Hello and welcome to the Climate Politique! Now, I’m not oft to write about myself, but I suppose it’s only proper to begin by giving you an introduction given that this is my first blog entry. But really who cares about formalities, and you all, like myself, probably want to get into the nitty gritty of why I created this blog in the first place so I’ll make this introduction short.
I’m a recent graduate from Penn State University earning a degree in Energy Engineering from the College of Earth & Mineral Sciences. My formal experience analyzing energy policy & politics is modest, mostly derived from my time working for my local Congressman, Rep. Gerry Connolly, interpreting the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and taking a first-hand account of how the state government & local stakeholders (mainly the utility companies) went about designing the implementation process. I’ve also worked on a local policy incentive while still a student at Penn State assisting the Union County Housing Authority’s effort to develop a system of low-cost, energy efficient housing; specifically, I focused on researching the best insulation materials and building envelope design for the project.
I’ve always been passionate about issues involving sustainable develop & energy security. My fascination with the topic began in grade school where I wrote my first major research project on the peak oil scare of the mid-oughts (yeah remember when we all were worried about skyrocketing gas prices & running out of cheap oil, THANKS OBAMA!… and [mostly] fracking); but, now my mind and my thoughts are consumed by the current climate crisis and the realization that anthropogenic climate change isn’t just a threat to the environment, but to humanity at large and ultimately the continuation of a civilized society.
So, even though I am not in a position right now to have any real effect on U.S. energy policy (my career goal, however, is to be in such a position in the near future) I have, for some time now, felt the need to express my thoughts on the subject and explore how we, as a nation, should be tackling this issue now, and into the future.
Now with that (not so) short introduction completed let’s get into the nitty gritty I was talking about earlier. The Climate Politique was not created to explain to the poor misguided souls out there why 97% of climate scientists are screaming at us to stop recklessly burning fossil fuels, I’ll let Bill Nye handle that; this blog, however, is meant to convey the message to the 64% of Americans who care a great deal about global warming that we are far behind schedule in our struggle to halt the effects of climate change (by the way, “the effects of climate change” will, quite literally, endanger the lives of billions of people across the globe).
I’ll go into greater detail about how far behind schedule we are in my next post, but in simple terms, we have just less than five years left to cut CO2 emissions down to a level where we have a good chance at stabilizing global temperatures at 1.5 °C and avoid dangerous climate change. Yes, you read that right, less than FIVE years! For context, the first major review of the Paris Agreement and the INDC’s (intended nationally determined contributions, i.e. each country’s emissions targets) is set for 2023 or after we would have blown our carbon budget for a good chance at not surpassing 1.5 °C of warming by 100 billion tonnes! That cold reality puts into question much of the flowery rhetoric behind the “advances” we have made to address the issue of climate change.
Now I’m not trying to paint a picture of doom & gloom, or say we are destined to fail (though any chances of hitting the 1.5 °C target are essentially gone & a strong argument could be made that a 4+ °C future is inevitable); I still have faith that we have all the tools necessary to address the climate crisis in the long-term, given the political will to do so.
Now you probably have heard similar sentiments from a lot of writers and environmental advocates but have any of them really explained what it actually means to get the “political will“ to address climate change.
What political, economic, and social decisions will we have to make as a society in order to turn our will for systemic change into reality? Whose political campaigns & what policy ideas will be promoted and advanced to cultivate said “will” in the first place? Can we really solve the climate crisis by implementing a simple carbon tax? Will we be able to reduce our CO2 emissions to the necessary rates using only green renewables (wind, solar, geothermal) or will we be forced to ramp up nuclear power?
We have already proven that renewable energy projects can create millions of jobs but can we really sustain economic growth if we have to cut carbon emissions by 5-10% annually? Should we even care about sustaining economic growth, at least in terms of financial/GDP growth, if that means condemning billions of people across the globe to certain death due to natural disasters and other climate-related catastrophes? How much are you (yes, you! whom, by the way, I am eternally thankful to for reading this far through my semi-professional rant) willing to sacrifice personally to solve the problem? Are you willing to drive less? Eat less red meat? Or stop flying? In order to do your part in addressing this global issue.
These are the types of questions we have to answer as a society and the topics we will explore here at the Climate Politique.
