30/03/2019

The Young Minds Solving Climate Change

BBC - Chad Frischmann*

Factory billowing smoke. Credit: Getty Images
Global warming, and its effect on climate, is one the most pressing issues facing the world today. It is a metaproblem that exacerbates most other challenges that keep us up at night – from sea level rise or the loss of natural resources to increased conflict, poverty, and gender inequality.
Despite much already having been written on the urgency with which we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pull carbon out of the air, and redesign our social-environmental systems towards new ways of doing business, most decision makers, from individual consumers to world leaders, have been excruciatingly slow to take action.
What seems to be lacking is an understanding and consensus of real, workable technologies and practices to solve the crisis of growing concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere.
Younger generations, however, seem to be clued in to the reality that there are indeed climate solutions to this global problem.
"The climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change,” said Nobel Prize nominee Greta Thunberg in her 2018 TED talk.
Her bold, decisive, and informed rhetoric has inspired a global movement of school strikes for climate called #FridaysForFuture, orchestrated by students the worldwide. On 15 March 2019, 1.5 million young people and their allies hit the streets, striking in 2052 locations in 123 different countries.
The planet’s remaining forests will have to be protected, as they do vital work to soak up excess carbon.
While they are marching for a future they want, the endless debating over the different technologies needed to halt rising temperatures delay the necessary change. Climate solutions already exist and are scaling. There is no technology or economic barrier; rather, it is a lack of will and leadership to move farther and faster than the future of upcoming generations demand.
I lead a team of researchers from around the world, and together we map, model, and detail the world’s most impactful solutions to try and reverse global warming. Our research at Project Drawdown shows that there are better technologies and practices for electricity generation, transportation, buildings, industry, the food system, land use, and overconsumption. Climate solutions exist for nations, municipalities, businesses, investors, homeowners, so that consumers can shift towards a system that benefits all.
This is already happening across the globe through existing solutions that promote social justice, equity, and economic development, while restoring the planet’s natural carbon cycle. It is in younger generations that we will find the inspiration and courage for this change.
Adopting regenerative practices on current cropland, grassland and degraded land can restore soil health and fertility
Solutions abound, both scientifically proven and financially feasible. They are interventions that can shift the way the world does business. The global economy is based on extractive and exploitative growth models, spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere through fossil fuel combustion, land conversion, and excessive consumption of everything – but the economy does not need to be.
Instead, renewable energy options, such as solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, and geothermal plants, can produce clean, abundant access to electricity, which currently accounts for approximately 25% of global emissions. Along with enabling technologies like energy storage and grid flexibility, renewable energy systems can fully replace coal, oil, and gas-fired power plants.
A plethora of options are available to moving people and goods from Point A to Point B that reduce or avoid burning fossil fuels from the tailpipe. Hybrids or electric vehicles are a good choice for medium or longer distance travel, but biking, using public transport, or walking are better options for emissions and human health for most people’s daily lives.
As consumers, we have to take more responsibility about how our actions affect the planet – like how much our food travels, and how it is processed
By reducing food loss and waste and moving towards a healthy, plant-rich diet, all the extra emissions and energy associated with producing, processing, packaging, distributing, cooking, and decomposing of food left uneaten or overconsumed could be avoided, while also providing sustenance to populations in need. These are some of the most impactful decisions every individual can make every day to help solve the climate crisis
Rather than cutting down forests and degrading wetlands to supply our rapacious appetite for meat, timber, and energy, protecting ecosystems can safeguard, expand, and create new carbon sinks. Adopting regenerative practices on current cropland, grassland and degraded land can restore soil health and fertility, increase yield and provide the same abundance of materials without destroying the natural systems.
We do not need an economy based on exploiting fossil fuels; instead we can create a new economy that is based on restorative and regenerative growth
Taken together, implementing regenerative practices for agriculture and livestock management, adopting a plant-rich diet, and reducing food waste, could result in enough food being produced on current farmland to feed the world’s growing population, now until 2050 and beyond. Taking actions to change the food system from supply through demand can prevent the need to cut down forests for food production, with enough existing cropland to produce biomass to supply feedstocks for other materials such as bioplastics or alternative concrete.
