What We Did This Year

It’s the time of year when our mailboxes and email are flooded with requests for funds. But just what have we accomplished worldwide against Climate Change? The groups I follow, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund, and Audubon Society, are all sending out their accomplishments. I am just an ordinary person and this is my perspective of what has changed. 

First, we are on our way to making electric cars in the Western world. Norway leads the world in per capita use, although China has the most cars in use. (1) The US has been slow to change, with gas-guzzling trucks, SUVs and luxury cars common in most areas. My only concern with this is what we will use to create the electricity. Germany has closed three of the last six nuclear power plants, showing how smart they are once again. (2) One positive outcome of the COVID pandemic is that skies cleared when people stopped driving. So we got to see what clean air looked like. Of course, clear does not mean clean.

Businesses have found a selling point to be carbon neutral, so we have moved past the pioneer stage of change. News outlets are reporting on climate change daily. This means “a rapidly evolving research” (3) in most areas. 

A good summary before the Climate Change Conference was on Vox. “Coal is effectively dead in many countries. Renewable prices are falling rapidly. The price of solar fell by 89 percent in the past decade. Onshore wind fell by 70 percent. They’re now cheaper than coal and gas. To make this transition, we will need lots of energy storage. There’s good news there too: The price of batteries has fallen by 97 percent in the past 30 years.”(4)

The Hill had a summary of how well/badly we have done in combatting climate change. (5) Zaelke and Dreyfus see positives as advances in science, policy and activism. Feedback loops, which I covered in a previous post, are being monitored. Fossil fuels are on their way out, at a snail’s pace. Awareness of the need for natural habitat and the species it contains, and activism by youth are on the rise. The World Bank is putting its money where its mouth is, starting a fund to help countries trying to advance in this field.

So, to sum up, we have turned the bow of the ship. Although we signed back onto the Climate Change Agreement, my greatest hope is with the youth of today. They are being affected the most, and they have the best chance to turn things around. I believe they will.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car_use_by_country#, accessed 12/31/21
2. https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-germany-angela-merkel-gerhard-schroeder-11b97717f822a38c90fb7483ffc825aa, accessed 12/31/21
3. Lionello, P., Abrantes, F., Gacic, M. et al. The climate of the Mediterranean region: research progress and climate change impacts. Reg Environ Change 14, 1679–1684 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-014-0666-0, accessed 12/32/21
4. Lopez, German. The world’s progress on climate change. https://www.vox.com/the-weeds/2021/11/5/22765434/climate-change-global-warming-progress-glasgow-cop26, accessed 12/31/21
5. Zaelke, Durwood, and Dreyfus, Gabrielle. The good, the bad and the ugly of climate change in 2021 — but it’s not too late to act. https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/587652-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-climate-change-in-2021-but-its. 12/29/21. Accessed 12/31/21.