Picture of the Week

of global emissions. According to a 2014 International Panel on Climate Change report, while electricity and transportation make up 25% and 14% of emissions, agriculture and industry make up 24% and 21%, respectively. While the decarbonization of the first two sectors is feasible, the same isn’t true about the other two.

To show why, Smil identifies what he calls “the four pillars of modern civilization.” First is ammonia, the main ingredient in the plant fertilizers that enable us to feed seven billion people. Next is plastics, a broad category of petroleum-based materials that exist in almost everything we consume, from furniture to clothing to packaging. The third is steel, a material so ubiquitous that it speaks for itself. The last is cement, the backbone of modern infrastructure and architecture. All of these materials are essential to our society, and they are both irreplaceable at the moment and impossible to produce without carbon emissions. Smil then goes on to describe the logistic reality of phasing out the four pillars. Long story short, it would require a majority of the population to return to agriculture and a halt of almost all construction and industry—including the kind that saves lives.

Now, I personally find a sense of comfort in knowing what’s possible and what’s impossible; however, I understand that for many concerned with the climate crisis, the last two paragraphs must have felt a little bit like a bucket of ice water thrown over their head. I do want to distance myself from Smil’s work, mainly because he spends quite a bit of it ridiculing and criticizing climate activists for their apparent inability to recognize reality. I think that as- sessment is wrong because the reason why climate activists largely ignore agriculture and industry in favor of electricity and transportation is precisely because the former two cannot be mitigated easily. They simply focus on the work that can be done and allocate their efforts accordingly.

We can apply this philosophy here at CWRU. Since replacing the gas plant would be prohibitively expensive, what should we do instead?

The Office of Energy and Sustainability is hard at work on these problems, with solutions like more food waste composting, increased energy efficiency, reduced consumption and investment in renewable energy sources both on and off campus. One windmill just isn’t going to cut it!. To facilitate this process, we should continue to advocate for more funding allocated to climate solutions— especially energy renewability and efficiency.

It’s tempting to think about climate action as one big thing you accomplish and then the problem is solved, but that kind of thinking is a recipe for burnout. Climate change isn’t something that either happens or doesn’t happen. Every month you spend without eating meat is a family that doesn’t have to abandon their Central American home due to aridification; every commitment an institution achieves is a building in Puerto Rico that isn’t destroyed by the next hurricane. Stephanie Corbett echoed this sentiment when, paraphrasing CWRU’s 2011 Climate Action Plan, she said, “achieving a climate action plan … is like running a marathon. It’s not a sprint.” Climate action should not be an intense fight by a few people but instead a consistent fight by all of us.