Saving Us

by Katharine Hayhoe

  even a 20 percent increase Matt Cole, Ceren Ozgen, and Eric Strobl, “Air Pollution Exposure Linked to Higher COVID-19 Cases and Deaths—New Study,” The Conversation, July 13, 2020, https://theconversation.com/air-pollution-exposure-linked-to-higher-covid-19-cases-and-deaths-new-study-141620.

  much more likely to die Xiao Wu, Rachel Nethery, Benjamin Sabath, Danielle Braun, and Francesca Dominici, Exposure to Air Pollution and COVID-19 Mortality in the United States (Harvard University School of Public Health), https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/covid-pm/files/pm_and_covid_mortality.pdf.

  Harvard researchers believe Alexandra Sternlicht, “Higher Coronavirus Mortality Rates for Black Americans and People Exposed to Air Pollution,” Forbes, April 7, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/04/07/higher-coronavirus-mortality-rates-for-people-exposed-to-air-pollution-black-americans/#35af0c5a362f.

  increase the risk of dementia Ruth Peters, Nicole Ee, Jean Peters, Andrew Booth, Ian Mudway and Kaarin Anstey, “Air Pollution and Dementia: A Systematic Review,” Journal of Alzheimers Disease 70 (2019): S145–S163, https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180631.

  affect the newly developing brains Healthy Babies Bright Futures and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, “The Link Between Fossil Fuels and Neurological Harm,” Healthy Babies Bright Future (HBBF), 2019, https://www.hbbf.org/sites/default/files/documents/2018-06/LinkFossilFuelsNeurologicaHarm_04-06-18_v2.pdf.

  delaying or impairing cognitive development John Kotcher, Edward Maibach, and Wen-Tsing Choi, “Fossil Fuels Are Harming Our Brains: Identifying Key Messages About the Health Effects of Air Pollution from Fossil Fuels,” BMC Public Health 19 (2019): 1079, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7373-1.

  an ambitious Climate Action Plan for Chicago City of Chicago, “Chicago Climate Action Plan,” Chicago.gov, 2020, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/progs/env/climateaction.html.

  they identified “hot spots” Climate Change Adaptation Resource Center (ARC-X), “Chicago, IL Uses Green Infrastructure to Reduce Extreme Heat,” EPA.gov, https://www.epa.gov/arc-x/chicago-il-uses-green-infrastructure-reduce-extreme-heat.

  one of the largest electric bus fleets Monica Eng, Jessica Pupovac, and Mackenzie Crosson, “How Is Chicago Doing On Its Ambitious 2020 Climate Goals?,” WBEZ 91.5 Chicago, June 2, 2019, http://interactive.wbez.org/curiouscity/climate-goals/?_ga=2.160216500.887932196.1558881195-255549137.1543244588.

  knew or should have known Christina Davis, “Farmers Insurance Class Action Lawsuit Places Home Flooding Blame on City of Chicago,” Top Class Actions, April 30, 2014, https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/25162-farmers-insurance-class-action-lawsuit-places-home-flooding-blame-city-chicago/.

  two new reservoirs Craig Dellimore, “Massive New Reservoir to Help Alleviate Chicago Area Flooding,” CBS Chicago, September 1, 2015, https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/09/01/massive-new-reservoir-to-help-alleviate-chicago-area-flooding/.

  3 million people across the globe World Health Organization, WHO World Water Day Report, https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/takingcharge.html.

  nearly 40 percent more rainfall Mark Risser and Michael Wehner, “Attributable Human-Induced Changes in the Likelihood and Magnitude of the Observed Extreme Precipitation During Hurricane Harvey,” Geophysical Research Letters 44, no. 24 (2017): 12,457–12,464, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075888.

  four times the economic damage David Frame, Michael Wehner, Ilan Noy, and Suzanne Rosier, “The economic costs of Hurricane Harvey attributable to climate change,” Climatic Change 160 (2020): 271–281, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02692-8.

  skin infections to diarrheal disease Juanita Constible, “The Emerging Public Health Consequences of Hurricane Harvey,” NRDC.org, August 29, 2018, https://www.nrdc.org/experts/juanita-constible/emerging-public-health-consequences-hurricane-harvey.

  a significant jump in cholera cases Erin Hulland, Saleena Subaiya, Katilla Pierre, Nickolson Barthelemy, Jean Samuel Pierre, Amber Dismer, Stanley Juin, David Fitter, and Joan Brunkard, “Increase in Reported Cholera Cases in Haiti Following Hurricane Matthew: An Interrupted Time Series Model,” American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 100, no. 2 (2019): 368–373, https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.17-0964.

  access to safe sanitation United Nations, “Goal 6: Ensure Availability and Sustainable Management of Water and Sanitation for All,” sdgs.un.org, https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6.

