Keeping Our Earth Home Clean...Together
By Maggie Bailey
Until we all understand that we live under the same roof, we will not be able to join forces to clean our Earth home. This may be a simple analogy, but it offers a viewpoint to understand the responsibility that each one of us has to be mindful of how we live in the natural environment. As with our own homes, so too with this home we call Earth, we must take personal responsibility to care for this planet.
Why do we need to work together?
Sometimes the work we need to do on our own homes is too much for us. So, we either ask family, friends or neighbors, or we hire someone to help us. Similarly, we have many layers within our communities where we can join forces to tackle climate change. As the old adage says, many hands make for light work.
Who are the players?
Individuals, communities, small businesses, non-profit organizations, corporations, local, state and national governments all have a responsibility to keep our Earth home clean. More importantly, all these levels of community have varying knowledge and resources, if given the right opportunity and circumstances, to offer innovative solutions for our needed environmental clean up. Not only that, the strengths of one can compensate for the weakness of another. Even more compelling, the group as a whole could develop solutions together that might be impossible to do alone. Similarly, a tree, as big as they can be, is just one small part of the forest. Many organisms make up the forest ecosystem. It is the diversity within the ecosystem that keeps the forest healthy, allowing for greater adaptability and resiliency to solve problems.
An Opportunity Refused
Sharing ideas and resources among individuals, among corporations and among governments is a key way to find the innovative multifaceted solutions we need. Resources are not just monetary, but could be knowledge, skilled workers, technology, etc. On November 4, 2019, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced that the United States (US) will officially withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord (PCA).1
What does the US withdrawal from Paris Climate Accord mean?
A year from the announcement, November 4, 2020, the United States will officially leave the PCA and will no longer have to honor the pledges made to reduce carbon emissions. Nor would the US have to make other efforts which the US committed to with the PCA to reduce the effects of climate change. This withdrawal limits the United States’ opportunity to share ideas and hear others’ idea. When not all of the parties are at the table, this places limits on how the world community adapts to the changing climate.
What kind of impact will this have?
This is as unclear as the effects of climate change itself. The Paris Climate Accord is non-binding. Without any legal obligations many of the countries who agreed to the accord have not reached their goals.2 What the US withdrawal from the PCA does is limits the opportunity for the US to strategize with other world leaders ways to make changes, ways to support and motivate each other to make changes, and ways to shine as a leader. It will certainly take away, from the world climate change efforts, a substantial amount of energy and resources the US could provide to propel the PCA forward.1
Why stay focused on existing energy resources?
The withdrawal is another step in the current US administration’s path to reduce regulations and reduce corporate expenses. In the short term, this can be helpful. The fossil fuel industry benefits. Existing jobs in the Fossil Fuel industry will likely be more secure.
What is the long-term forecast?
Diversity in how we develop new ways to meet our energy needs can only expand the pie. As a limited resource, the fossil fuel piece will only shrink. Why put your eggs into a basket that is projected to only get smaller? It seems obvious that in the long run it would make for not only a diminishing return, but potentially devastating returns.
Will pulling out of the PCA help or hinder US companies?
There could be economic backlash. As the European market stays focused on efforts to reduce climate change, US companies could find themselves cast aside by other companies and governments who are looking to outsource work or partner with companies which are environmentally responsible. Withdrawal from PCA gives the US much less power to influence climate change reduction efforts.1
A Race Without All the Teams
The European Union leads the way, while the United States stays in the past. The world and all its inhabitants are constantly changing and adapting. Historically, those who have been successful have looked to the future, have adapted and used new solutions to attain success.
Diversity is Key
Just as we see in the best practice of diversifying our financial investments, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and the health of diverse ecosystems, so too, meeting our energy needs in diverse ways will bring about sustainable and successful solutions. By continuing to focus on fossil fuel emissions and the systems that run on fossil fuels, we miss opportunities to diversify our energy resources.
What will it take to make a change?
While we are seeing more and more billion dollar natural disasters occur each year, I fear that the devastation is not great or wide enough to convince people that the time to make change is now.3
We need to look ahead.
It is our children and their children who will either reap the benefits of our actions or be saddled with the devastation. When you drive a car, you do not just look right in front of the car to see where you are going, you look 200 yards ahead to drive safely and responsibly. We need to look 50, 100, and 200 years ahead to imagine the effects of our actions upon the world. Not seeing any large ill effects now, does not mean that the climate is not changing.
What would the goals of a shared future that looked hundreds of years ahead look like?
Building a culture that strives to be in balance with nature is the primary goal. A place where corporations and government have systems in place to self-monitor, report and celebrate efforts to reduce carbon emissions and the wasting of natural resources.4 The value of a company or rating of a government will be based not only on the balance sheet, but on how responsibly a company or government does business.4 From the individual to the company and the government, we all have our role. We all have our strengths to share. By sharing our strengths we can compensate for others' weaknesses and we can support building new ways to tackle climate change. This way we can lift everyone up. We can reap the benefits of living in harmony with the natural environment.
What will it take to be successful?
Self-monitoring requires self awareness and commitment to change. We can account for our efforts by reporting and sharing our successes and our struggles. Collaborating and working together we motivate those around us and come together to address problems and provide innovative solutions.
How long will it take the US, and the world for that matter, to look to the future?
What better way to keep our Earth home clean than by taking personal responsibility for the health and well-being of its various systems and by working together to bring about that result. Participating in the CPA allows an opportunity for nations to come together to solve a problem that we all face, an opportunity that the US has refused and will exit come November 4, 2020.
What do we have to look forward to as we address Climate Change?
Working together there will be so much to celebrate: our ability to come together as an Earth family to solve a problem, our ability to tap into diverse resources, our openness to try new ideas and adapt to change. The possibilities are endless if we look and plan for the benefit of future generations of our families, friends and all people, as well as all other inhabitants of the earth itself.
Endnotes
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1 Trump makes it official: U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Brady Dennis. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/11/04/trump-makes-it-official-us-will-withdraw-paris-climate-accord/. November 4, 2019.
2 ”Emissions Gap Report”. UN Environment Programme. https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2019 November 26, 2019.
3 “2018's Billion Dollar Disasters in Context”. Adam Smith. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2018s-billion-dollar-disasters-context February 7, 2019.
4 Prosperity: Better Business Makes for the Greater Good, Colin Mayer. Oxford University Press, Chapter 6 “Performance”, pp130-146. https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/people/colin-mayer-cbe