Accomplishing all this, however, requires individuals to make different decisions every day on what is produced, purchased, and consumed. These decisions can be hard for some, but when the results help to solve global warming, food insecurity, human health, and deforestation, they become what might be called the solution ‘duh-factor’. With enough cascading benefits, or ‘win-win-win-wins’, implementing climate solutions simply become common sense.
Non-polluting forms of power like solar can replace those which burn fossil fuels – if the will is there to make the change.
The growth of these interventions needs to accelerate at a much faster rate. Young people know this, perhaps because it is the only future worth fighting for. Along with the world’s poor, women, and indigenous peoples, younger generations will disproportionately experience the worst effects of climate change if nothing is done; or too little is accomplished too late. Acting now is essential for everyone and everything on this planet; however, as a motivating principle, ensuring that future generations can live healthy, meaningful lives should be humanity’s highest priority.
Like Greta Thunberg, Lauren Howland is not waiting quietly for adults to figure it all out. A 23-year-old indigenous woman from the Jicarilla Apache Nation, Lauren is a co-founder of International Indigenous Youth Council (IIYC), which received the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2018 for its continued work on environmental issues.
Older people who hold the reins of political, economic, and intellectual power today must listen to these voices of change
A voice for young indigenous peoples worldwide, Howland says: “Young people are more connected and in tune with each other and this planet than any other point in humanity's existence. We realise we are fighting to save humanity from literal extinction, and we need the policymakers of this planet to collectively realise this also. It is here, climate changed. We need climate policies enacted and enforced across the globe now, that include the solutions we are already implementing in our own local communities."
Other young people are jumping to into the solution space, actively working on potential game-changing innovations. Aäron Claeys, a self-taught young entrepreneur based in Antwerp, Belgium, works on developing nanotech solutions for sustainable materials with the aim of “reversing global warming, improving the health, energy efficiency and quality of life, while restoring the planet's biosphere”.
He and his team have already marketed products that can double the lifetime of textiles, leather, and footwear to the fashion industry, which may account for up to 10% of global greenhouse gases. He is now working on developing self-cleaning, air-purifying, and carbon-capturing building materials.
The recent climate strikes show how younger people are being galvanised over climate change.
The crisis we all are facing together is an opening to bring young people into the conversation. Creating the future we all want requires older and younger generations to work together for the change we need. Young people are hungry to take part. Older people who hold the reins of political, economic, and intellectual power today must listen to these voices of change, support new ideas and innovation, and rethink assumptions about the way the world works, because the world will not be ours forever. No discussion of our younger generations’ future should take place without them sitting at the same table.
“It is not enough to prepare youth to eventually assume the roles you [adults] currently hold. Youth are prepared to be impactful as we are right now. We need those above us to mentor us now, so that we don’t have to wait to have your jobs; so that when we are in your positions, we can be even more successful,” said Silas Swanson, a second-year student at Columbia University during a youth panel at the Omega Institute ‘Drawdown Learn’ event held last year in Rhinebeck, New York. Silas woke me up to this truth, and we have been in contact ever since.
Greta Thunberg launched a legion of young climate strike organisers around the world who are waking people up to the need for change
Every climate-motivated scientist, policymaker, engineer, architect, lawyer, city planner, investor, business person, activist, economist, environmentalist, thought leader, and every other interested professional should carve out time in their week to mentor at least one young person. Five would be better, and worth the effort.
Mentoring is not simply teaching in classrooms or offering advice during office hours. It is about committing to give to and learn from others; to do whatever one can to support, empower, and lift up others to achieve their fullest potential. It does not cost too much in time, and the potential rewards are incalculable.
Poorer people will bear a disproportionate burden of the worst effects of climate change, such as flooding.
Greta Thunberg launched a legion of young climate strike organisers around the world who are waking people up to the need for change. There are many other young unsung voices across the globe working to create the future they need. We older generations must look to youth for inspiration, motivation, and courage.
Rather than seeking the courage to “fight” climate change, we need to find the courage to see the common-sense solutions right in front of us. The youth of today can help us all find the way, and together we can create the future we want.

