reducing shipping emissions at least 50 percent European Commission, “Reducing Emissions from the Shipping Sector,” https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/shipping_en.
the first one set sail in 2019 Victoria Klesty, “First Battery-Powered Cruise Ship Sails for the Arctic,” Reuters, July 1, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shipping-electric/first-battery-powered-cruise-ship-sails-for-the-arctic-idUSKCN1TW27E.
retrofit existing cargo ships with masts Jeff Spross, “Why Cargo Ships Might (Literally) Sail the High Seas Again, “The Week, February 26, 2019,” https://theweek.com/articles/825647/why-cargo-ships-might-literally-sail-high-seas-again.
only one-third of its warming effect on climate David Lee, David Fahey, Agnieszka Skowron, Myles Allen, Ulrike Burkhardt, Q. Chen, Sarah Doherty, et al., “The Contribution of Global Aviation to Anthropogenic Climate Forcing for 2000 to 2018,” Atmospheric Environment 244 (2021):117834, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117834.
Eviation has created a prototype Tara Patel, “Electric Planes to Debut for Airline Serving Nantucket, Vineyard,” Bloomberg, June 18, 2019, https://www.industryweek.com/technology-and-iiot/article/22027767/electric-planes-to-debut-for-airline-serving-nantucket-vineyard.
known as Wright Electric Wright Electric, https://weflywright.com/, accessed September 2020.
engineer Duncan Walker calculated Duncan Walker, “Electric Planes Are Here—But They Won’t Solve Flying’s CO2 Problem,” The Conversation, November 5, 2019, https://theconversation.com/electric-planes-are-here-but-they-wont-solve-flyings-co-problem-125900.
chemical engineers from University College London “UCL Academics Win British Airways’ Sustainable Aviation Fuels Academic Challenge,” University College London, May 7, 2019, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2019/may/ucl-academics-win-british-airways-sustainable-aviation-fuels-academic-challenge.
France and the Netherlands required Air France and KLM David Meyer, “Airline Bailouts Highlight the Debate Over How Green the Coronavirus Recovery Should Be,” Fortune, June 27, 2020, https://fortune.com/2020/06/27/airline-bailouts-green-pandemic-recovery/.
United Airlines has been refueling “Expanding Our Commitment to Powering More Flights with Biofuel,” United Airlines, May 22, 2019, https://hub.united.com/united-biofuel-commitment-world-energy-2635867299.html.
“We [in the aviation industry]” Russell Hotten, “Dubai Air Show: Emirates Boss Says He Took Too Long to Accept Climate Crisis,” BBC News, November 20, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50481107.
“Farmers and rural Americans” Justin Worland, “How Climate Change in Iowa is Changing U.S. Politics,” TIME, Sep 12, 2019, https://time.com/5669023/iowa-farmers-climate-policy/.
24 percent of the global total U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data,” https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data.
between $2 and $3 trillion Project Drawdown, “Conservation Agriculture,” https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/conservation-agriculture.
In 2020 they won their category Jayme Lozano, “Lubbock Area Middle School Students Win National Awards for STEM Competition,” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, July 5, 2020, https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20200705/lubbock-area-middle-school-students-win-national-awards-for-stem-competition.
a new type of biologically active compost https://symsoil.com/category/soil-food-web/, accessed September 2020.
rocks that then react with CO2 Corey Myers and Takao Nakagaki, “Direct Mineralization of Atmospheric CO2 Using Natural Rocks in Japan,” Environmental Research Letters 15, no. 12 (2020): https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abc217.
by adding an enzyme Adam Subhas, Jess Adkins, Sijia Dong, Nick Rollins, and William Berelson, “The Carbonic Anhydrase Activity of Sinking and Suspended Particles in the North Pacific Ocean,” Limnology and Oceanography 65, no. 3 (2019): 637–651, https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11332.
researchers in synthetic biology Alex Orlando, “Scientists Just Created a Bacteria That Eats CO2 to Reduce Greenhouse Gases,” Discover, November 27, 2019, https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/scientists-just-created-a-bacteria-that-eats-co2-to-reduce-greenhouse-gases.
