Climate Horizons 8 (What baby boomers can do about climate change...)
News, Views and Solutions in an All-of-the-Above World.
Greetings!
We’ve vetted and selected a range of worthwhile climate-related news and information and resources for you. Atop those, we’d like to start by highlighting an excellent and short interview with Bill McKibben.
No doubt some of you are older than 60, and might well find this speaks directly to you. But it’s a good read for anyone, at any age. Really, it’s about all of us.
QUOTE FROM KAI: “I’m 65. I started doing environmental work 41 years ago. A lot of people in their sixties and seventies and beyond have been in this fight for a long time. I love the way Bill captures the need for us to stay in the fight AND support the younger activists. We need each other.”
We’ve provided an excerpt below, but please click the link to read the entire condensed interview.
What baby boomers can do about climate change, according to Bill McKibben
The famed environmentalist founded an organization called Third Act to empower older adults to protect the planet
EXCERPT:
Bill McKibben is an activist, author, and most recently, founder of Third Act. The group, which launched in 2021, has grown to more than 50,000 members who address climate and racial justice issues. What’s unique about this group? Everyone involved is over the age of 60.
Yale Climate Connections sat down with McKibben to learn more about why he started Third Act and how older adults’ strengths complement the enthusiasm and momentum of youth activists.
Yale Climate Connections: Why did you feel the need to start an organization for adults over 60 that focuses on climate?
Bill McKibben: People over the age of 60 may have a deeper sense almost of anyone of how much change has come. We remember the first pictures that came back from the Apollo Mission of the Earth viewed from outer space. And it’s a shock to us to realize that the world doesn’t look like that anymore; the top isn’t white like that still. And I think over that long baseline, we have an almost intuitive sense, a visceral sense, of how much change there’s been. And so, we know better than most what’s happening, and we have a sense of obligation. If you’re 70 now, you’ve been on this Earth for about 80% of all the carbon that humans have ever emitted. So we know that we’re implicated in this and that we are capable of doing much about it, and that combination really gets people out to work.
It’s not as if we haven’t always known in our generations that pollution was a problem. We marched in the first Earth Day in 1970 and won passage of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, but we did not anticipate that the poles were going to melt. Climate change is an order of magnitude different than anything we’ve ever seen before.
The climate is changing, and our journalists are here to help you make sense of it. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter and never miss a story.
I’ve had the idea [for Third Act] in the back of my mind for 10 years, ever since we started the fight against the Keystone pipeline. I wrote the letter that asked people to come to Washington to do civil disobedience, and it was the largest turnout of civil disobedience in this country for a long time. But I said in the letter that I did not think that young people should have to be the cannon fodder for this.
Read the full (not long) interview here.
Third Act on the Web
Third Act on the Web: Working Principles page
Third Act on Facebook
Third Act on Instagram
Third Act on Linked In
You can learn a lot about Bill on his website, including links to his outstanding books and many other writings: https://billmckibben.com/
Also on Substack, Bill authors “The Crucial Years,” which offers always excellent writing from one of the longest and most respected leaders in the fight against climate change.
”It’s unfiltered communication, from me to you, about the deepest problem that humans have ever encountered.”
• SELECTED NEWS and INFORMATION:
A few recent news items, usually in the form of a headline and link, along with a short description or excerpt.
••••••••••
New York Times (October 26, 2023)
New House Speaker Champions Fossil Fuels and Dismisses Climate Concerns
Representative Mike Johnson comes from Louisiana oil country and has said he does not believe burning fossil fuels is changing the climate.
Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, the newly elected House speaker, has questioned climate science, opposed clean energy and received more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than from any other industry last year.
Even as other Republican lawmakers increasingly accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is dangerously heating the planet, the unanimous election of Mr. Johnson on Wednesday suggests that his views may not be out of step with the rest of his party.
Indeed, surveys show that climate science has been politicized in the United States to an extent not experienced in most other countries. A Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday found that a vast majority of Democrats polled — 85 percent — said that climate change is an extremely or very serious problem, while 47 percent of Republicans viewed climate change as not too serious or not a problem at all.
“It should concern us all that someone with such extreme views and so beholden to the fossil fuel industry has such power and influence during a time when bold action is more critical than ever,” said Ben Jealous, the executive director of the Sierra Club, an environment group.
RELATED:
Sierra Club (October 30, 2023)
New House Speaker Mike Johnson Holds Extreme Views on Climate Change and Science
Louisiana legislators and progressive activists warn that Johnson’s polite demeanor masks dangerous ideas
Bloomberg (October 29, 2023)
New House Speaker Widens Partisan Climate Divide
Mike Johnson believes even less than his predecessor in an emergency that is alredy costing Americans many tens of billions of dollars each year.
