Content area
Full text
IN A WORLD FULL OF GEOPOLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND HEALTH THREATS, climate change may well be the most daunting challenge of the twentyfirst century. Required action needs to match the challenge, with necessary changes in our social systems, economic systems, energy technology, personal and collective energy use, and consumption habits. The magnitude of these changes seems so large as to overwhelm us. The feeling that there is little that we-as citizens, consumers, or even local or national policymakers-can do immobilizes us and prevents the enactment of initiatives that, in combination and multiplied by millions of potential initiators, would live up to the challenge.
It is true that there is no silver bullet-no single solution-to get us to a sustainable climate. The 2015 United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) in Paris is not going to be a sufficient solution even if it will result in a comprehensive global agreement on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) mitigation. The devil will be in the details of how to ratify, implement, monitor, and enforce any agreement in individual countries around the world, which will require political leadership, diplomacy, and sustained attention over time. Technological solutions also are no panacea; neither carbon capture and storage nor renewable energy sources nor increased energy efficiency alone will get us to the GHG parts per million required to keep temperature increases to 2°C over this century. Behavioral or economic solutions in isolation are also not going to save us-from a redefinition of human happiness or development to the introduction of a price on carbon. In combination, however, these different "wedges" in a pie chart of actions will allow us to achieve global carbon objectives (Pacala and Sokolow 2004).
When the challenge seems overwhelming and existing solutions inadequate, there is good reason to turn away from the problem. With no feasible action plan in sight, it is tempting to focus on uncertainties inherent in specific predictions about climate change and to use them as an excuse to delay action. There is no question that uncertainties exist-uncertainties about the climate system response to our current globally accelerating emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases; about the availability and cost of technology to address climate change mitigation or even adaptation; and about individual, social, and organizational willingness...