We’re “entering an encouraging new phase" of the climate change debate, in which the question is no longer whether it’s real but what to do about it, said Scientific American editor-in-chief John Rennie, as he presented former Vice President Al Gore with the magazine’s 2006 Policy Leader of the Year award last night. The event honoring Gore took place before an attentive audience of 400 scientists, students, and supporters gathered in the rotunda of Columbia’s Low Memorial Library.
Rennie, the evening’s moderator, first introduced Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of The End of Poverty, calling him "the brain, heart and soul of the sustainability movement." Sachs, who is noted for his work on sustainable development to end extreme global poverty, noted that this year marks the twentieth anniversary of the Montreal Protocol, the international agreement to take action against the deleterious effects of chlorinated fluorocarbons (CFCs) on the ozone layer. He suggested that the success of the Montreal Protocol presents itself as a case study for how to achieve international cooperation in facing the much more complex issue of global climate change.
Analogous to the treatment of the ozone problem, Sachs spoke of the four steps that can lead to major positive outcomes for the climate crisis. The first step is gathering and presenting scientific evidence to define, prove, and understand the problem, evidence met at first with industry denials then eventual acceptance. The second step is creating public awareness, and on this front Gore is making what Rennie called a "tipping point contribution." (We’ll see if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences agrees on Sunday night at the Oscars.)
The third step Sachs outlined involves technology and the development of alternatives to damaging practices; the fourth is global diplomacy, whereby heads of state sign protocols and conventions pledging their commitment to creating and enforcing environmentally progressive policies. The Montreal Protocol led to virtually a worldwide ban on CFCs, and thanks to that agreement, damage to the ozone layer has largely stopped. We need to follow the same steps to deal with the current climate crisis.
Regarding technology, Sachs referred to a press conference held earlier today presenting a "Joint Statement by the Earth Institute’s Global Roundtable on Climate Change," in which companies from around the world (including Air France, Alcoa, Bayer, Citigroup, General Electric, and Volvo) have endorsed a groundbreaking global framework to fight climate change. Dr. Sachs feels that business and industry are ready to change, and are waiting for government to lay out the policy.
Al Gore, who received a standing ovation before he even spoke, framed the situation we’re facing today not as "global warming," but as "a climate crisis that’s becoming a planetary emergency." While admitting this phrasing sounds shrill, he emphasized the moral necessity of facing the issue without denying its severity. He explained as the global population continues to explode with powerful momentum, so does the technology to exploit nature for sustenance, and in this context the urgency to face these climate change issues takes on a moral imperative. Yet at the same time, our collective way of thinking, feeling, and relating to nature and the future is not congruous with healing the planet. We have become overly focused on short-term priorities losing sight of the far-reaching consequences of our choices and actions. As they did during the civil rights movement, he called upon the younger generations to speak up and demand change from the people in power.
At the end, Sachs and Gore responded to questions submitted by audience members. To the question "What can we as individuals do?", Sachs answers that we need to focus on reducing carbon emissions (generated primarily through vehicles, power plants, industry activities, and the construction and operation of buildings). Changing the car we drive and reducing our demand for electricity are the top two things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint, said Gore, and we must learn as much as we can about the problem and take it on as a moral issue.
Sachs added that individuals can go to the brand new site nextgenerationearth.org and sign a petition that echoes the statements of the Kyoto Protocol endorsing "a clean energy future."
When asked how much Americans must be willing to give up for the sake of the planet, Gore disagreed with the premise, replying that "it isn’t a choice between virtue and discomfort." Instead, he said, we must find ways to see opportunities for change that are already there, many of which will save money. But Gore also warned against the mistake of looking at "value" only through this lens.
In his introduction, Sachs pointed out that climate change is not about the future, but the present. We may not be able to say that recent extreme climate events, like the heat waves in Europe or Hurricane Katrina, are directly anthropogenic, but they’re the kinds of intense events we can expect to see more often -- as the recent IPCC report states. The harmful results of these climate events on human populations will demand considerable attention and resources from every country and citizen.
But this is not the end of the world. Indeed, there was no question in the room last night that we have the ability to effect positive change. And the time for changing the world is here.
