Russ Vernon-Jones

love, justice, and climate change … I know you can make a difference.

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What Climate “Doomers” Get Wrong

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Before I mention anything else, I want to acknowledge the horrors of the war in Israel and Gaza. I believe that every human life is precious. I’m deeply grieved by what is happening there, as well as in other wars around the world. Regardless of your political views, I want to invite you to join me in seeking to keep our hearts open toward both Palestinians and Israeli Jews and the suffering and loss they are experiencing. Each of us can contribute to reaching for greater human unity– an essential part of humanity successfully addressing both warfare and climate change.

Turning to climate change, 10 years ago climate denial was still common and a major obstacle to widespread public engagement with the issue. Outright climate denial is now relatively rare. I would say that climate discouragement is a bigger obstacle today. I’ve run into quite a few folks who admit that they are too discouraged to get involved in climate action. It’s natural for any of us to feel discouraged at times, but to let your discouragement keep you from engaging in climate action is to be part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.

Some folks believe that it’s simply too late and we are all doomed. A survey of 10,000 young people from 10 different countries found that more than half of them said that humanity is doomed. So when I encountered an interview with distinguished climate scientist Michael Mann with “what ‘doomers’ get wrong” in the title, I was eager for his answer.

He describes doomism as the view that we lack agency– that “It’s too late to prevent catastrophic, runaway warming and the extinction of all life.” He says, “There are a lot of people who think the science supports this view, but it doesn’t.”

He insists that we can and must have both agency and urgency. “The impacts of climate change, no doubt, constitute an existential threat if we fail to act,” Mann concludes.” But we can act. Our fragile moment can still be preserved.”

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I Don’t Like Bad News

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I don’t like bad news. I don’t like reading that July 3, 4, and 6 each set a new record for the hottest average global temperature on Earth, for as long as records have been kept and, according to scientists’ best estimates, the hottest day in the last 125,000 years.

I don’t like reading that parts of China are suffering under a prolonged heat wave with temperatures up to 110° F; that 1.8 million Muslims on the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia encountered 118°F temperatures; or that scientists are alarmed at the “totally unprecedented” heat wave in the waters of the North Atlantic–melting sea ice and disrupting important currents.

I don’t like reading that wealthy nations and corporations blocked significant progress at the June UN climate session in Bonn, Germany that was designed to prepare proposals for the next big UN climate conference, COP 28, this coming December. “The Bonn Climate Conference laid bare the glaring hypocrisy of wealthy nations, showcasing a remarkable indifference to the struggles of developing countries,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network, which includes more than 1,500 civil society groups.

So, what do we do with bad climate news? I think it is important that we all develop workable approaches to this situation. We are certainly going to encounter plenty more bad news about the climate crisis in the months and years ahead. We don’t want ….

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Stacey Abrams, Rewiring America, and Climate Justice

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I admire Stacey Abrams and the way she and her colleagues registered 800,000 new voters in Georgia prior to the 2020 election, securing a win for Joe Biden, and putting Rafael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the U.S. Senate. I’ve also had a lot of respect for Rewiring America, a non-profit formed in 2020 to “help mobilize America to address climate change and jump-start the economy by electrifying everything.” So when I read that Stacey Abrams has just joined Rewiring America as their lead counsel and will lead their outreach to individuals and communities, it really caught my attention.

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How to Talk About Climate Change

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I recently asked some friends what they found hard about starting conversations about climate change. One said they just didn’t know how to begin. Others said they were afraid they’d get asked a question they didn’t know how to answer, or feared triggering a disagreement, or they just didn’t know how to react when people were hopeless.

I recognized all of these as difficulties I’ve had in various situations. However, the experts say it’s really important that we talk about climate a lot. “The first step to action on climate change is to talk about it, that’s the number one thing we can do,” said Lucky Tran, who’s in climate communications at Columbia University. “We can’t solve any problems, especially at the global scale, if we don’t talk about the problem and the best way to address it.” This will be key to building a movement large enough to insist on action on the scale that is needed.

We used to think that the goal in communicating about climate was to convince people that climate change is real and caused by humans. That’s no longer necessary with most people. Polls show that a huge majority of people in the country understand that climate change is happening and are concerned about it. Our big job now is to make the topic more salient, let people know they are not alone with their concern, and enable people to express their desire for bolder climate action.