  “Water can help fight climate change” United Nations, “World Water Day Focusing on the Importance of Water and Climate Change,” Sustainable Development Goals, March 22, 2020, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=13&nr=3280&menu=1634.

  Sanergy is an organization Sanergy, “Bold Solutions for Booming Cities: The Urban Sanitation Challenge,” Sanergy.com, http://www.sanergy.com/.

  Sulabh International Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, “Our Work,” sulabhinternational.org, https://www.sulabhinternational.org/sulabh-technologies-bio-gas/.

  turning human waste into biogas Melanie Sevcenko, “Power to the Poop: One Colorado City Is Using Human Waste to Run Its Vehicles,” Guardian, January 16, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/16/colorado-grand-junction-persigo-wastewater-treatment-plant-human-waste-renewable-energy.

  In 2020 the Puerto Rico Allen Brown, “Energy Insurrection,” The Intercept, February 9, 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/02/09/puerto-rico-energy-electricity-solar-natural-gas/.

  “climate, environmental degradation and natural disasters” United Nations, Global Compact on Refugees (New York: United Nations, 2018), https://www.unhcr.org/the-global-compact-on-refugees.html.

  displacing some 20 million people Oxfam International, “Forced from Home: Climate-Fuelled Displacement,” Oxfam, December 2, 2019, https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/forced-home-climate-fuelled-displacement?cid=aff_affwd_donate_id201309&awc=5991_1580878311_86c6eba9dd6c9035f43d0e8c338aecb9.

  between twelve and thirty-five thousand tons S. Saatchi, R. Houghton, R. Dos Santos Alvala, J. Soares, and Y. Yu, “Distribution of aboveground live biomass in the Amazon basin,” Global Change Biology 13, no. 4 (2007): 816–837, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01323.x.

  reduced deforestation by 30 percent Paul Ferraro and Rhita Simorangkir, “Conditional Cash Transfers to Alleviate Poverty Also Reduced Deforestation in Indonesia,” Science Advances 6, no. 24 (2020): eaaz1298, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz1298.

  programs in Nepal, China, and India “Poverty Reduction and Forest Protection,” The Borgen Project, https://borgenproject.org/poverty-reduction-and-forest-protection/.

  Oxford Dictionary defines Oxford Languages, “Word of the Year 2019,” Oxford University Press, https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/2019/.

  jumped a stunning 4,000 percent Ibid.

  The 2020 Lancet Countdown The Lancet Countdown 2020 Report, LancetCountdown.org, https://www.lancetcountdown.org/2020-report/.

  50 percent of people surveyed in the U.S. John Kotcher, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, Abel Gustafson, and Anthony Leiserowitz, Americans increasingly understand that climate change harms human health. (New Haven: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 2020).

  “Preservation of our environment” Ronald Reagan, Remarks on Signing the Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality, July 11, 1984, https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/research/speeches/71184a.

  As Christiana Figueres says Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2020).

  SECTION 4: WE CAN FIX IT

  CHAPTER 12

  “Denialism…” Alastair McIntosh, Riders on the Storm: The Climate Crisis and the Survival of Being (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2020).

