Earth Day every day

A target, a timeline and some basic math

I often share the story of a question I got at the end of one of my earliest presentations 15 years ago: “So – would you say climate change is a technology problem or a people problem?”

If I was certain of my answer back then, I’m even more certain today: we have all the technology we need to fix climate change; we lack only the will.

• In many parts of the world, wind and solar, backed up by storage, are the cheapest sources of new electricity
• Electric vehicles are becoming cheaper and more common – and they’re zero-emission when charged from renewables
• Hydrogen, generated from renewable sources, is emerging as the zero-emission fuel for ships, airplanes and other applications where batteries aren’t feasible
• We know how to build net-zero homes that generate as much energy as they use; net-zero is becoming possible for larger buildings too
• We know how to design products to be 100% compostable or recyclable
• We know that eating more plant-based food will reduce our dietary carbon footprint
• We know we shouldn’t be clearcutting rainforests or dumping plastic into the ocean

In other words, the barrier to climate change solutions is not technology; it’s mainly us, and our seeming inability to act.

According to the UN IPCC’s most recent report, global emissions need to drop 43 percent below current levels by 2030 if global warming is to be limited to 1.5°C.  That’s about 1 percent by Canada Day, and again every 2.5 months after that.

Can we do it?  I’m sure we can; we humans are capable of amazing things when we simply make up our minds to act.  (Proof: an email just landed in my inbox describing the incredible effort underway in Poland to help the two million refugees who have shown up in the past two months; the writer summarizes, ‘the entire nation seems to have mobilised,’ offering everything from free food to free train tickets.  Beautiful!)

So let’s make up our minds to act on climate change.  And let’s start by focussing on our transportation, our power consumption and our diets – areas where we can make the biggest impacts in the shortest time.

And let’s not stop, because to fix climate change, we need to make every day Earth Day.