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Climate Action: Move Your Money & Switch Your Credit Card

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One Friday night in the fall of 2012 I found myself in a room at Amherst College with Bill McKibben, a good number of college students, and some local residents, many of them in their later years. I was only just beginning to really pay attention to the issue of climate change and thought of myself as a visitor or observer in this gathering. McKibben looked like a very ordinary guy, but once he started to speak, the power of his vision and persuasion transformed the room. At that point, no college or other institution had committed to divest from fossil fuels, but McKibben announced his intention to start a nation-wide divestment movement.

It seemed unlikely that such a movement could have much impact on an industry as wealthy as the fossil fuel industry. McKibben explained that he didn’t expect to bankrupt the industry, but rather to cause them to be seen as moral pariahs for their climate-destroying business model and to delegitimize the power they wield through political donations. He thought college students and alumni could effectively pressure colleges and universities to divest, and he announced a cross-country tour to enlist them. This made sense to me and I soon wrote to my alma maters encouraging them to divest from fossil fuels.

Fast forwarding to the present … the divestment movement that Bill McKibben announced in Amherst that night has grown. More than 1500 institutions–colleges, pension funds, faith-based organization, etc.– whose investments total more than $40 trillion, have ….

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Climate Good News – 2022

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Writing about climate, or even just thinking about climate, can pose a challenging dilemma for any of us. If we focus too much on what a desperate climate emergency humanity is facing, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or discouraged and pulled to give up. On the other hand, if we focus too much on the good news and signs of hope, some may be tempted to become complacent and feel that others are taking care of what needs to be done.

At our best, we develop an ability to simultaneously: 1) remember the magnitude of the crisis, 2) find hope in the good news, and 3) maintain a commitment to sustained action. We then engage both in lowering our own carbon footprints and in joining actions to accelerate the systemic changes that are essential.

Emotionally this requires what for many of us is a new approach — acknowledging our feelings of overwhelm and hopelessness, while at the same time, choosing to be hopeful. As we do this we can feel more fully alive, more connected with others, and full of purpose.

I trust that my readers will remember that climate change is causing severe suffering in many parts of the world and that almost everywhere, including in the United States, corporations, governments, and individuals are still doing things to make the crisis worse. With that awareness, I offer some highlights of good news from the year 2022 to help us all stay hopeful as we engage in making a difference.

The climate-destroying deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon is expected to …

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Stories From COP27

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The nations of the world just met in Egypt at the UN climate conference, COP27, for over two weeks to try to come to agreements on addressing the global climate crisis. It was a particularly contentious conference, with agreements hard to come by, and negotiations continuing past the planned end date.

Coming into the conference the delegates found encouragement in the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, who has pledged to eliminate the deforestation of the Amazon, and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States, the largest climate bill ever, with billions of dollars for renewable energy. On the other hand, the urgency of the crisis has been brought into sharp focus by the flooding of one-third of Pakistan (the 5th most populous country in the world); recent flooding in Nigeria which displaced 1.4 million people; and lethal drought, famine and heat waves in many parts of the world.

At the opening session of the COP UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres noted that global greenhouse gas emissions keep growing and that global temperatures keep rising. He said,
“We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.”

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VOTE and a Quiz to Help You Find Your Role in Climate Action

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Today is Election Day in the United States. If you are eligible to vote and have not yet voted PLEASE VOTE TODAY. Many states and districts have very close election contests where every vote will count.

Even if it seems that the elections in your area are not close, there is a reason I think it is very important for people who care about climate to vote. The Environmental Voter Project estimates that 8 million environmentalists did not vote in the 2020 presidential election and 12 million didn’t vote in the 2018 midterms. Clearly these voters could have had a very large impact if they had all voted. More important now, is that the more climate voters everywhere vote, the more it will be clear to politicians that leading on climate will be vital to electoral success in the future.

Taking action on climate is clearly important. It’s important to solving the climate crisis. It’s important in helping each of us feel more purposeful and less despairing and hopeless about climate. But lots of people don’t know what to do. Street protest isn’t for everyone, neither is lobbying your state legislators.

Now two climate author/activists have designed an engaging “quiz” that leads the reader through a series of options that helps you identify what sort of climate action might best fit your preferences and personality. The quiz became available on the Yale Climate Change Connections website in October 2022. It’s reminiscent of the simple identification keys that are available for helping to identify flowers.

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A Battle for Your Mind

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I used to think that if people of good will had more information about climate change, they would all be moved to take action to stop the climate crisis.  I don’t think that any more.  Why are some people moved to take action as they learn about climate change and some are not?  One key variable is whether you believe you might be able to make a difference, and whether or not you see yourself as significant, or potentially significant.  If you believe you can make some difference you are much more likely to take action.

