From “A Gift for Conversation. Let’s discuss Climate Change: Why it matters. What to do about it.” A Book by Dr Louis Keal
Previous Chapter 3: What’s happened
Chapter 4: What’s going on
This chapter will tell the stories of some of the people already affected by Climate Change today.
We’ll look at what world governments are currently doing (or not doing) to slow Climate Change. We’ll also explore how our societies’ recovery from COVID and Climate Change can be faced together.
This chapter will also answer the question of how much we can expect from technological solutions to Climate Change.
What’s happening now with Climate Change?
Let’s imagine you are stepping out of your front door. That front door is in Paradise… the small town of Paradise, California. If you’re lucky, the reason you’re stepping outside is that you received advance warning of the wildfire rapidly sweeping towards the town, and you are prepared to evacuate. Many were not so lucky. The Paradise wildfire in 2018 killed 85 people, many trapped inside cars attempting to escape. The wildfire, intensified by higher temperatures and bizarrely low seasonal rainfall due to Climate Change1, wiped the town of 27,000 people from the face of the planet in eight hours2. With 1.1°C of warming, five times more of the Western USA burns yearly now than in the 1970s3.
Let’s imagine now you’re stepping out of your front door in rural Syria in 2010. Climate Change has caused such persistent and intense drought that you will never return to your home – the crops that fed you are dead, and there is little water to drink. Finding the only shelter you can, you and your family settle in an illegal camp on the edge of a major city, with hundreds of thousands of others displaced by Climate Change. Over the following months, increasing political tensions spill over into civil war4, leading to the Migrant Crisis of 2016, providing a tiny hint at the larger scale of migration that Climate Change will soon force5.
Stories like these are already appallingly common.
What is happening with nature and biodiversity?
In this book, I mostly talk about Climate Change. However, there two simultaneous crises: collectively called the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE), or the Climate and Biodiversity Crisis.
**C**onfusion. That’s what an increasing proportion of our wildlife is experiencing, and for them, this can mean the difference between life and death. Imagine you are a great tit – a beautiful, playful British garden bird with a black and white head and tail and yellow belly, about the size of a tennis ball with wings. You’ve just become a parent for the first time – the chicks are hatched and loudly calling for food, you’re busy searching for caterpillars, their primary food source. Except you can’t find any. Increasingly desperate, with chicks starving, you search and search.
The caterpillars that feed great tits are hatching earlier and earlier every year as Climate Change shifts the start of Spring. The great tits can’t keep up, and now risk extinction1. They’re not alone – whereas around 900 species went extinct in the last 500 years2, humanity’s current course will soon cause the extinction of more than 10% of all of the 8.7 million species that exist3.
Unsurprisingly, our natural world risks collapse thanks to both Climate Change and our destruction of natural habitats. But more surprising is how terrifying this breakdown is to the scientists4 studying our natural ‘life support systems’. These inter-related natural processes enable our supply of food and absorb massive amounts of carbon. But they rely on the survival of threatened species, such as pollinating insects5. Hence so do we.
Discussion Points
- Does nature have intrinsic value in itself, beyond human life support and earning us money?
- Do other species – living, breathing, and irreplaceable in the universe – have a right to life?
How much deforestation is happening?
Imagine an area of lush rainforest the size of a standard 25m swimming pool, large enough to be surrounded by the sounds of life and the smells of vegetation. This is how much of the 55 million-year-old Amazon rainforest is cut down every 0.7 seconds1. Globally, four times more tree cover is lost in this time2. Much of the deforestation of the Amazon is to grow crops for animal feed, resulting in meat that ends up in British supermarkets and fast food3,3.
It’s vital that we plant trees to replace those that have been lost. But from a carbon point of view, we can’t replace trees “one for one”. An 80 year old, metre-wide tree would absorb the same amount of carbon as fifty- two 10cm-wide trees, or thousands of saplings.4 We must stop deforestation of old trees.
Discussion Points
1. How many times have you seen mature trees in your neighbourhood or area chopped down in the name of development?
Story Three: How one man started a business and planted 130,000,000 trees
Christian Kroll is the boss of an unusual internet search engine. Seeing how much money Google were making from advertising during searches, Christian wanted in. But his business model was different. Having spent ten months in South America witnessing the deforestation first-hand, he was determined to do something about it. In 2009, he started Ecosia.org, the search engine that plants trees.