  I scored them Katharine Hayhoe and Andrew Leach, “How The Four Federal Parties’ Climate Plans Stack Up,” Chatelaine, October 3, 2019, https://www.chatelaine.com/living/politics/2019-federal-election-climate/.

  m
ore than 10 percent Mark Kane, “10% of Norway’s Passenger Vehicles are Plug Ins,” InsideEVs, November 7, 2018, https://insideevs.com/news/341060/10-of-norways-passenger-vehicles-are-plug-ins/.

  were zero-emission vehicles Charles Riley, “Electric cars hit record 54% of sales in Norway as VW overtakes Tesla,” CNN Business, January 5, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/05/business/norway-electric-cars-vw-tesla/index.html.

  voted to divest Dieter Holger, “Norway’s Sovereign-Wealth Fund Boosts Renewable Energy, Divests Fossil Fuels,” The Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/norways-sovereign-wealth-fund-boosts-renewable-energy-divests-fossil-fuels-11560357485

  Kari interviewed dozens of Norwegians Kari Norgaard, Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2011).

  This counterintuitive term was first applied Troy Campbell and Aaron Kay, “Solution Aversion: On the Relation Between Ideology and Motivated Disbelief,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 107, no. 5 (2014): 809–824, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037963.

  According to the Carbon Majors Report Climate Accountability Institute, the Carbon Majors Database, 2017, https://b8f65cb373b1b7b15feb-c70d8ead6ced550b4d987d7c03fcdd1d.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf?1499691240.

  “Exxon knew about climate change” https://exxonknew.org/.

  “The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere” Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes, “Assessing ExxonMobil’s Climate Change Communications (1977–2014),” Environmental Research Letters 12, no. 8 (2017), https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/.

  her eye-opening 2010 book Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011).

  Jim Hoggan skillfully dissects in his 2009 book James Hoggan, Climate Cover-up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming (Vancouver, Canada: Greystone Books, 2009).

  Full-page ads in prominent newspapers Hiroko Tabuchi, “How One Firm Drove Influence Campaigns Nationwide for Big Oil,” New York Times, November 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/climate/fti-consulting.html.

  donations to politicians at every level Public Accountibility Institute, The Money Behind Empower Texans, September 25, 2019, https://public-accountability.org/report/the-money-behind-empower-texans/.

  By April 2019 A. Gustafson, S. Rosenthal, P. Bergquist, M. Ballew, M. Goldberg, J. Kotcher, A. Leiserowitz, and E. Maibach, Changes in Awareness of and Support for the Green New Deal: December 2018 to April 2019 (New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 2019), doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/P8ZBN.

  “connected to a system of production” Noel Healy, “Blood Coal: Ireland’s Dirty Secret,” Guardian, October 25, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/oct/25/blood-coal-irelands-dirty-secret.

  “Oftentimes, residents… live in agonizing conditions” Emem Edoho, “Oil Spills in Nigeria: Health Risks and Environmental Degradation,” https://www.gndr.org/programmes/advocacy/365-disasters/more-than-365-disasters-blogs/item/1450-oil-spills-nigeria.html.

  deaths are in the U.S. Fabio Caiazzo, Akshay Ashok, Ian, A. Waitz, Steve H. L. Yim, and Steven Barrett, “Air Pollution and Early Deaths in the United States, Part I: Quantifying the Impact of Major Sectors in 2005,” Atmospheric Environment 79 (2013): 198-208, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2013.05.081.

  climate change has already increased the economic gap Marshall Burke and Noah Diffenbaugh, “Global Warming Has Increased Global Economic Inequality,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 no. 20 (2019): 9808–9813, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1816020116.

  negated over fifty years of advances United Nations Human Rights Council, “U.N. Expert Condemns Failure to Address Impact of Climate Change on Poverty,” June 25, 2019, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24735&LangID=E.

  a 75 percent drop in average income Marshall Burke, Solomon Hsiang, and Edward Miguel, “Global Non-linear Effect of Temperature on Economic Production,” Nature 527 (2015): 235–239, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15725.

  In Kenya, for example, women farmers World Bank, Kenya Agricultural Productivity and Agribusiness Project, 2015, https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/project-detail/P109683?lang=en.

  In Mali, women who attend UNESCO, “Education Counts: Towards the Millennium Development Goals,” 2010, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000190214_eng.

  For each additional year of schooling John Cleland, “Survival in Developing Countries,” Social Science & Medicine 27, no. 12 (1988): 1357–1368.

  10 percent in Malawi Liliana Adriano and Christiaan Monden, “The Causal Effect of Maternal Education on Child Mortality: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in Malawi and Uganda,” Demography 56 (2019): 1765–1790.

