Climate Priorities for Capitalist and Socialist

Climate mitigation and adaptation strategies will need to be adopted by both capitalist, centrist, and socialist governments in the next decades.

Taking action in our community

 

Iman Ghosh reports on the Visual Capitalist website that greenhouse gases (GHGs)—chiefly in the form of CO₂ emissions—have risen at unprecedented rates as a result of global growth and resource consumption.

Billions of people rely on petrol and diesel-powered vehicles to get around. As a result, they contribute to almost 12% of global emissions. But this challenge is also an opportunity: the consumer adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) could significantly help shift the world away from fossil fuel use, both for passenger travel and for freight—although there are still speedbumps to overcome. Meanwhile, buildings contribute 17.5% of energy-related emissions overall—which makes sense when you realize the stunning fact that cities use 60-80% of the world’s annual energy needs. With megacities (home to 10+ million people) ballooning every day to house the growing urban population, these shares may rise even further. Agriculture, Forestry & Land Use

 

Sub-sector	GHG Emissions Share	Further breakdown
Transport	16.2%	• Road 11.9% • Aviation 1.9% • Rail 0.4% • Pipeline 0.3% • Ship 1.7%
Buildings	17.5%	• Residential 10.9% • Commercial 6.6%
Industry energy	24.2%	• Iron & Steel 7.2% • Non-ferrous metals 0.7% • Machinery 0.5% • Food and tobacco 1.0% • Paper, pulp & printing 0.6% • Chemical & petrochemical (energy) 3.6% • Other industry 10.6%
Agriculture & Fishing energy	1.7%	-
Unallocated fuel combustion	7.8%	-
Fugitive emissions from energy production	5.8%	• Coal 1.9% • Oil & Natural Gas 3.9%
Total	73.2%

The second biggest category of emissions is the sector that we rely on daily for the food we eat. Perhaps unsurprisingly, methane from cows and other livestock contribute the most to emissions, at 5.8% total. These foods also have some of the highest carbon footprints, from farm to table.1

 

Seth Klein, writing for the National Observer, states from the outset that, without question, a truly successful climate plan requires collective action at the political/policy level . Any plan that relies on individual households voluntarily doing what he spells out here will see us fry.

Reducing our carbon footprint

 

He owns his home, which provides him with privileges, opportunities and obligations to act that do not exist for most renters.

As stated up front, the path to victory on the climate emergency will not be won by encouraging and incentivizing households to voluntarily do what we did. While individual households all have their part to play, confronting the climate crisis requires collective and state-led action. As my family’s conversion journey makes clear, the process can be complicated and it is costly, and if we are hoping everyone will do this on their own, we’re going to lose the climate fight… Under any future scenario, as we confront the climate crisis, energy costs are going up, and thus, issues of energy poverty and cost stress for lower and middle-income households is an issue that needs to be mitigated. And that’s something we can only do together… while all this encouragement and financial assistance is needed (policy carrots), fuel swapping can’t be left to voluntary goodwill. We also need the state to set clear near-term dates by which fuel-swapping will be mandatory (the policy sticks). Tackling the climate crisis and eliminating GHGs from our homes isn’t optional. We need to get this done.2 

Ultimately, however, a comprehensive climate program does require that all our homes cease using fossil fuels.

• Induction electric stove: $2,000 plus tax
• Electric hot water heater and tank, including installation: $3,400 plus tax
• Heat pump system, including installation: $17,000 plus tax (minus $9,000 in rebates)

 

This article walks us through how that can be done. On twitter, the Earth carer called Angie, user (@lifelearner47) shares some statistics from the Climate Action Tracker on emission reduction goals and projected achievements of the leading industrial countries. The numbers in these reports identify the priority we need to place on transition from fossil fuels as our major source of energy for industry, transportation, and energy in our built environment.

 

Which countries think it's perfectly OK to aim for >4°C extra climate heating ?#Fossilfuel countries! What a surprise. pic.twitter.com/y2YTW1eOmj

— Earth carer called Angie (@lifelearner47) December 19, 2021

References

 

1	(2021, December 15). A Global Breakdown of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector. Retrieved December 19, 2021, from https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/a-global-breakdown-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-by-sector/
2	(2021, December 10). Getting off gas: A how-to guide to get fossil fuels out of your home. Retrieved December 19, 2021, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/12/10/opinion/getting-gas-how-guide-get-fossil-fuels-out-your-home
3	Earth carer called Angie. [@lifelearner47]. 18 Dec 2021. Which countries think it's perfectly OK to aim for >4°C extra climate heating ? #Fossilfuel countries! What a surprise.Tweet.[tweetdeck].https://twitter.com/lifelearner47/status/1472504740051361794

Science and Care of our Grandchildren

Scientists continue to study and report on the environmental and health risks that we must confront with serious action now.