*Chad Frischmann is the vice-president and lead researcher of Project Drawdown, an organisation seeking to find ways the global community can help mitigate and reverse the effects of climate change. He is also a willing mentor, with two spots open.

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Climate Change: Top Lawyer Says Councils May Soon Be Liable For Climate Damage

Stuff - Eloise Gibson Newsroom.co.nz

Councils might find themselves liable for climate damage - for example if they let people build in the path of storms, floods and rising seas. Photo: Lynn Grieveson
Local authorities that fail to prepare for climate change might find themselves in court, a top lawyer has warned.
The umbrella group for councils, Local Government New Zealand, has warned local government politicians it "may only be a matter of time" before councils face claims for damages for failing to adapt their communities to climate change.
Just as the government was found negligent for leaky buildings and for letting the kiwifruit virus PSA in the country, councils might find themselves liable for climate damage - for example if they let people build in the path of storms, floods and rising seas, according to a paper prepared for LGNZ by a leading barrister, Jack Hodder QC.
The legal opinion was presented to all councils earlier this month, Newsroom understands, and later circulated to some elected leaders by email.
Councils might find themselves liable for climate damage - for example if they let people build in the path of storms, floods and rising seas. ANDY JACKSON/STUFF
The warning comes as a minority of councils decide whether to sign up to LGNZ's Local Government Leaders' Climate Declaration stating there is an urgent need to address the threats of climate change.
Most councils have signed but others remain skeptical of the value of joining.
Thames-Coromandel mayor Sandra Goudie has refused to say whether she believes climate change is real, while West Coast Regional Council – the area projected by climate models to be most at risk from more extreme rainfall – has rejected the government's proposed Zero Carbon Bill and asked for more evidence to prove climate change is happening.
Newsroom reported in late 2017 that Thames-Coromandel council was still approving multi-million dollar housing developments on the waterfront after considering as little as 0.49m of sea level rise.
Guidance at the time was to consider 0.8m and newer guidance is to consider up to 1.9m, however, a 73-unit apartment block for the elderly, expanding the retirement village Richmond Villas, was approved based on a 2001 flood hazard assessment, then 16 years old.
 A year after Newsroom's special inquiry was published, and 18 months after approving the new development, Thames Coromandel District Council put a warning notice on the Richmond Villas title saying the land it was built on was considered at risk of flooding, overland flow, storm surge and tidal effects.
On bad days you can see, hear and feel the gravel, rocks and sand being clawed back to the water in Haumoana, Hawke's Bay. RENE FISCH
In January 2018, six months after the council approved the new apartment block, Radio NZ reported that a storm surge came over the seawall and flooded the entrance to the existing units.
LGNZ sent Jack Hodder's opinion to elected officials with a note suggesting they discuss the implications.
"Up until now, it perhaps has been unclear whether councils may be liable for failing to provide climate change adaptation measures, or allowing developments to proceed in at risk areas, particularly where those decisions have physical and economic consequences for individuals/communities," said the letter.
"LGNZ's view has been that councils are exposed to legal risks, and that local government in New Zealand will not be immune from the growing international trend of climate change litigation by individuals and groups against larger organisations.
"To test whether LGNZ's thinking was on the right track, and to clarify the position for councils, LGNZ engaged Mr Hodder to prepare a paper addressing whether there are climate change litigation risks for councils."
Colac Bay, Southland, where the sea is causing coastal erosion. Robyn Edie
Until now, court cases against councils have been led by affected homeowners unhappy that risk notices had been slapped on their titles, warning future buyers about climate risk. Homeowners in Kapiti and elsewhere argued the risk was not well-enough supported by evidence.
Hodder's opinion suggests the longer-term risk may be the opposite - legal action by homeowners who are at risk and wish councils had done more. But any decisions to take defensive action or place restrictions on development would need to be very carefully weighed up, and backed up by information and evidence to stand up in court, he said.
Hodder concluded that climate changes cases around the world were getting more numerous, and creative. Unless central governments stepped in to properly tackle climate change risks, judges would likely step in, he wrote.
"There has not yet been any large damages claims in relation to failure to implement adaptation measures in New Zealand. However, it may be only a matter of time," noted LGNZ in its note to local politicians.
"We encourage you to discuss Mr Hodder's paper with your council, to start thinking about how you can prepare for the likely changes and the steps that you can take to reduce your council's exposure to litigation risk."
The local government group also noted that private insurers were already starting to price in increasing coastal hazards into policies, with possible implications for property prices.
"If the Government does not move, they will effectively be saying: let the courts, commercial insurers and banks set the rules." (The Government has previously said it is working on updated sea level measures to help councils, however the process is taking some time).
Hodder cited the Kiwifruit growers' case against MAF (now part of MBIE), where the High Court concluded that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was negligent in issuing an import permit for kiwifruit pollen in 2006/07, saying MAF's regulatory power to maintain biosecurity gave it a duty of care to kiwifruit growers who were devastated by the PSA outbreak.
That case is now heading to the Court of Appeal. Hodder has been representing the government.
Hodder also mentioned the leaky building cases, when New Zealand courts found territorial authorities were meant to "ensure" that building work complied with the Building Code, giving them a duty of care owed to residential home-owners (including future owners).
That ruling imposed huge costs on councils and years of litigation. His paper concluded that handling climate litigation would be difficult but "doing nothing requires a surprising level of bravery".
Newsroom has sought comment from LGNZ on the legal opinion.