Climeworks is a small Swiss company https://www.climeworks.com/, accessed September 2020.
they’ve turned to products Maria Gallucci, “Capture Carbon in Concrete Made with CO2,” IEEE Spectrum, February 7, 2020, https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/fossil-fuels/carbon-capture-power-plant-co2-concrete.
to the oil and gas industry Jesse Jenkins, Financing mega-scale energy projects: A case study of the Petra Nova carbon capture program, Paulson Institute, October 2015, https://energy.mit.edu/news/a-case-study-of-the-petra-nova-carbon-capture-project/.
always a more expensive option June Sekera and Andreas Lichtenberger, “Assessing Carbon Capture: Public Policy, Science, and Societal Need,” Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality 5, no. 3 (2020): 1–28, https://doi.org/10.1007/s41247-020-00080-5.
liquid fuel. When burned, it can be carbon neutral https://carbonengineering.com/, accessed September 2020.
2019 study claimed that planting a trillion trees Thomas Crowther, Understanding Carbon Cycle Feedbacks to Predict Climate Change at Large Scale, AAAS Annual Meeting, February 16, 2019, https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-02/ez-pcc021119.php.
the team has already planted over 22 million trees https://teamtrees.org/, accessed September 2020.
Trillion Trees initiative http://1t.org.
Ant Forest Ant Group, “Alipay Gallery: Ant Forest Tree-Planting Spring 2019,” Medium, April 30, 2019, https://medium.com/alipay-and-the-world/alipay-gallery-ant-forest-tree-planting-spring-2019-dc4e0578cc7c.
Correcting them shows 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/0.1126/science.aay7976.
Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst The Nature Conservancy, https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/africa/forest-carbon-catalyst/.
sixty-three cities have signed up https://cities4forests.com/, accessed September 2020.
over a third of the reductions Bronson Griscom, Justin Adams, Peter Ellis, Richard Houghton, Guy Lomax, Daniela Miteva, William Schlesinger et al., “Natural climate solutions,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no.44 (2017): 11645-11650, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1710465114.
there is no parallel for the sheer volume Katharine Hayhoe and Robert Kopp, “What Surprises Lurk Within the Climate System?,” Environmental Research Letters 11, no. 12 (2016): https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326.
30 percent more acidic Richard Feely, Christopher Sabine, Kitack Lee, Will Berelson, Joanie Kleypas, Victoria Fabry and Frank Millero,”Impact of anthropogenic CO2 on the CaCO3 system in the oceans,” Science 305, no. 5682 (2004):362–366, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1097329.
CHAPTER 17
“The planet will survive” Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2020).
We don’t have all the technology Solomon Goldstein-Rose, The 100% Solution: A Plan for Solving Climate Change (New York: Melville House, 2020).
ten times slower than what’s needed James Temple, “At This Rate, It’s Going to Take Nearly 400 Years to Transform the Energy System,” MIT Technology Review, March 14, 2018, https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/03/14/67154/at-this-rate-its-going-to-take-nearly-400-years-to-transform-the-energy-system/.
American Medical Association American Association of Public Health Physicians, “American Medical Association Resolution: Divest from Fossil Fuels,” June 21, 2018, https://medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/medical-society-policy-statements/ama-resolution-divest-fossil-fuels/.
British Medical Association Brian Owens,. 2014, “BMA votes to end investment in fossil fuels,” CMAJ. 186(12): E442, https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-4857.
it
would no longer invest in Arctic oil Goldman Sachs, “Environmental Policy Framework: D. Climate Change Guidelines,” December 2019, https://www.goldmansachs.com/s/environmental-policy-framework/#climateChangeGuidelines.
Michael Corbat, the CEO of Citigroup Jennifer Surane, “Citi CEO Says Banks Must Walk If Clients Won’t Reduce Emissions,” Bloomberg Green, August 19, 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-19/citi-ceo-says-banks-must-walk-if-clients-won-t-reduce-emissions.
twelve more major cities around the world C40 Cities, “Divesting from Fossil Fuels, Investing in a Sustainable Future Declaration,” September 22, 2020, https://www.c40.org/press_releases/cities-commit-divest-invest.
As of 2020 https://gofossilfree.org/divestment/commitments/, accessed February 2021.
a significant proportion Michael Jakob and Jerome Hilaire, “Climate Science: Unburnable Fossil-Fuel Reserves,” Nature 517 (2015): 150–152, https://doi.org/10.1038/517150a.
up to $4 trillion “Stranded Assets and Renewables: How the Energy Transition Affects the Value of Energy Reserves, Buildings and Capital Stock,” International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), 2017, www.irena.org/remap.
