The Darkest Hour Is Just Before The Tipping Point
Just when you think nothing will ever happen….
All webinars on THURSDAY, 4-5:30 pm. Registration required, use the links below
Overview: This year we’ll look at an array of climate solutions. First, we’ll discuss which solutions are ready for prime time and which are just wishful thinking and fodder for corporate greenwashing. Next, why are reducing food waste and dietary change the top individual climate solutions, and what are some easy ways to slash your food bill by making these changes? Finally, because climate change and the loss of biodiversity have a common cause — our runaway extractive economy — they also share some solutions.
This will be a great summer, and I hope you’ll join me!
Here’s a flyer about the webinars to share with your friends and colleagues!
July 13, 2023, 4-5:30 PM
Progress! Key climate solutions & ideas are spreading fast
We already have many good climate solutions that work, particularly in the energy realm. The transition from fossil fuel-based electricity to wind and solar is accelerating, and we may even have passed the tipping point in the energy transition! Incentives from the IRA are also speeding up the electrification of buildings and transportation, but some significant barriers still remain. We are also making progress in areas like manufacturing and building and some really good ideas like timber buildings are almost ready to deploy at scale. Finally, I’ll consider some promising developments at the state and local level in Maryland and elsewhere.
August 3, 2023, 4 – 5:30 PM
Don’t bet on it: Dubious climate actions and corporate greenwashing
Some climate “solutions” with serious problems figure prominently in corporate strategies for reaching net-zero. One favorite is to capture and store the CO2 emitted from coal- or gas-fired power plants (Carbon Capture & Storage, CCS). Despite receiving huge subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act, CCS is largely unproven. In particular, the ability to safely and securely transport the resulting liquified CO2 and store it underground is almost completely untested. Other technological fixes like direct air carbon capture and storage (DACS) sound great, but they are prohibitively expensive and years from being deployed at large scale. Though it sounds appealingly “natural”, biomass-to-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), faces huge logistical difficulties, depends on the same unproven storage of liquid CO2, and may even increase emissions in the short term. Finally, most corporate net-zero pledges rely on carbon offsets, yet studies show that many offsets don’t produce the GHG reductions they promise. Dependence on these dubious solutions have caused many corporate net-zero claims to be criticized as little more than “greenwashing.”
August 24, 2023, 4 – 5:30 PM
Top individual climate actions: Curb food waste, eat more plant protein
According to the Drawdown group, two individual actions, reducing food waste and shifting diets toward plant-based protein have a climate impact second only to transitioning to clean renewable power and electrifying everything. And these key individual climate and biodiversity actions can be implemented in your own home! Get up to date on these two solutions and how they can slash your grocery bill, reduce deforestation and free up land for biodiversity restoration. I’ll also provide some easy tips to ease the transition and make these important changes happen in your household. Easy!
September 14, 2023, 4 – 5:30 PM
Climate change and biodiversity loss: Overlapping causes and solutions
The Western attitude that the Earth’s resources exist for humans to use has led to environmentally damaging drilling and mining for fossil fuels and large-scale deforestation for timber and agriculture. The results have been climate change and rampant biodiversity loss, threatening our future. The slight silver lining of this double tragedy is that many climate solutions are thus also biodiversity solutions, providing a double benefit for many investments. We’ll discuss an array of strategies for biodiversity restoration and how they also benefit the climate and human life on Earth.
If you’d like a pdf file of all the webinar descriptions to share, click here.
The Climate Corner 
Please update for 2024
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