The World We Create: My New Book and a Message of Hope for the Planet
Posted October 14, 2014 in Solving Global Warming
My work at NRDC has brought me to the front lines of the climate crisis. I have flown over the massive tar sands strip mines in the boreal forest. I have visited the homes of people coping with frack pads and wastewater ponds in their backyards. And I have helped my neighbors recover from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.
But I have also witnessed the clean energy revolution that has taken hold in our country and across the world. I have celebrated wind energy with steelworkers in Gary, Indiana, seen solar arrays displayed across states from Massachusetts to California, and talked with business owners and city leaders who welcome the millions of dollars saved by investing in energy efficiency.
Never in my lifetime have the challenges been greater than those we face from climate change. Never have the solutions been more clearly at hand. We know how to defuse the climate threat. We just have to act now.
That is why I have written a new book, The World We Create: A Message of Hope for a Planet in Peril, with my NRDC colleague Bob Deans. American families, communities, and economy have so much to gain from confronting climate change and expanding clean energy. I wanted to help chart the way forward.
The book is a clarion call for the United States to become carbon neutral in our lifetime—to ensure that even as our economy grows, our fossil fuel pollution does not rise, and instead, decreases at an accelerated rate.
It’s time for us, as Americans, to state as a national goal that we’ll hit fast-forward on efforts to clean up our carbon pollution, invest in energy efficiency and shift to renewable power so that we will become a carbon-neutral nation that no longer contributes to climate change.
That means reducing our reliance on coal, gas and oil. It means cutting our carbon footprint. And it means strengthening our forests and wetlands so that we offset every pound of carbon pollution we produce by adding to our natural capacity to absorb it.
We have already begun slashing climate change pollution. More than 3.4 million Americans are on the job every day helping to clean up our dirty power plants, get more electricity from the wind and sun, manufacture more hybrid and electric cars, and cut energy waste in our homes, at work and on the road.
In the book, I lay out why we need to accelerate this progress now. I start by sharing my own path to environmental awareness and climate advocacy. I relay my firsthand experiences with the enormous toll fossil fuel development takes on our communities. I describe the Iowa farms, Detroit assembly lines, and high tech headquarters where clean energy is taking root.
And I make the case that the United States can shrink our carbon footprint to less than one-fifth its current size by 2050.
Now is the time to commit to that achievable goal. We’ve arrived at a hopeful moment of national convergence. We have a president who understands the stakes for the country, a widening business community that grasps the opportunity for prosperity and change, and a new generation of environmental steward united around the need to act.
The modern environmental movement exists for one purpose: we’re here to change the world—to become a place where we care for the natural systems of the Earth as if our very lives depended on them, because they do. That is not yet the world we live in. It is the world we must create.
The World We Create is available online here and through local booksellers here.
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Comments
Michael Berndtson — Oct 15 2014 11:03 AM
Congratulations on the book and good luck post presidency of NRDC.
OK, I'm going to be a bit of a curmudgeon here so obviously take it with a grain of salt. The board chairman of NRDC is with AECOM. A large consulting, engineering, construction and technical services firm. AECOM purchased URS recently. Another large consulting, engineer, construction and technical services firm. The new AECOM will be about the size of Bechtel, a really big engineering and ... firm.
This merger was spurred by activist hedge fund Jana Partners to optimize oil and gas production and power generation services. Both firms have environmental divisions, but much smaller compared to energy and power. Both firms do a good job walking the fence between government and industry. I can only assume as long as environmental doesn't upset the interests of energy and power clients.
This is why we (us planet inhibitors) are kind of screwed. Environmental protection (keeping it clean) is not really a business model for multi discipline consulting and engineering firms no matter the size. These firms house a lot environmental technical knowhow. The problem is these firms are in the business of "building it up and knocking it down" or "wait for a disaster to happen and then act." This would be oil and gas facilities design, construction and operations and the one end. And seawall construction and storm preparedness on the other. These firms are also tied in politically with both dems (Nancy Pelosi) and repubs (Michael Bloomberg). And both firms benefit from perpetual war, given DoD contracts. That was off topic, but a huge bone to pick.
The environmental movement was reactive in the 1960s and 1970s. It shouldn't be today. It's 2014 and environmentalism and the business of environmental is pretty much 100 percent reactive. And simply sitting on the sidelines on climate change acceleration mitigation. However, environmental business firms like AECOM-URS are more than willing to help out on climate change adaptation and emergency response. So for this firm, the more climate changes and the greater the impacts, the money money it makes.
It's time for big NGOs and big multi discipline consulting and engineering firms to become proactive. Get in front. Do 10 percent pro bono. Lower the chance of executives going to hell or spending time in purgatory.
Nevin Thompson — Oct 15 2014 02:40 PM
Being born in Montana in 1932 I have seen it all as to how our enrivronment, locally, nationally, and on our finite beautiful planet continues to degrade. I have also seen population grow, both locally and world-wide until it doubles all too often. I have been involved with environmental organizations since Boy Scout days, from being a Scout Master to working for Wilderness preservation. My concern since college days when I wrote a paper for Freshman Elglish at then Montana State College regarding the need for population control, has stayed the same. The environment cannot be "saved" unless population growth is controlled. However not one organization of which I have been a member will address my concerns as to their stand on population. Why? Environmental Activism without addressing population growth is a lost cause!