Climate Depot (October 26, 2023)
Meet the new climate-skeptic Speaker of the House!
Mike Johnson brings pro-oil, climate-skeptical record to speakership
••••••••••
CleanTechnica (October 29, 2023)
Many Conservative US Politicians Push For Anti-Clean Energy Legislation
Conservative politicians continue to write bills that are designed to maintain the devastating hold of the fossil fuel industry on US energy.
Conservative legislators across governance continue to support the fossil fuel industry and their subsidiaries. In spring 2023, they passed an energy bill aimed at expanding mining and fossil fuel production that would repeal sections of the Biden–Harris landmark climate legislation. That failed, but the collective conservative mindset that they have a license to pollute continues on.
••••••••••
Washington Post (October 25, 2023)
How Hurricane Otis stunned forecasters with its leap to a Category 5
Forecasters didn’t even anticipate Otis would become a hurricane. Then it broke all-time records.
When residents of Acapulco, Mexico, went to bed on Monday, Wednesday’s forecast called for gusty winds and some downpours. Otis, a run-of-the-mill tropical storm, was expected to only “gradually strengthen” en route to the coast. Instead, Otis intensified faster than any other eastern Pacific storm on record Tuesday and became the strongest hurricane to ever strike Mexico slamming Acapulco as a “potentially catastrophic Category 5.”
As winds catapulted to Category 5 strength Tuesday evening, shocked forecasters at the National Hurricane Center described the storm’s extreme intensification as a “nightmare scenario” and “extremely dangerous situation.” Nobody saw it coming — but with human-caused climate change warming the planet’s oceans, this situation could become more frequent.
RELATED:
Yale Climate Connections (October 26, 2023)
Why did Hurricane Otis get so strong, so fast?
The storm burst to Category 5 strength before making a devastating landfall near Acapulco, Mexico.
In what the National Hurricane Center called a “nightmare scenario,” Hurricane Otis made landfall near Acapulco, Mexico, at 1:25 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, October 25, as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane with 165 mph winds and a central pressure of 923 mb. Otis unexpectedly intensified from a tropical storm with 65 mph winds to a Category 5 storm with 165 mph winds — an astonishing 100 mph increase — in the 24 hours before landfall. Rapid intensification is extremely dangerous because it leaves people little time to prepare for strong storms. The phenomenon is expected to happen more often as the climate warms.
• GOOD NEWS and SOLUTIONS:
A number of items that highlight either real and notable progress being made somewhere or information about a few of the many solutions that are out there and available today.
••••••••••
Renew Economy (October 27, 2023)
South Australia grid operates at 99.8 per cent wind and solar over past seven days
South Australia has an ambition to reach “net 100 per cent renewables” by 2030, but the reality is that it will get there several years before that, perhaps as early as 2026 when the new transmission link to NSW is fully commissioned.
But the state already has a glimpse of what a “net 100 per cent renewables” grid might look like, and particularly in the past week when it averaged 99.8 per cent renewables (as a share of its local demand) up to 9.30 am (grid time, of AEST) on Friday.
There are a couple of things to observe about this. First, it is “net” renewables because South Australia is connected to another grid (Victoria), so it can export some of its surplus power when needed, and import some too.
Secondly, South Australia is unique in that its share of renewables – 71.5 per cent of the past 12 months, 86.6 per cent in the last 30 days, and 99.8 per cent in the last seven days – comes from wind and solar only: The state has no hydro, and no geothermal, and no biomass power to speak of.
••••••••••
Biggest Offshore Wind Farm Yet, in Virginia
The decision comes as other projects to build wind farms along the Atlantic Coast have run into trouble.
The Interior Department on Tuesday approved a plan to install up to 176 giant wind turbines off the coast of Virginia, clearing the way for what would be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm yet.
The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, to be built by Dominion Energy, is the fifth commercial-scale offshore wind project approved by the Biden administration. If completed, the 2.6-gigawatt wind farm would produce enough electricity to power more than 900,000 homes, without creating any of the carbon dioxide emissions that are heating the planet.
••••••••••
CNN (October 29, 2023)
They went hunting for fossil fuels. What they found could help save the world
White hydrogen – also referred to as “natural,” “gold” or “geologic” hydrogen – is naturally produced or present in the Earth’s crust and has become something of a climate holy grail.
Hydrogen produces only water when burned, making it very attractive as a potential clean energy source for industries like aviation, shipping and steel-making that need so much energy it’s almost impossible to meet through renewables such as solar and wind.
