CLIMATE CHANGE: WHERE ARE WE? WHERE ARE WE GOING?
“2035: A Guide to Living on a Changed Planet”
Wintersession Symposium organized by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation
Adams House, Harvard University
RECAP BY CONFERENCE ATTENDEE LOIS NESBITT, PH.D. , writer, artist/designer and Adams House alumna (1981)
Climate change, global warming—hot topics of debate and dispute, when anyone is willing to debate and not just debunk the other side. Scary (but still to most of us, remote) reports about glaciers melting in the Arctic, holes in the ozone layer, alarming increases in greenhouse gases pop up daily. Alas, aside from concerned scientists and a dedicated corps of environmental activists, most of us only respond to wakeup calls like the extreme weather that brought a devastating tsunami to Asia, Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans, and Superstorm Sandy to the Northeast Coast. In other words, when the problem shows up in our backyards. The rest of the time we carry on, business as usual, driving our SUVs, tossing out plastic bottles, filling our (fossil-fuel heated) homes with the latest electronics and appliances. We don’t really consider the resources (water, chemical fertilizers and preservations, fuel, transportation, and manpower) that deliver affordable food to our tables; we don’t picture the landfills of garbage we create. We don’t wonder where our defunct computers go or how long it takes for prescription drugs to decompose. We act as if the resource-depleting party can just go on and on. Apres nous, le deluge!
Adding to our individual indifference is the faceoff in the media and political realms, where one side cries out immanent doom while the other denies that anything is even happening.
Shedding much needed light on how we got here, and where we might be going, were a gathering of world-class scientists, academics, public policy makers, nonprofit NGOs, lawyers, businessmen, and journalists at a four-day symposium called “2035: A Guide to Living on a Changed Planet.” Organized by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation at Adams House, Harvard University, in January 2015, the program encouraged focused lectures and discussion on key topics related to climate change: water, energy, infrastructure, and sustainability.
The news is not good, and anyone who attended “2035” can attest that a strong dose of climate-change facts, figures, projections, and probabilities will keep you up at night. While the speakers came from a range of disciplines and professions, the message from all was pretty clear: our planet, and the life it sustains, are under serious threat. We humans are responsible for the dramatic changes that began with the Industrial Revolution and agribiz in the 19th and 20th centuries and are accelerating at an alarming rate. More bad news: out of individual and collective unwillingness to take actions, large and small, the problems are only getting worse. The gap between what we know and what we are doing about it makes one question why we consider ourselves the most intelligent species on the planet.
Science journalist and Neiman Fellow Maggie-Koerth Baker addressed head-on why neither side (the doomsdayers and the deniers) can hear the other: no one is listening. And what we say/believe about climate change often masks deeper, unsaid fears. For example, in a country that prides itself on independence and self-reliance, many conservatives fear that legislation addressing climate change will infringe on the individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of profit. Unless those concerned about climate change can really listen to the other side, the fruitless shouting match will go on and on. She advocated separate the problem (yes, grandma, our planet is changing) from the potential solutions, many of which challenge people’s self-interest (those invested in fossil fuels see renewable energy as competition, many fear the costs involved in converting to new technologies and infrastructure, no one wants to be forced to move his/her house farther inland).
Journalist Steve Curwood pointed out that this divisiveness has already inflected media outlets as liberal as NPR and The New York Times, which have reduced coverage of climate change, presumably due to pressure from sponsors.
Common threads throughout the dense lectures and thought-provoking discussions were:
Detailed accounts from Noble Laureate James McCarthy, landscape architect and FDR director Michael Weishan, Coast Guard Rear Admiral Lina Fagan, Ambassador to Finland Bruce Oreck, and others of what we do know
Candid explanations of the uncertainty inherent in all predictions and projections of the impact of climate change, from Prof. Elsie M. Sutherland, Boston Harbor Association, Albert Cho of Xylem, and others, showed how hard it is to see the future. Adding to the general complexity of the earth’s eco-system is that climate change will bring more variability, making predictions even less reliable. Climate change debunkers have already had a field day with erroneous projections, but the uncertainty also makes taking large-scale legislative and commercial actions to adapt our infrastructure a hard sell to politicians and taxpayers. At the same time, FDR director Michael Weishan cautioned against “finger the dike” last-ditch efforts, and Oreck reminded us the Noah built the ark before the flood!
Money, money, money makes the world go round! Big corporations don’t want to part with it, citizens of affluent developed nations (yup, that’s us!) don’t want to sacrifice our luxuries, and dramatic changes in climate, water availability, and sea level rise may well affect the poorest first and worst.
The need to think globally. Speakers sited case studies of projects from The Netherlands to Bankok, New Orleans to Shanghai. Each locale has its own challenges, but we can and must share information across nations, across industries, and across disciplines. It takes more than a village!
Our problems are global. 20% of Los Angeles’ air pollution comes from China. Developing nations aspire to the American dream: one or two cars per family, private homes on artificially created lawns, and they’re burning their fossil-fuel ways there at lightning speed.
With sea levels rising, we have to think hard about where we build (or rebuild, after major storms). Developing on flood plains in cities like Boston (1/3 of which is flood plain) and New York practically ensures disaster. With so many major cities located in coastal areas, we may need to radically reimagine what a city looks like and where it belongs.
Thank God, since the mission of the FDR Foundation is to encourage “Global Citizenship,” the speakers all encouraged each of us to stop handwringing and take specific actions: voicing our concerns to our elected officials, getting involved in and/or supporting environmental advocacy groups, supporting eco-tech initiatives from renewable energy innovations to grassroots community projects. Using less plastic. Buying less stuff. Living in smaller homes with energy-efficient insulation and lighting. Recycling everything. Remembering that we are not islands, but citizens of the world and custodians of the planet for future generations. Do you really want to leave your kids and grandkids with this mess??
“2035” is the second annual Wintersession conference organized by the FDR Foundation in its mission to cultivate global citizenship.