“climate change poses a major risk” Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee, Market Risk Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System, September 2020, https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/9-9-20%20Report%20of%20the%20Subcommittee%20on%20Climate-Related%20Market%20Risk%20-%20Managing%20Climate%20Risk%20in%20the%20U.S.%20Financial%20System%20for%20posting.pdf.
“understand the exposure of your operations” VeRisk Maplecroft, “Climate Change Vulnerability Index,” https://www.maplecroft.com/risk-indices/climate-change-vulnerability-index/, accessed September 2020.
a January 2020 letter to global CEOs Larry Fink, “A Fundamental Reshaping of Finance,” BlackRock, January 2020, https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/larry-fink-ceo-letter.
Chilean engineer Luis Cifuentes Luis Cifuentes, Victor Borja-Aburto, Nelson Gouveia, George Thurson, and Devra Lee Davis, “Climate Change: Hidden Health Benefits of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation,” Science 293, no. 5533 (2001): 1257–1259, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1063357.
Morgan Stanley estimated Andrew Harmstone, “Five Sectors That Cannot Escape Climate Change,” Morgan Stanley, March 23, 2020, https://www.morganstanley.com/im/en-us/individual-investor/insights/articles/five-sectors-that-cannot-escape-climate-change.html.
estimate by Australian academics Tom Kompas, Van Ha Pham, and Tuong Nhu Che, “The Effects of Climate Change on GDP by Country and the Global Economic Gains from Complying with the Paris Climate Accord,” Earth’s Future, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EF000922.
national GDP would drop by 10 percent Solomon Hsiang, Robert Kopp, Amir Jina, James Rising, Michael Delgado, Shashank Mohan, D. J. Rasmussen et al., “Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change in the United States,” Science 356, no. 6345 (2017): 1362–1369, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aal4369.
countries like Canada, Japan, and New Zealand Matthew Kahn, Kamiar Mohaddes, Ryan N. C. Ng, M. Hashem Pesaran, Mehdi Raissi, and Jui-Chung Yang, “Long-Term Macroeconomic Effects of Climate Change: A Cross-Country Analysis,” NBER working paper, 2019, doi: 10.3386/w26167.
$22 trillion Gita Gopinath, “A Race Between Vaccines and the Virus as Recoveries Diverge,” International Monetary Fund, January 26, 2021, https://blogs.imf.org/2021/01/26/a-race-between-vaccines-and-the-virus-as-recoveries-diverge/.
“In the 15 countries that emit” World Health Organization, COP24 Special Report: Health and Climate Change, December 5, 2018, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/WHO%20COP24%20Special%20Report_final.pdf.
$1.6 to $3.8 trillion per year United Nations Environment Program, Emissions Gap Report, November 26, 2019, https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2019.
“John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil” Reuters, “Philanthropies, Including Rockefellers, and Investors Pledge $50 Billion Fossil Fuel Divestment,” Scientific American, September 22, 2014, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/philanthropies-including-rockefellers-and-investors-pledge-50-billion-fossil-fuel-divestment1/.
SECTION 5: YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
CHAPTER 18
“more like outbreaks of measles” Robert Frank, Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2020).
two geographers noticed solar panels Marcello Graziano and Kenneth Gillingham, “Spatial Patterns of Solar Photovoltaic System Adoption: The Influence of Neighbors and the Built Environment,” Journal of Economic Geography 15, no. 4 (2014): 815–839, https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbu036.
Early adopters of solar panels Kimberly Wolske, Paul Stern, and Thomas Dietz, “Explaining Interest in Adopting Residential Solar Photovoltaic Systems in the United States: Towards an Integration of Behavioral Theories,” Energy Research & Social Science 25 (2017): 134–151, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2016.12.023.
ready and eager to bend your ear Varun Rai and Scott Robinson, “Agent-Based Modeling of Energy Technology Adoption: Empirical Integration of Social, Behavioral, Economic, and Environmental Factors,” Environmental Modelling & Software 70 (2015): 163–177, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.04.014.
in Sweden Alvar Palm, “Peer Effects in Residential Solar Photovoltaics Adoption: A Mixed Methods Study of Swedish Users,” Energy Research & Social Science 26 (2017): 1–10, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.01.008.
in China Teng Zhao, Ziqiang Zhou, Yan Zhang, Ping Ling, and Yingjie Tian, “Spatio-Temporal Analysis and Forecasting of Distributed PV Systems Diffusion: A Case Study of Shanghai Using a Data-Driven Approach,” IEEE Xplore 5 (2017): 5135–5148, https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2694009.
in Germany Johannes Rode and Alexander Weber,. “Does Localized Imitation Drive Technology Adoption? A Case Study on Rooftop Photovoltaic Systems in Germany,” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 78 (2016): 38–48, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2016.02.001.
