Dear Friends,
For way too long, climate change has been depicted as a future threat – in years to come, our planet would warm to temperatures that could threaten our health and safety, our food and water systems, and even our jobs and economies.
Unfortunately, recent news events underscore that this “distant” future has arrived, and we aren’t ready for it. We shattered almost every climate record in 2023 and the World Meteorological Organization has issued a “red alert” as 2024 is already setting new high temperatures. Intense heat, drought, and wildfires are creating devastating losses to ranches and farms across the country – not tomorrow, but now. And Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is connecting the dots to economic pain, noting that climate change is driving up insurance costs, which in turn are driving up inflation.
All three of those “far off” fears about climate change are impacting our lives right now.
But luckily, there are things we can do about it. We can support decarbonization and innovation to lessen the risk in ways that will make our lives better and save the things we love. We have the tools and the know-how, right now.
What are we waiting for?
Sincerely,
The C-Change Conversations Team
Notable Quote
“If the [2023 temperature] anomaly does not stabilize by August — a reasonable expectation based on previous El Niño events — then the world will be in uncharted territory. It could imply that a warming planet is already fundamentally altering how the climate system operates, much sooner than scientists had anticipated.”
– Gavin Schmidt, climatologist and director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City
News of Concern
March brought news of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s long-awaited rule to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures for public companies and in public offerings. While these rules have been derided as too “woke” by some and too “weak” by others, this is a watershed moment that recognizes what many of our peer countries have already accepted and acted on –- that climate change risks can materially impact companies’ financial stability, and investors need reliable information to evaluate those risks.
The pushback from some conservative interest groups is concerning: how can we protect our investments and financial security if these material risks are hidden? Pretending climate risks don’t exist – or punishing companies for taking action to avoid or mitigate that risk – are not prudent strategies. On the other hand, some progressive groups are quick to criticize companies for greenwashing, for claiming credit for actions that fall short of real, measurable action. Together, these countervailing pressures are leading to a rise in “greenhushing,” when companies pull back from highlighting what actions they are taking. The good news is that a growing number of companies are factoring in climate risks, even if they are doing it quietly.
We were truly concerned to hear that legislators in Texas and Florida seem to be forgetting that heat causes more annual deaths in the U.S. than any other type of weather. The states have taken steps to strip localities of the ability to require heat protection – like mandatory water breaks or rest time in the shade – for outdoor workers. Without such protections, our soaring temperatures put our essential outdoor workers at real risk of heat-related illness or death.
And a new report tells us that the cost and pain of extreme weather is much steeper than we thought. A study found that official death tolls after climate disasters are acutely undercounted and could be as much as two- to four-times higher – and these figures don’t include heat-related deaths.
Meanwhile, even as we make strides toward decarbonizing our electricity sector, our progress could be undercut by a surge in power use, fueled by the recent renaissance in manufacturing, expansion of new data centers and AI, and the electrification of cars and building systems.
So in some ways, we keep running to stand still. Like the $500,000 sand dune that a group of Massachusetts homeowners built to protect their properties, only to have it washed away by high tides in three days. We rebuild and nature takes away, and we can’t afford to keep doing that. The financial stakes – for personal wealth, community tax bases, and state and global economies – are just too high.
This is it, folks – the future is here. Time to get our heads out of the sand.
News of Hope
Luckily, the human ingenuity needed to address climate change is also present, here and now – and racing full steam ahead. We love to hear about the big ideas that will help us meet the climate challenge, and March brought news of gargantuan efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Offshore wind in the United States is shaking off its years-long malaise, which was triggered by high interest rates and supply chain constraints, as well as local opposition and litigation. It looks like 2024 could be a banner year, with the nation’s first commercial-scale project opening in March and six more approved. While most activity is planned along the Atlantic coast, floating turbine technology is mature enough to open up deeper water projects off the West Coast and in Maine. Although offshore wind remains controversial in the U.S., other countries like China and Germany, as well as the UK, are successfully constructing and integrating this technology at increasingly high levels onto their energy grid.
India is building the world’s biggest green energy plant – it’s a solar facility that will be five times the size of Paris (so big, it’ll be visible from space), and it will generate enough power to run a country the size of Switzerland. And it’s happening in a part of the world that so desperately needs it.
Back in the U.S., Ohio has greenlighted a solar, storage, and agrivoltaics project that will demonstrate on a massive scale that land can be used for both renewables and agriculture, a dual-tasking that has significant benefits to both feed us and protect us.
And then there’s the ocean, where an innovative new process enables us to pull excess carbon dioxide from the water (which in turn enables oceans to absorb more from the atmosphere) AND make clean hydrogen, which is a “hot ticket” in the decarbonization world. Singapore is poised to build out this new technology, creating the world’s largest ocean carbon removal facility. Oceans are the new frontier in carbon removal – seawater holds 150 times more CO2 than air per equivalent unit, so this technology holds real promise, provided care is taken to ensure that the new methods do not harm ocean ecosystems.
Another crucial part of our transition away from fossil fuels is figuring out how to have clean energy available when we need it – long-term storage is critical. There are many ingenious ways for storing renewable energy for days or longer, from superheating sand and “de-rusting” iron to liquifying carbon dioxide. It’s an exciting technological race to behold.
Did you know that if concrete was a country, it would be one of the largest carbon emitters in the world? Concrete is the second-most used material globally after water and it emits more than 7% of global carbon emissions. Big investors like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are working with companies to figure out how to make concrete less carbon-heavy through new materials and new processes. It’s a potentially climate-changing way of thinking about a product that we rely on so heavily.
And finally, the Biden administration announced significant regulations that call for reduced automobile tailpipe emissions and will speed up our transition to zero-emissions vehicles over the next eight years. The new rule will avoid more than seven billion tons of CO2 emissions over 30 years – equal to all of the greenhouse gases the U.S. emits in a year. It’s a move that is certain to cause political furor, but it’s also the type of push we need as we race to meet the climate challenges that we face today.
Notable Graph
While agriculture is the primary producer of methane emissions globally, the energy industry is actually the biggest culprit in the United States. But all emissions matter, so that’s why we applaud the March launch of the Environmental Defense Fund’s observation satellite MethaneSAT. It circles the earth 15 times a day and gives us new eyes in the sky to pinpoint and accurately measure methane emissions wherever they occur. Although its impacts don’t last as long, methane is more potent than CO2 – so stopping it is akin to “pulling the handbrake on climate change.”
Notable Video
We continue to be awed by the constantly evolving innovation in the face of climate change. This “CBS Evening News” report takes a look at how two companies are taking different approaches to carbon capture, an important tool in addressing greenhouse gas emissions. Human ingenuity is indeed a force to be reckoned with – one that, we believe, can change our future.
