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SUSTAINABILITY Recycling • Resources • Lifestyle
‘We the People’ are the
hope for climate action
I n mid-December — as masked holiday
shoppers faced pandemic challenges
— world leaders gathered virtually to
celebrate the fifth anniversary of the
Paris Agreement: the historic interna
tional treaty on climate change signed in
2015. Although the United States was not
represented at the federal level due to the
withdrawal from the accord by the Trump
Administration, participants were optimis
tic since President-elect Joe Biden commit
ted to rejoin the climate pact on the first
day of his presidency.
Adding to that optimism was the
announcement last fall by China —
currently the world’s biggest emitter of the
greenhouse gases that fuel global warming
— that its emissions would peak by 2030
and it would reach a net zero target by
2060. (This means not adding more
carbon to the atmosphere than the planet’s
ecosystems can absorb.) The European
Union — collectively the world’s third
largest emitter — also pledged to achieve
greater results. Major investors, such as
Above the Water Line
1
Sally Bethea
Sally Bethea
is the retired
executive director
of Chattahoochee
Riverkeeperand
current board
president of
Chattahoochee
Parks Conservancy.
New York’s public pension fund, decided
to stop funding fossil fuel power.
Yes, these are aspirational goals, but for
the first time in years, I feel (cautiously)
hopeful. The chance of lessening the
predicted catastrophic damage to our
only home from global heating by the
end of this century has improved with
the election of a new President, who
campaigned on this existential issue. Biden
has a $2 trillion climate plan aimed at
eliminating carbon emissions from the
power sector by 2035 and making our
country a net zero carbon emitter by 2050
— if he can secure enough support for its
adoption.
That “if” depends in no small part
on the votes of millions of Georgians. If
Democrats gain control of the U.S. Senate
by electing Rev. Raphael Warnock and
Jon Ossoff in our state —both of whom
have platforms to address climate change
— it may be possible to pass meaningful
legislation to cut emissions and enhance
clean energy: the
energy that comes
from renewable
sources that do not
release air pollutants.
While Biden
will be able to
pursue significant
climate goals
through his budget
and administrative
actions, such as
regulations and
executive orders, an
economic stimulus
package passed by
Congress is the
most cost-effective
and comprehensive
approach. As the
second largest
greenhouse gas
emitter in the world, we must become an
aggressive climate leader. Time is of the
essence as the irrefutable evidence and
speed of a warming planet become more
obvious with every precedent-setting
wildfire, hurricane, heatwave, flood and
drought.
Dr. Katharine Wilkinson — a climate
author and strategist named by Time
magazine as one of fifteen “women who
will save the world” — believes that there’s
something else also desperately needed to
deal successfully with the climate crisis.
That something else is leadership that is
“more feminine, rooted in compassion,
connection, creativity and collaboration.”
With Dr. Ayana Johnson, she co-edited
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and
Solutions for the Climate Crisis: a new
anthology of writings from more than
forty women at the forefront of the climate
movement.
When the book was published last fall,
Wilkinson told GreenBiz: “We wanted
to bring the mighty chorus to life in one
place and do it in a way that feels more
like the way women are doing this work—
which is with linked arms, passing the
mic, shine theory [a practice of mutual
investment and collaboration], all of that.”
I talked to Katharine recently, as she
was transitioning from her role as principal
writer and editor-in-chief at Project
Drawdown to becoming a co-director
of The All We Can Save Project with
Ayana. Project Drawdown is the nonprofit
organization that seeks to help the world
reach the point in time when levels of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop
climbing and start to steadily decline.
In 2017, the organization published its
inaugural body of work on solutions in
Drawdown (drawdown.org), described as
the most comprehensive climate plan ever
produced.
Thanks to the Ray C. Anderson
Foundation, a climate roadmap for
Georgia, appropriately named Drawdown
Georgia (drawdownga.org), was published
a few months ago with solutions for
our state’s unique setting and resources.
The authors believe that we can cut our
carbon emissions at least one-third in the
next ten years in five areas: by capturing
sunlight to produce electricity, building
clean, overhauling food systems, planting
trees, and reducing vehicle emissions with
electric vehicles, mass transit and other
mobility options.
For Katharine, it is empowering
women and girls, especially in developing
countries, that holds her rapt attention and
passion, hence taking a new path with The
All We Can Save Project (allwecansave.
earth/project). In The Drawdown
Review — an update to the original text
published last spring — gender equity
ranked second among nearly eighty ways
to reduce global warming. FFigh-quality,
voluntary reproductive healthcare and
high-quality education opportunities for
women, the most vulnerable sector of the
world population, is a substantial, often-
overlooked, climate solution.
Like climate activist Greta Thunberg,
Katharine understands that distant targets
and grand speeches are meaningless
without aggressive action, now. On the
recent anniversary of the Paris Agreement,
Greta passionately reminded us all that “we
the people” are the hope. QH
1 8 January 2021 | ITTI
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