Swiss study Hans Christoph Curtius, Stefanie Lena Hille, Christian Berger, Ulf Joachim Jonas Hahnel, and Rolf Wustenhagen, “Shotgun or Snowball Approach? Accelerating the Diffusion of Rooftop Solar Photovoltaics Through Peer Effects and Social Norms,” Energy Policy 118 (2018): 596–602, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.04.005.
21 percent of homes in Australia Australian Renewable Energy Agency, https://arena.gov.au/renewable-energy/solar/, accessed September 2020.
the city of South Miami Bobby Magill, “Miami Makes Solar Mandatory for New Houses,” GreenBiz, Jul 26, 2017, https://www.greenbiz.com/article/miami-makes-solar-mandatory-new-houses.
the global rooftop solar industry Global Industry Analysts, Global Rooftop Solar PV Industry, April 2021, https://www.reportlinker.com/p05959926/Global-Rooftop-Solar-PV-Industry.html?utm_source=GNW.
area currently being used Dave Merrill and Lauren Leatherby, “Here’s How America Uses Its Land,” Bloomberg, July 31, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-us-land-use/.
Invenergy project near Dallas Darrell Proctor, “Invenergy Unveils Plan for Largest U.S. Solar Project,” Power News & Technology for the Global Energy Industry, November 25, 2020, https://www.powermag.com/invenergy-unveils-plan-for-largest-u-s-solar-project/.
second largest solar producing state Solar Energy Industries Association, “Solar State By State,” 2020, https://seia.org/states-map.
In Texas we didn’t have enough Varun Rai and Ariane Beck, “Public Perceptions and Information Gaps in Solar Energy in Texas,” Environmental Research Letters 10, no. 7 (2015), https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326.
this company took in oil workers “Unemployed Oil Workers Find New Home in Solar Industry,” MarketPlace, June 7, 2016, https://www.marketplace.org/2016/06/07/unemployed-oil-workers-find-new-home-solar-industry/.
“the belief in one’s capabilities” Albert Bandura, “Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change,�
� Psychological Review 84, no. 2 (1977): 191–215, https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191.
people’s sense of efficacy YouGov International Climate Change Survey, June–July 2019, https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/7m7cjxikzo/YouGov%20-%20International%20climate%20change%20survey.pdf.
50 percent of Americans feel helpless A. Leiserowitz, E. Maibach, S. Rosenthal, J. Kotcher, P. Bergquist, M. Ballew, M. Goldberg, and A. Gustafson, “Climate Change in the American Mind,” Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, November 2019, https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Climate_Change_American_Mind_November_2019b.pdf.
“don’t know where to start” American Psychological Association, “Majority of US Adults Believe Climate Change Is Most Important Issue Today,” February 6, 2020, https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/02/climate-change
your average-sized dog Pim Martens, Bingtao Su, and Samantha Deblomme, “The Ecological Paw Print of Companion Dogs and Cats,” BioScience. 69, no. 6 (2019): 467–474, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz044.
clinical psychologist Rubin Khoddam points out Rubin Khoddam, “The Myth of Motivation,” Psychology Today, August 2017, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-addiction-connection/201708/the-myth-motivation.
makes us not only more likely to act Subaru Ken Muroi and Edoardo Bertone, “From Thoughts to Actions: The Importance of Climate Change Education in Enhancing Students’ Self-Efficacy,” Australian Journal of Environmental Education (2019), doi.org/10.1017/aee.2019.12.
to support others who do Philipp Jugert, Katharine Greenaway, Markus Barth, Ronja Buchner, Sarah Eisentraut, and Immo Fritsche, “Collective Efficacy Increases Pro-Environmental Intentions Through Increasing Self-Efficacy,” Journal of Environmental Psychology 48 (2016): 12–23, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2016.08.003.
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