  50 percent more likely to survive UNESCO, “Education Counts: Towards the Millennium Development Goals,” 2010, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000190214_eng.

  “By this everyone will know” John 13:15 (New International Version).

  “the only thing that counts” Galatians 5:6 (New International Version).

  CHAPTER 13

  “As we retreat” Eric Liu, You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen (New York: Public Affairs/Perseus Books, 2017).

  The fundamental concept of a “commons” William Forster Lloyd, Two Lectures on the Checks to Population (Oxford: Oxford University, 1833).

  “tragedy of the commons” Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Science 162, no. 3859 (1968): 1243–1248.

  Elinor Ostrom received the Nobel Memorial Prize The Nobel Prize, “Elinor Ostrom: Facts,” 2009, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2009/ostrom/facts/.

  expressed eugenic views Matto Mildenberger, “The Tragedy of the Tragedy of the Commons,” Scientific American, April 23, 2019, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/the-tragedy-of-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/.

  so many do in the U.S. Edelman, “Edelman 2020 Trust Barometer,” January 19, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/04/11/public-trust-in-government-1958-2019/.

  recent polls indicate Pew Research Center, “Public Trust in Government: 1958–2019,” April 11, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/04/11/public-trust-in-government-1958-2019/.

  a prescient report Worldwide Fund for Nature, “The Loss of Nature and the Rise of Pandemics: Protecting Human and Planetary Health,” WWF International, March 2020, https://wwfeu.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/the_loss_of_nature_and_rise_of_pandemics___protecting_human_and_planetary_health.pdf.

  one in six premature deaths Philip Landrigan, Richard Fuller, Nereus J. R. Acosta, Olusoji Adeyi, Robert Arnold, Niladri Basu, et al., “The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health,” Lancet 391, no. 10119 (October 19, 2017): https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32345-0.

  Betsy Hartmann points out Betsy Hartmann, Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016).

  Global Footprint Network’s calculator Ecological Footprint Explorer, https://data.footprintnetwork.org/#/, accessed September 2020.

  16 metric tons of carbon dioxide U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks.

  Australians produce Union of Concerned Scientists, “Each Country’s Share of CO2 Emissions,” https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions.

  driving a midsized car U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle,” https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle.

  the richest 10 percent of people Tim Gore, Confronting Carbon Inequality, Oxfam International, September 21, 2020, https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/confronting-car
bon-inequality.

  It’s the U.S. military Neta Crawford, Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, and the Costs of War, Watson Institute (Providence, RI: Brown University, 2019), https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/Pentagon%20Fuel%20Use%2C%20Climate%20Change%20and%20the%20Costs%20of%20War%20Revised%20November%202019%20Crawford.pdf.

  extracted and popularized Mark Kaufman, “The carbon footprint sham,” Mashable, July 17, 2020, https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sham/.

  announce a carbon-neutral goal British Petroleum, “BP sets amibition for net zero by 2050, fundamentally changing organisation to deliver,” February 12, 2020, https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/press-releases/bernard-looney-announces-new-ambition-for-bp.html.

  told a group of CEOs Emily Gosden, “Strawberries in winter takes the biscuit, says Shell boss,” The Times UK, June 12, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/strawberries-in-winter-takes-the-biscuit-says-shell-boss-t9c7w79dk.

  over 8,000 million tons Richard Heede, “Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers, 1854–2010,” Climatic Change, 122 (2014): 229–241, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0986-y.

  200 billion trees Calculation based on Joseph Veldman, Julie Aleman, Swanni Alvarado, Michael Anderson, Sally Archibald et al., “Comment on ‘The global tree restoration potential,’ ” Science, 366, no. 6463 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay7976.

  more than five times J. Elliott Campbell, David Lobell, Robert Genova, and Christopher Field, “The Global Potential of Bioenergy on Abandoned Agricultural Lands,” Environmental Science & Technology, 42, no. 15 (2008): 5791–5794, https://doi.org/10.1021/es800052w.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Walking out is not” Mary Annaïse Heglar, “Home is Always Worth It” in All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis (New York: One World/Random House, 2020).