Don’t we all have this problem, to some extent? Don’t we all have days when we feel engaged, connected to others, and glad to be part of the action; and other days when it seems like nothing we do matters and the problems
are all too big for us?

Many people, perhaps including yourself, feel as though they have very little choice about how the world looks to them and how they feel about it.  They take what comes their way.  Even when you don’t want to, you may find yourself feeling discouraged, hopeless, or despairing. Your perspective may seem to be buffeted about by the latest news item, a comment by a friend, a minor failure.  I invite you to consider that we humans have the power to choose, and fight to hold, a good perspective.

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The Moment We Are In

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At the moment the Democrats in the U.S. Senate have a new proposal — a bill to curb inflation and address climate change. It’s not yet clear whether they have the votes to pass it, but Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Senator who has scuttled previous Democratic climate bills, helped to craft this one and is making the rounds of the TV talk shows advocating for it.

Climate activists don’t agree about this bill. At least one organization has forcefully rejected it as “a gift to the fossil fuel industry” (XR NYC in an email to supporters on July 31). It does have some horrible provisions. It requires that the federal government offer new fossil fuel drilling leases on public lands and waters as a prerequisite to putting any solar or wind energy projects on public lands, and is part of a deal to speed up some pipeline permitting. On the other hand, the widely respected Sunrise Movement said “the strongest version possible of this bill must pass immediately,” noting that it puts $369 billion of climate spending in play (in an email to supporters on July 28).

Analysts estimate that that the combined provisions of the bill will cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030! That’s huge. That’s enough to have me, and many other climate activists, cheering despite the concessions that were required to get it. There is nothing more important in solving the climate crisis right now than reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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People Need to Hear About Climate a Lot More Often – Let’s Talk About It

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I’ve written often about the importance of our talking with people about climate change. While polls show that more people are worried about climate change, it is not yet a major salient issue for most people. Jessica Lu and John Marshall, of the Potential Energy coalition, write that we need to talk about climate a lot more often. Their study of the data shows that “frequency of exposure strongly predicts growth in climate supporters.”

Polls show that less than 15% of the population talks about climate often and roughly 75% of people report that they hear other people talk about it less than once a month. Lu and Marshall write that people are simply not hearing about climate often enough. “Based on the data, our best guess is that the average person needs to see and hear about climate at least 80 times a month — potentially even more — to become an active supporter of significant climate action.”

What’s most effective for us to say?

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Why Can’t We Move Faster on Climate?

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What is it that has stopped the United States from dealing successfully with the climate crisis? We’ve known for at least 3 decades that we needed to act, but instead we’ve allowed the problem to get much worse. Is it the climate deniers? Is it people not taking lowering their “personal carbon footprints” seriously enough? Is it politicians who just don’t get it?

No! It is none of the above. The big barrier has been the fossil fuel companies–and the way they exert political power and manipulate public opinion. Climate denial was created by a deceitful disinformation campaign funded by ExxonMobil and others. The whole idea of a “personal carbon footprint” was a ploy invented by the PR department of BP Oil to distract the public from the huge responsibility borne by the fossil fuel industry. The politicians have been paid not to “get it.” Senator Joe Manchin, who recently sank the Build Back Better bill, has his own financial stake in the coal industry, and he also has taken in more the $400,000 in donations from oil and gas companies just in the last few months. He’s also the top lifetime recipient of oil, gas, and coal money among all those in Congress.

These companies have pursued their own profit and greed with abandon, while knowing that their very business itself was creating a climate crisis that threatens the existence of civilization as we know it. They have expanded their extraction and marketing dramatically, while climate scientists have been making it clear that fossil fuels must be eliminated entirely. They have used money, lies, and high-paid public relations experts to undermine every effort to address the climate crisis.

A new report, just out, ….

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“Dangerous Radicals”

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If earlier reports from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were wake-up calls to take climate action, the one released in early April is a blaring emergency horn that the world dare not ignore. In a statement accompanying the report, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the failure of governments and corporations to keep pledges and take effective climate action has “put us firmly on track toward an unlivable world.”

The report indicates that in order to keep global warming within the 1.5°C target, greenhouse gas emissions can continue to rise for only 3 more years. They must fall 43% by 2030. The scientists report that this is still possible, but that unless transformative climate action is taken in the next 8 years, the 1.5°C target will be out of reach forever. Unless countries step up their reductions in emissions, we are on course for a global temperature rise of 2.4°C to 3.5°C. This would bring unimaginable devastation to populations everywhere.

I have not plowed through the entire 3,675 pages of this latest report, but in the summaries and articles about it there are items of good news. The first is ….

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