But while hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, it generally exists combined with other molecules. Currently, commercial hydrogen is produced in an energy-intensive process almost entirely powered by fossil fuels.
••••••••••
World Wildlife Fund
The good news about climate change
EXCERPT:
With more frequent and extreme weather events, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels, there is no question that the climate crisis is here now and the impacts are felt by humans and nature alike. But there is good news: every day we see more individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments responding to the crisis. People are coming together to take concrete steps to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.
By working together, we can change course. We can pave a path forward to a future in which businesses rely on renewable energy, cities rethink waste disposal and transportation, and work with communities and individuals to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
• THINGS YOU CAN DO:
For this section, this week we are sharing something that is more about what WE can do than what you can do… but with a strong message that combines them both well in the end.
It would be great if you could watch all of the six short videos in this excellent Climate Solutions 101 series from Drawdown. But if you can’t, please skip ahead to the end and watch “Unit 6: Making It Happen.”
Climate Solutions 101
(from Project Drawdown)
Your climate solutions journey begins now. Filled with the latest need-to-know science and fascinating insights from global leaders in climate policy, research, investment, and beyond, this video series is a brain-shift toward a brighter climate reality.
Climate Solutions 101 is the world’s first major educational effort focused solely on solutions. Rather than rehashing well-known climate challenges, Project Drawdown centers game-changing climate action based on its own rigorous scientific research and analysis. This course, presented in video units and in-depth conversations, combines Project Drawdown’s trusted resources with the expertise of several inspiring voices from around the world. Climate solutions become attainable with increased access to free, science-based educational resources, elevated public discourse, and tangible examples of real-world action. Continue your climate solutions journey, today.
Unit 1 Setting the Stage
Unit 2 Stopping Climate Change
Unit 3 Reducing Sources
Unit 4 Supporting Sinks and Improving Society
Unit 5 Putting It All Together
Unit 6 Making It Happen
ON THE WEB: Project Drawdown
ON THE WEB: Climate Solutions 101
Not sure if you want to invest the time? Watch the short trailer!
• INTERNET RESOURCES & SOCIAL MEDIA CONNECTIONS:
There are a lot of great resources on the web and social media — people, groups and pages. In each newsletter, we suggest one or two you might want to check out (on the web or Facebook or Threads or Instagram or any number of other sites). This week: Xiye Bastida.
••••••••••
Xiye Bastida
Xiye Bastida is a 21-year-old climate justice activist based in New York City. She is an organizer with Fridays For Future and the co-founder of Re-Earth Initiative, an international youth-led organization that focuses on highlighting the intersectionality of the climate crisis. Bastida was born in Mexico and was raised as part of the Otomi-Toltec Indigenous community. For the first climate strike in March 2019, she mobilized 600 students from her school and has taken a citywide leadership role in organizing climate strikes. Bastida was the recipient of the 2018 UN Spirit Award and currently attends the University of Pennsylvania.
Xiye Bastida: If you adults won't save the world, we will | TED
In a deeply moving letter to her grandmother, Xiye Bastida reflects on what led her to become a leading voice for global climate activism -- from mobilizing school climate strikes to speaking at the United Nations Climate Summit alongside Greta Thunberg -- and traces her resolve, resilience and profound love of the earth to the values passed down to her. "Thank you for inviting me to love the world since the moment I was born," she says.
Dropping in with Xiye Bastida - Becoming a Protector of Our Planet
QUOTE: “The world is so big, and it has so many bad habits. I didn't know how a 15 year old was supposed to change anything. But I had to try.”
How youth gave climate the urgency it needed | Xiye Bastida | The TED Interview
Xiye’s Current favorite feature: Earthrise Studio Interview
ON THE WEB: Xiye Bastida
ON INSTAGRAM: Xiye Bastida
ON LINKED IN: Xiye Bastida
ON WIKIPEDIA: Xiye Bastida
ON THE WEB: Re-Earth Initiative
ON INSTAGRAM: Re-Earth Initiative
ON YOUTUBE: Re-Earth Initiative
If you haven’t subscribed to Climate Horizons, we hope you will. We offer this weekly newsletter for free! Climate Horizons will evolve as we learn from the experience, and from you. We welcome any thoughts, questions, or suggestions you may have, and encourage you to share this with others you think might be interested. Thank you!
Thanks for putting this together!! Do you have any recommendations for the best home clean energy provider/credits in Takoma Park? For a while the city was recommending Clean Choice Energy, but I wasn’t sure if that is still the best company to go with.