Local climate stories give me hope

The world is no longer headed for the most catastrophic futures climate scenarios once warned about: but not because the science was wrong. It’s because people listened, and acted. 

That is genuinely good news; but there's also this: 

📈 Not-so-good news - The new climate scenarios cover a narrower future, illustrating how human choices over the last 20 year have closed doors. While highest warming pathways are now less likely thanks to climate action over the last decade, our chances of staying below 1.5C without overshoot are now gone. And in a future where "every bit of warming matters" that means that some previously avoidable suffering will now occur. 

🇺🇸 Good news - NPR’s Climate Solutions Week highlights local climate action across the U.S., from tribal wildfire resilience plans in Montana to geothermal heating in Denver and community solar in Portland. Climate solutions are still happening, all around us! 

✈️ What you can do - If you’re travelling this summer, fly nonstop when possible, fly economy, take the train if you can, or simply slow down and stay longer in one place. Climate action isn’t only about technology. It’s about the choices we have every day - and share with others to make them contagious!

Find NPR's Climate Solutions Week stories here.

Thank you to Anne Cloud with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Voice Over for the Planet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for narrating this edition of Talking Climate. 

Music by Bradley Myer.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.talkingclimate.ca

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Talking Climate with Catherine Hangho. Each episode, we explore how climate change is affecting the people, places, and things we love, and what we can do to make a difference. From science to solutions and stories that inspire, you're in the right place for real talk about real change. This week we're talking about NPR's Climate Solutions Week, narrowing climate futures, and how to travel smart this summer. Let's dive in. Good news. This week is my favorite NPR time of the year. It's their fourth annual Climate Solutions Week. Given the wholesale dismantling of climate action at the national level in the U.S., this year they're focusing on climate solutions at the regional, state, city, and even neighborhood level. Their stories are so good, I can't pick just one. So here's a few highlights. First, a dispatch from Montana describing how some tribes are creating their own climate plans that incorporate traditional ecological knowledge. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes plan focuses on reducing wildfire risk. Mike Derglo Jr., the tribe's climate change coordinator, has installed air quality sensors across the reservation. He's also leading training sessions teaching people to build their own air filters to help during wildfire season. A story from Utah details how a coalition of cities and towns in the conservative state are leading a push to transition to renewable energy. Today, three-quarters of Utah's electricity comes from coal and natural gas. The fact that our efforts here have been happening over the course of multiple federal administrations, says Emily Quentin, sustainability director of Summit County, shows that at the local level, you can continue to move on climate strategies, regardless of the federal winds. Meanwhile, in Denver, a story describes the city's ambitious plan to heat and cool some of its buildings downtown using a combination of geothermal energy, some of which will come from the warmth put out by treated wastewater. Finally, a story describes Portland, Oregon's billion-dollar climate fund, which residents created in 2018 by passing a 1% sales tax on large corporations operating in the city limits. The tax went into effect in 2019. And since then, the city has built a community solar project, given out more than 20,000 free AC units to low-income families, and paid for energy retrofits of more than 3,000 homes. You can find the full set of climate solutions stories at the link in the show notes. And I encourage you to listen to each and everyone. We already have so many more solutions than most people realize. And when we see what others are doing, it can give us ideas for what to advocate for where we live. The update reflects a sobering reality. Renewable energy has grown fast enough to make the highest future pathways less likely than they were 10 years ago, but not fast enough. The best case future now still pushes past 1.5 Celsius, while our current trajectory puts us on track for about 2.6 Celsius, 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit of warming by the end of the century. It's true that 1.5 Celsius isn't a magic threshold, but what science says is that every fraction of a degree of warming matters. Additional warming intensifies heat waves, flooding, drought, freshwater scarcity, sea level rise, and many other impacts. The new scenarios, developed as part of the next major international climate modeling project, known as CMIP7, are intended to guide global climate research for years to come. They explore futures ranging from high levels of climate change to pathways aligned with current international agreements, but they also acknowledge a narrowing window. Our most likely future today may not be as catastrophic as the one we were headed to before the Paris Agreement. However, it's also well beyond the safer limits set by that agreement. That's why the most important message these new scenarios have for us is this: our future is in our hands, and every choice matters. What you can do. Summer is often a time when we travel, and flying remains one of the most carbon-intensive parts of modern life, especially on short trips where takeoff and landing consume the most fuel. If you are flying this summer, small choices can help reduce your impact. Two of my favorite solution scientists, Kim Nichols and John Foley, were asked recently whether packing lighter helps cut emissions. Honestly, that doesn't have a big impact, they found. But choosing nonstop flights and flying economy definitely helps. Traveling by car with others or taking the train, if that's an option, can reduce emissions even further. Sometimes, though, the most meaningful shift is simply slowing down, staying longer in one place, exploring destinations closer to home, or choosing fewer trips with deeper experiences can reduce emissions while making travel feel less rushed and more memorable. Whatever you choose, think about it, give it a try, and let others know what you did.talkingclimate.ca. Until next time, keep talking climate.