Our grandchildren need us to act

 

A report in the Guardian in 2019 noted that Pope Francis believed that numerous studies tell us it is still possible to limit global warming. He added that to do this we need a clear, far-sighted and strong political will, set on pursuing a new course that aims at refocusing financial and economic investments toward those areas that truly safeguard the conditions of a life worthy of humanity on a healthy planet for today and tomorrow.

He put particular emphasis on the role of young people, who “show a heightened sensitivity to the complex problems that arise from this emergency. We must not place the burden on the next generations to take on the problems caused by the previous ones.”1 

The David Suzuki Foundation in an article by David Suzuki observes that we have become the impatient species, too busy to let nature replenish itself and too puffed up with our own sense of importance to acknowledge our utter dependence on its generosity. Instead, we steal from our children and future generations by extinguishing so many species that could have been here for them too.

We have many reasons to change our destructive ways, to show greater respect to nature. Above all, we have to think of the world we’re leaving to our children and grandchildren and those yet to be born. We must do it for love.2

 

The “boomer” generation took us from the social consciousness of the sixties to the indifference, “throw away culture”, and greed of our current time. We need to prevent our grandchildren from suffering the consequences of our poor decisions and inertia to face the facts we increasingly witness in the world around us.

 

References

 

1	(2019, December 5). Climate crisis is 'challenge of civilisation', says pope .... Retrieved December 5, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/05/climate-crisis-is-challenge-of-civilisation-says-pope
2	(2021, December 7). We have to stop squandering our brief time on Earth - David Suzuki .... Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://davidsuzuki.org/story/we-have-to-stop-squandering-our-brief-time-on-earth/

 

Climate Mitigation in a Market Economy

A curation of recent articles in the media invite a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of action by investment, industrial, insurance, and service enterprises to mitigate the disastrous effects of climate events like those that the people of the east and west coast of Canada have endured.

 Environmental racism in Nova Scotia

Matt Galloway, of the Current on CBC Radio, interviewed Tom Rand, managing partner at ARK turned Venture Capital and the author of The Case for Climate Capitalism, and Christine Bergeron, president and CEO of Van City, a credit union in British Columbia. Galloway asks if the pension fund leaders are in a bind if there is a moral imperative to not destroy the planet, but their job is to make sure that my pension is taken care of?

An investment fund manager has a fiduciary obligation to maximise long term returns for their beneficiaries. There's two kinds of arguments, as Christine just pointed out. One is that investment managers are beginning to realise that there is a boatload of money to be made in this transition to a low carbon economy. This is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century. The other, more nuanced argument I would make, though, is that pension funds have an obligation, as you say, to meet their beneficiaries' needs, sort of 20, 30, 40 years from now if we head into three degrees and four degrees. I'm sorry, is Mad Max the economy? You know, to think that the economy is going to keep growing and that we can meet those obligations, financial obligations many decades out and of the world you're dreaming of. And so I would argue there's actually a fiduciary obligation on behalf of the industry as a whole. No single pension fund can do it by themselves, but as a whole, they have a responsibility to help solve this problem because if you don't solve this problem, the economy is not going to be running the way we expect it to in 20 or 30 years.1 

Megan O'Toole and Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, of Al Jazeera, report on the fight to end environmental racism in Canada and Nova Scotia that has been the result of putting industrial development ahead of the health and welfare of marginalized communities. In the article, Ingrid Waldron, Canada’s preeminent expert on the topic and author of There’s Something In The Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous & Black Communities, says rural and isolated areas are most affected.

whose book on environmental racism was the basis of a 2019 documentary co-directed and co-produced by actor Elliot Page, has spent years documenting the phenomenon in the province. She serves as executive director of the Environmental Noxiousness, Racial Inequities and Community Health (ENRICH) project, which has mapped the proximity of dozens of waste disposal sites and other toxic industries to First Nations and African Nova Scotian communities.2

 

  A report By Simran Chatha outlines plans involving the private sector to mitigate the effects of rising seas that threaten Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific Coasts.

As for Canada, the report indicates that the country “does not yet have a strategic planning framework or standard classification of approaches for coastal risk management.” To properly build and maintain future flood mitigation measures, the report recommends Canada develop a set of national standards to support a consistent evaluation of nature-based solutions compared to infrastructure solutions, develop national monitoring standards for these solutions and to build the capacity to fund nature-based projects in the private sector.3 

Tom Perkins, in an article for the Guardian, reports on the math of confusion as McDonald’s avoids the bold step of cutting beef offerings to reduce GHG emissions. Jennifer Molidor, ​a senior food campaigner with the Center For Biological Diversity points to the absence of menu changes needed to significantly reduce beef production and emissions in McDonald’s plans.