Nevin Thompson
Winter Garden, FL
CMG — Oct 15 2014 03:21 PM
The comment above from Mr. Nevin Thompson is certainly the most critical of all comments expressed anywhere in the world. Another plan where government forces environmental responsibility to stop climate change is the "Alternate Plan" where "every other" square city block is a forest of trees. Even with this drastic measure if population is not kept in check the result by 2500 will be unthinkable.
Beth Champagne — Oct 15 2014 03:38 PM
Thanks, Michael Berndtson and Nevin Thompson, for cutting to the chase.
Were women in control of their own fertility, and able to provide for their families, would we also rise up to defend and protect the Earth?
That's one key question.
It's been pointed out that running a nation on oil is the equivalent of blowing an inheritance built up over millions of years in one big blow-out party. Women and men will not rise up in defense of Earth when socialized to do what a capitalist, neo-liberal economic system requires. Understandably, people in privileged societies who've not known Earth as sacred will choose to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.
And how many children hear Aesop's fables anymore?
Edouard Valette — Oct 15 2014 03:55 PM
Congratulations on your book,and good luck in your post presidency of NRDC
A Proud Canadian — Oct 15 2014 07:15 PM
Congratulations on flying “over the massive tar sands strip mines in the boreal forest”. Congratulations. Well Done. That should fix things. Since you were on the “front lines” there and all.
Question: When I buy the hardcopy (using trees and energy to produce), will you bicycle it over to me?
We all look forward in your next article to see where the profits from your book will be directed. I would expect back into the operating budget of the NRDC. As you have said many times, the NRDC is the planet’s best hope for survival. And since you are utilizing this forum to promote your book…. It seems appropriate.
In any case please let those of us who follow the NRDC know.
Thanks.
Mark Gall — Oct 15 2014 08:47 PM
I feel that unrestrained immigration into the U.S. may undo much of the good that alternative energy will produce. The current administration, and the proceeding ones, did little to reduce immigration, and it appears that this administration is determined to legalize many millions of people who are currently in this country illegally. This IS NOT the first time that illegal immigrants have been made legal. Many business leaders want to bring in many more immigrants because "we need trained personnel". I disagree, as I personally know professionals here who cannot find work. Very few of our current immigrants are here because they are in danger. They are here because the U.S. offers a better life for their family, and they will adopt our wasteful practices. First world countries must drastically reduce immigration, or their clean energy work will be submerged by hugely increased population. At the current rate, the U.S. population will reach 450,000,000 within a few decades. Why is this not discussed?
Allan Spring — Oct 15 2014 09:45 PM
To help battle climate change I urge everyone to watch the documentary "Cowspiracy" and learn how animal agriculture is possibly the biggest cause of climate change. By simply going vegan either quickly or gradually, we can help stop the planet's warming.
Leland Brun — Oct 16 2014 03:16 AM
I have been kicked off population discussion boardsat Audubon and Sierra Club by pointing out that the best way to contribute for environmental action is donation to groups like Planned Parenthood, Population Connection, Naral Pro Choice, etc. All the environmental groups that solicit to save this animal or that acreage are just putting fingers in a dike holding back the rising tide of population.
Judith Infante — Oct 16 2014 08:39 AM
While solar panels, hybrid cars, and a vegan diet are laudable, the largest and FUNDAMENTAL element in the environmental crisis is population growth. Why does one read about this only on comment sites - read only by other comment writers, I suspect. It's too darn political a topic and no organization is going to offend potential or present donors: religious groups whose population philosophy dates from around 900 BCE, or "minority" groups who cry "genocide" at birth control, or corporations who need more and more consumers to produce growth for their stockholders. If we can't consume our way out of this mess, the planet is doomed. And we cannot consume our way out.
Michael Berndtson — Oct 16 2014 09:38 AM
Given all the comments on population, someone should start a suicide cult. The problem with putting population control into environmentalism is that it's lazy. And its mean. Those worrying about population aren't worried about land, water and air quality. They're really worried about maintaining their own living standard(s) and that of their spawn. Something like, "why should we have to spend many millions to raise our children to maybe become successful, when poor families have four children - three do little and one gets into Harvard."
One of the most influential books I read in college was Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man." Of all the antagonists the main character encountered as he traveled from the south to New York, the most evil was the liberal New Yorker Mr. Norton.
"The white philanthropy and liberal-mindedness of Mr. Norton is exposed as mere self-aggrandizement."
http://www.shmoop.com/invisible-man-ellison/antagonist.html
Many enviro NGOs boards and major donors are wealthy white folks. Just look at NRDC, WWF, EDF, and others board of directors. Many have gained their wealth by natural resources exploitation and exploitation of human resources. These folks could be bootstrapping self made men or idle rich heirs. Nonetheless, population control as an ism, on the surface and underneath, is racism. And it even becomes rationalization for indiscriminate bombing campaigns for those too self aggrandized. As if that's a solution to pollution.
Nature includes humans and humans function along the same population rise and fall curve as all organisms functioning out of balance with their surroundings.
Cynthia Hathaway — Oct 16 2014 03:09 PM
Responding to Nevin Thompson. You will find your concerns for overpopulation of human beings squarely addressed and prioritized by The Center for Biological Diversity ( biologicaldiversity.org), a large and effective organization that I've been a member of for many years. They are the only group I know that boldly and directly links overpopulation to every critical environmental issue facing us today. Check out their PopX campaign. They are working hard to do something about it.