Over ten years on, the advertising revenue from Ecosia searches has been channelled into planting over 130 million trees. Since I replaced Google with Ecosia a year ago, I’ve contributed 4,000 more just by searching. And, having imposed legally-binding restrictions that all profits be re-invested into Ecosia, Christian is rethinking the role of business in our world.
Discussion Points
1. Do you see a gap in the market in your industry or area for a pro-climate, pro-environment business?
How can we deal with COVID and with Climate Change at the same time?
As I write this in July 2021, the UK is enjoying the prospect of re-opening from the COVID-19 lockdowns, thanks to a so far successful vaccine programme. Though, COVID is still with us – and in many countries the crisis is still building.
But as touched on previously, countries now have a choice how to rebuild their economies. The choice that many, including the UK, appear to be making, is to continue to invest in projects that will kill us in the long term. Fossil Fuel investments have made up 65% of the UK’s post-COVID recovery spending1. Instead, we must pressure politicians, policy-makers, and executives to invest in clean energy, green technology, green jobs, and to take this unique opportunity to start building a positive, survivable future.
Discussion Points
1. Do you want life, society, and our economic and social norms to all go “back to normal” after COVID? What might you change?
What has COVID-19 taught us?
The cost of the COVID-19 pandemic, both in the suffering and loss of those directly catching the disease and in those whose lives, livelihoods, and medical treatments were disrupted was without precedent in the modern era.
However, it has come with two lessons beyond value. Firstly, the world has received a hint at what disruption of civilisation looks like. A hint that, without adequate action on Climate Change, still represents drastically better circumstances than the suffering that today’s young people and their children will experience.
But the second lesson is more encouraging. We have seen proof that our modern societies can adapt to unthinkable challenges, our international communities can pull together, and change can happen.
Discussion Points
1. What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from COVID?
What are governments doing about Climate Change now?
Following the Extinction Rebellion protests in London in April 2019, the UK Parliament was the first in the world to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’1. Shortly after, the UK Government again became the first to set a ‘net zero greenhouse gas emissions’ climate goal (see next page), strengthened to cutting emissions by 78% by 2035, though little has been done since to realise this2.
Since the election of President Biden, the USA has pledged to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030. Currently, Morocco is leading the world on climate policy3, with a strong growth in renewable energy driving their development as a country.
To see how each country’s climate actions stack up to the challenge in front of us, you can visit: www.climateactiontracker.org/countries
What does ‘Net Zero by 2050’ mean? Is that what scientists say is the answer?
Net zero means that some carbon emissions will still be produced, but that humanity must somehow find a way to remove that carbon from the atmosphere, leaving an overall ‘zero’ emissions. This is a far better target than nothing. However, it is proving problematic.
Leading climate scientists have recently explained this choice of target has turned out to be a terrifying, deadly mistake1. Politicians have become fixated on the possibility of removing carbon in the future, thinking it allows them to delay action to reduce emissions now.
But over the last decade, the potential for technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere has been drastically overstated. Further, the truth is we don’t need impossible technologies to reduce emissions anyway2. Existing ones, such as solar power, will work.
What future technologies could there be to tackle greenhouse gas emissions?
There are 3 main types of carbon removal technology:
CCS: Carbon Capture and Storage. The theory is that Fossil Fuel electric power plants might be fitted with a device that captures the carbon emissions they produce, compresses those greenhouse gases, and forces them underground where they hopefully stay.
BECCS: BioEnergy with CCS. This idea aims to remove previously emitted carbon from the air with fast-growing tree or crop species, cut down the plantation and burn it for electricity. The resulting carbon would mostly be captured through CCS.
DAC: Direct Air Capture. Using chemical reactions to directly take carbon out of the air and store it, again typically underground.
The future technology con
So, do climate scientists say that these will work? In a word, no. Firstly, the amount of land our children would have to dedicate solely and permanently to the growing of trees for BECCS is, quite literally, insane. To match half our current emissions would require an area greater than the entire land surface of the Earth1.