“One of the main signs that something is ‘greenwashing’ is that it’s not clear or transparent,” she added…McDonald’s “net zero” by 2050 pledge has also been criticized because such plans can allow polluters to continue emitting high levels of greenhouse gases over the next decades. To offset emissions that companies continue to produce, “net zero” programs often rely on carbon offset schemes – which have been the subject of multiple investigations pointing to flawed carbon calculations and uncertain impacts – as well as carbon capture technology, which is expensive and not yet operating at scale. Though McDonald’s plans and metrics are complex and controversial, they hold high marketing value because they give the appearance to the layperson of real progress, Molidor said. “McDonald’s is taking advantage of people who don’t understand this kind of math,” she added.4 

Significant players in the market economy have identified strengths for their enterprises in the upcoming low carbon environment. Our role as individuals is to highlight the weakness and threats to these organizations of delayed action.

 

References

 

1	(2021, December 8). What We Can Do: A special show on fighting climate change in your .... Retrieved December 10, 2021, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/what-we-can-do-a-special-show-on-fighting-climate-change-in-your-home-work-and-finances-1.6277706
2	(2021, December 8). Toxic legacy: The fight to end environmental racism in Canada. Retrieved December 10, 2021, from https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2021/12/8/toxic-legacy-the-fight-to-end-environmental-racism-in-canada
3	(2021, December 9). Rising seas threaten Canada's Atlantic and Pacific Coasts: Report. Retrieved December 10, 2021, from https://www.watercanada.net/rising-seas-threaten-canadas-atlantic-and-pacific-coasts-report/
4	(2021, December 10). Hold the beef: McDonald's avoids the bold step it must take to cut .... Retrieved December 10, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/10/mcdonalds-emissions-beef-burgers

Poor engineering design and ethics

The press frequently reports on incidents where it appears that disastrous outcomes may have been avoided if engineers had focused more on the common good or public safety.

GHG emission management

 

Danny Crichton, writing in TechCrunch,  suggests there is a fundamental thread that binds the disparate and heinous stories of the decline of engineering ethics together. The increasingly noxious alchemy of complexity and capitalism is a thread that binds the 737 MAX, FB data leaks, PG&E grid fires, and VW's emissions.

Ethics starts with leadership at the top, and specifically with better communication around safety and regulatory concerns to all stakeholders, but most definitely shareholders. Owners of stock in companies with complex technical products need to be told — again and again — that the companies they own will prioritize safety over immediate profits. The tone must always be to value long-term growth and sustainability… Yet, short-term traders aren’t the only investors available. The capital markets are diverse, and there are trillions of dollars of wealth handled by managers seeking to invest in long-term growth, without the downsides of inevitable disasters. One key part of investor relations is to acquire the investors that match the culture of the firm. If your investors don’t care about safety, no one else will either.1

 

The website of Engineers Nova Scotia states that Members of Engineers Nova Scotia must adhere to the Code of Ethics adopted by Council motion, effective September 30, 2012. This was adopted based on the Engineers Canada Code of Ethics as set out in the Engineers Canada publication “Guideline on the Code of Ethics”, dated April 2012.2

 

Facebook post from someone who takes the engineer's oath seriously 

Hyunjoo Jin reports, for Reuters, that the South Korean engineer Kim Gwang-ho flew 7,000 miles to Washington last year to do something he never dreamed he would: he reported alleged safety lapses at Hyundai Motor Co - his employer of 26 years - to U.S. regulators.

In a culture which values corporate loyalty, Kim was moving against the tide when he handed the NHTSA 250 pages of internal documents on the alleged defect and nine other faults. South Korea has been buffeted by corporate scandals, many within its family-run conglomerates or chaebol, but has seen few whistleblowers. A high proportion are sacked or ostracized, despite legislation to protect them, according to advocacy groups. Kim, fired in November for allegedly leaking trade secrets about the company’s technology and sales to media, has since been reinstated by Hyundai after a ruling by a South Korean government body under whistleblower protection laws. Hyundai has filed a complaint disputing the decision. “I will be the first and last whistleblower in South Korea’s auto industry. There are just too many things to lose,” Kim said in an interview at a bakery cafe run by his eldest daughter. “I had a normal life and was better off, but now I’m fighting against a big conglomerate.”3 

The ambiguity between loyalty to employers and clients who support the engineering enterprise and the safety or common good of society in expressions of engineering ethics makes decisions about inadequate designs an exercise in tension for practicing engineers.

