who make the shows happen and for the localities that reap the tax benefits.
So whether we traveled far or stayed near, climate change has impacted our lives this summer.
News of Hope
Again, let’s repeat: climate action is our best chance at saving the things we love. And we continue to be impressed by the momentum of action on so many fronts.
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is also playing its part in fostering new technologies that will boost our economy and lower emissions. One rising star? Battery storage, which enables us to store wind and solar energy in chemical form. The technology has dropped 90% in cost over the last 15 years and is now the fastest growing energy technology in the world. Lithium batteries, which are cheap and lightweight, require hard-to-get minerals, which could limit their role in the transition. Fortunately, a whole new industry is growing up around battery recycling, including 14 projects that will make, process, and recycle EV batteries in the United States. This represents a type of circular thinking that can move us forward. One factory in Ohio, for example, will be able to extract minerals like lithium and nickel from spent batteries to power 250,000 new EV batteries annually.
And lithium batteries aren’t the only ones getting a boost. Iron-air batteries capture the electrical charge created when iron rusts and can potentially store energy for 100 hours – much longer than their lithium counterparts. Form Energy announced that it will use this tech to build the world’s largest battery in Maine to shore up New England’s grid.
Speaking of batteries, EREVs are capturing a lot of attention. These extended range EVs have a small gasoline tank that recharges their batteries, enabling them to reach almost 700 miles on one charge. U.S. companies plan to introduce them to our market next year in a clear answer to range anxiety.
Another powerful battery innovation? Baltimore Gas & Electric is enlisting owners of electric Ford F-150s to become ”virtual” batteries for the grid, paying them to power their homes from their trucks during peak hours, then recharging during cheaper periods. EVs are driving up our electricity usage, but if we can use them to smooth out our energy usage, they turn into real assets. The grid gets a boost and the drivers get financial incentives that help defray the costs of buying the EV. It’s a model attracting attention from other utilities around the country.
And while the U.S. is making major strides and leads in innovation, China continues to lead the race in manufacturing and installing new technologies. While still building coal plants – and still the world’s number one greenhouse gas emitter – China reached several milestones this summer. In July, the country hit its 2030 green energy targets and, for the first time, the Chinese bought more electric cars than combustion engine vehicles. Furthermore, China launched the world’s largest floating offshore wind turbine – a two-headed wonder that can power 30,000 Chinese homes and is strong enough to harness hurricane-force winds (a major asset in our climate-charged reality).
We’ll wrap up with a distinctly smaller and low-tech idea: using fungus and microbes to capture and consume carbon. Adding fungus to crop soil can enhance carbon capture, and newly discovered bacteria can consume carbon dioxide via photosynthesis at astonishing rates. Scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs are taking note. It’s a reminder that we have many solutions – the big high-tech ones and the smaller, natural ones – that we can harness to meet this challenge.