Secondly, the money and industrial output required to manufacture even a tiny fraction of this CO2 removal would likely require this to be the world’s primary economic focus for the next several generations. There are 15 DAC stations currently running, representing several billion dollars of investment. Combined, they roughly match the CO2-absorbing power of around 400 trees. We would need 2.2 million times more to match half our current emissions2.
Thirdly, they don’t yet exist in any form suitable for large-scale building. Even Bill Gates, a major investor in CCS and DAC, calls them a “thought experiment”3.
Fourthly, they don’t reverse but worsen the ecological collapse driven by deforestation, and the increasing air pollution that now kills nine million of us every year4.
We don’t even need these imaginary technologies to give us hope5. We already have all the technologies needed to lower emissions to safe levels (solar power, wind power, reforestation, building insulation, etc.).
The truth is, if after years or decades of emissions reductions, these technologies can be made to work, we must use them – the effects of Climate Change are far too dire not to explore every option. But to rely on them in any way now would be collective suicide.
What are companies doing about it?
Many private companies aren’t waiting for government action and are making their own pledges and taking action for themselves.
You can see a list of which companies have made targets for ‘net zero’ at Carbon Intelligence’s website, linked below. This organisation helps companies chart a course for lower emissions. Some, including IKEA, have pledged to be ‘climate positive’ by 2030, removing more greenhouse gases than they produce.
However, it is once again action now and not future promises that matters, so we must keep a close watch on all companies and their impacts before choosing whether to support them or consume their products. Unfortunately, we also have to be constantly vigilant against ‘greenwashing’ – more on this on the next page.
See the list at bit.ly/3jt9jaw
What’s ‘Greenwashing’? Is it dangerous?
Climate Change is becoming an issue of great interest to consumers and policy makers. It’s perhaps inevitable that companies and governments with little integrity but large marketing budgets will attempt to exploit this. Greenwashing is the act of pretending that dirty practices that produce emissions instead reduce them, or pretending far greater progress is being made than in reality. At best this is misleading for us as consumers, at worst it is criminally dangerous.
For example, Fossil Fuel companies such as BP and Shell invest heavily in advertising to exaggerate their investment into renewable energy. It’s great that they’re investing, but their advertising is designed to distract from the 100x larger $37+ billion investments they make each year into deadly Fossil Fuel expansion1.
Discussion Points
- Have you ever noticed ‘Greenwashing’ in real life, such as Fossil Fuel companies sponsoring climate museums, or heavily advertising their renewable energy schemes?
Next is the sexy subject of waste incineration for electricity. In the UK almost half of our waste was incinerated in 20192, producing as much greenhouse gas emissions as Birmingham and Manchester combined3, plus dangerous air pollution and toxic waste4. This discourages recycling5, and most of the waste incinerated is recyclable. Thanks to a legal loop- hole, unlike other businesses incinerators don’t pay for the CO2 they emit. This has led to massive growth of incinerators across the UK, mostly in deprived areas6. But often incinerators claim to be ‘green’, even deceitfully being built on ‘green energy parks’7.
The UK Government recently set up an independent task force to tackle Greenwashing8 – let’s hope they’re not afraid to challenge the Government itself.
Discussion Points
- Do you know what actually happens to your waste and recycling locally, once it leaves your house?
Still have questions?
Here are resources for more information about our current level of action on Climate Change and biodiversity loss, as well as information about ‘negative emissions’ technologies.
Book: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History bit.ly/6thMs Pulitzer-prize winning book by Elizabeth Kolbert. A meticulously researched and beautifully written account of our impact on our fellow species.
YouTube: Absolute Zero by Professor Julian Allwood – youtu.be/xpImlufArwk Professor Julian Allwood shows how we can live well with zero emissions in 2050 using today’s technologies. [25m]. See the full report at ukfires.org/absolute-zero/
YouTube: Reaching Net Zero: Does BECCS work? youtu.be/24ESlXSa1sU An excellent short animated video from think-tank Chatham House on how BECCS would work, and whether it makes sense in reality. [4m]
YouTube: The Fossil Fuel Industry Wants You to Think It’s Solving Climate Change bit.ly/3C7vsD VICE News. A review of the greenwashing efforts of Fossil Fuel companies, and how their advertising tries to put the fault for Climate Change on you and me. [7m]
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 