 

References

 

1(2019, April 28). The demise and rebirth of the ethical engineer | TechCrunch. Retrieved May 1, 2019, from https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/28/the-demise-and-rebirth-of-the-ethical-engineer/ 

2(n.d.). Welcome to Engineers Nova Scotia. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://engineersnovascotia.ca/ 

3(2017, May 14). Blowing the whistle in South Korea: Hyundai Man takes on chaebol .... Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-whistleblower/blowing-the-whistle-in-south-korea-hyundai-man-takes-on-chaebol-culture-idUSKCN18B0J5

 

Loosening the knots in the cry of the earth

Ruth Holgate, a member of the Jesuit Young Adult Ministries team, based at the Laudato Si’ community in Clapham,

Building for the future

 

asks how might the gift of wisdom help us to untie the complicated knot of responding to the ‘cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’ as individuals and as communities?

 

Let us consider how such an approach might help to loosen that particular knot in all of our lives that I mentioned previously, our need for ecological conversion – to respond urgently, as individuals and as the whole human race, to the ‘cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’. When a person looks at the mess human beings have made of the world, the climate crisis, the extreme inequality between peoples, a culture of careless over-consumption, etc., how can considering God’s perspective help us to respond? We might initially guess that God is sad or angry at what we have done, inducing feelings of guilt, helplessness and a sense of being paralysed – after all, what can one person do in this awful mess? But if we sit longer with the question of how God sees things, perhaps we recall God as creator, as creative, as one who lovingly attends to the world. We may want God to intervene to make things right – but we also notice as we grapple with these thoughts that God invites us to notice our own sense of wonder at creation, perhaps the delicate blossom on a tree or the surprising amount of busy, noisy birdlife in a local park. As we attend to the creation we see around us, we might notice within ourselves a desire to care, to act more gently toward this created world, to exercise more self-control over our own consumption, recognising that we do have an impact on the created world, however small. Over time, as we continue to dwell on how God sees things, our perspective can change, can become more attuned to those fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)  that can point us toward a greater care for others and for our world, and this wisdom will enable us to face small and great challenges.1

References

 1 (2021, April 19). Loosening the knots: Wisdom | Thinking Faith. Retrieved November 12, 2021, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/loosening-knots-wisdom

Engineering and Implementing the Net Zero Grid

Binnu Jeyakumar and Jan Gorski offer an opinion in the National Observer that creating a net-zero emissions electricity grid by 2035 in line with International Energy Agency targets is essential for Net-Zero by 2050.

Net Zero Grid

 

They ask how will Canada deliver this bigger, cleaner, modernized grid to electrify our vehicles, buildings, and businesses, and take advantage of the opportunity to export in-demand clean electricity to our neighbours to the south?

We need to act quickly. Asset planning, development, and turnover can take decades. If we don’t move swiftly now, we will lose windows of opportunity. There are four key pieces of the puzzle: renewable energy to provide zero-carbon electricity; energy efficiency to reduce how much electricity is needed; demand response to match when electricity is needed with its availability; and, increased storage capacity… But there is a fifth piece that is critical to bringing it all together: Canada needs more transmission lines to connect provincial grids and allow us, as a nation, to play to our strengths. Unlike the first four pieces of the net-zero grid puzzle, transmission requires interprovincial co-operation. The rewards for succeeding should not be underestimated.1 

In 2019, Emily Chung of CBC News reported that the next wave of innovation are the nuclear reactors of the future that are small and modular.

Small nuclear reactors could make Alberta's oilsands cleaner, industry experts say Such reactors are considered "modular" because they're designed to work either independently or as modules in a bigger complex (as is already the case with traditional, larger reactors at most Canadian nuclear power plants.) A power plant could be expanded incrementally by adding additional modules.2 

Joanne Liou of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Office of Public Information and Communication explains Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Achieving the Net Zero electrical grid in Canada will require a great effort in power system engineering, construction and commissioning.

Today, nuclear power provides 10% of the world’s electricity. But to stem climate change, we’re going to need far greater amounts of clean and reliable energy. Thirty countries currently operate nuclear power plants. More than two dozen others are looking at nuclear energy to meet their power and climate needs. In the western United States, more than 30 towns and cities are also looking to the future. They want to go carbon free. And they’re betting on small modular reactors (SMRs) to get there.3

 

At this time, we urgently need to provide education and training to ensure we have the engineers, technologists, technicians, and tradespeople to get the job done on time.

 

References

 

1	(2021, November 8). No better time to invest in an electric future - National Observer. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/node/28586
2	(2019, June 25). 'The next wave of innovation': Nuclear reactors of the future are ... - CBC. Retrieved June 25, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/small-modular-reactors-nuclear-smr-1.5187469
3	(2020, January 8). Nuclear Power: The Road to a Carbon Free Future | IAEA. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/multimedia/videos/nuclear-power-the-road-to-a-carbon-free-future