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'Great Concern': World Meteorology Agency Reports Bad Climate Tidings

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

People pass through a section of the road damaged earlier this month by Cyclone Idai in Nhamatanda in Mozambique. Credit: AP

 Key points:
  • 2018 was the fourth warmest year on record
  • 2015–2018 were the four warmest years on record as the long-term warming trend continues
  • Ocean heat content is at a record high and global mean sea level continues to rise
  • Artic and Antarctic sea-ice extent is well below average
  • Extreme weather had an impact on lives and sustainable development on every continent
  • Average global temperature reached approximately 1°C above pre-industrial levels
  • We are not on track to meet climate change targets and rein in temperature increases
The world's ocean heat content reached a record high last year and extreme weather events affected the lives of about 62 million people, displacing more than two million of them, the World Meteorological Organisation said.The agency's annual State of the Global Climate report, launched at the United Nations in New York on Thursday, reported a slew of impacts attributed to climate change, including the melting of 3600 cubic kilometres of Greenland ice since 2002.
Last year was the world's fourth hottest on record based on surface temperatures, with each of the years between 2015 and 2018 among the four hottest years since standardised records began more than a century ago.
“The data released in this report give cause for great concern," Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, said in a statement, noting average surface temperatures are about 1 degree above the pre-industrial level. “There is no longer any time for delay [on action to curb greenhouse gas emissions].”
A measure of the build-up of warming in the biosphere -  as those gases trap more of the sun's radiation - is the record ocean heat levels for a second year in a row.
As the waters warm, the oceans are also expanding, lifting sea levels at an accelerating rate. Adding in the effect of melting ice sheets and glaciers, the global mean sea level last year reached a record 3.7 millimetres in 2018. That pace was quicker than the average 3.15mm annual increase during the 1993-2018 period.
For Australia, 2018 was the third hottest year on record for data going back to 1910. For day-time temperatures, last year was the second hottest, the Bureau of Meteorology said in January. 
The heat has continued into 2019, with Australia's summer the hottest on record by a substantial margin, particularly for maximum temperatures.

Australia's summer maximum temperature anomalies
Compared with the 1961-90 baseline
Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Much of the WMO report looks at the impact of extreme weather events, particularly for developing nations.
It noted that food security was undermined in many places, with world hunger resuming its climb "after a prolonged decline".
Up to September last year, more than two million people had been displaced by disasters "linked to weather and climate events", with drought, flood and storms including cyclones leading culprits.
Heatwaves were also raising "alarm bells for the public health community" as they are expected to worsen in intensity, duration and frequency as the planet continues to warm.
"Between 2000 and 2016, the number of people exposed to heatwaves was estimated to have increased by around 125 million, as the average length of individual heatwaves was 0.37 days longer, compared to the period between 1986 and 2008," the report said. "In 2015 alone, a record 175 million people were exposed to 627 heatwaves."
Firefighters work on a wildfire on Winter Hill near Bolton, England in June 2018. Credit: PA via AP
Last year, 281 weather and climate events recorded by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters affected almost 62 million people. Of those, floods topped the peril list, affecting 35 million people.
The impacts were not restricted to poorer nations, though, with the US alone reporting 14 "billion dollar disasters" last year.
Major storms also included super typhoon Mangkhut, that affected more than 2.4 million people and killed at least 134 people, mainly in the Philippines, the report said.

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