No more climate doom! The task is not too daunting for us to undertake

Susan Pinkowski

Nothing ruins a friendly conversation quicker than someone bringing up climate change. It’s even worse than religion or politics!

If you can find someone who is willing to talk, it’s usually just a recap of the depressing current and future state of affairs.

Many, many people are choosing avoidance because frankly, climate change is downright scary, according to Ariella Cook-Shonkoff, psychotherapist and a steering committee member of Climate Psychology Alliance North America.

She stated that there’s “no doubt avoidance works as a short-term strategy, offering temporary comfort or solace while keeping gritty emotions at bay. Compartmentalizing allows us to function. But suppressing our gut responses eventually catches up to us; the “dis-ease” can cause irritability, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, loneliness, and anxiety. It can even lead to chronic autoimmune conditions.” It can also make you crabby!

Have you noticed more crabby people out there? Avoidance is not healthy.

In her article published in August of 2021 on www.grist.org she indicated that the “problem with avoidance is that we don’t engage or take action. Instead of walking or biking, we keep driving gas-guzzlers. Instead of buying second-hand clothing or furniture, we keep ordering overly packaged things online.

And groundswell calls for government action can’t occur if we won’t address what we don’t allow ourselves to see. Our defense mechanisms become our own worst enemies, particularly when we need to act on the collective level, and fast.”

But isn’t there always another side to everything?

What if we instead turn away from the ‘doom and gloom’ and choose to seek out what is happening on the positive side? You will be amazed with just how much good news is out there. When we are aware of solutions, we can engage and feel like anything is possible. Then we can indeed ‘act on the collective level, and fast!’

Let’s take a look at what some Michigan moms are doing, how some teachers in Chicago are making a difference, and even what grandparents are doing to get into the positive mindset. Then we’ll briefly look at how you can get your employer to help, or how you can find a green job or create a company that recycles tons of used solar panels and corner the market.

But wait. There’s more.

There are improvements worth mentioning in mini-wind turbines for rooftops, there’s an untapped source of power right in our Detroit River, and strangely enough, our roads can be put to better use by charging electric vehicles as they drive.

We’ll wind up with how successful we were in tackling the ozone problem, how a major bank is planning to cut emissions tied to loans, and how Texas saved their consumers $7.4 billion in reduced costs in eight months due to their solar and wind energy initiatives. And we’re only getting started. So let us start with what’s most important to almost all of us – our children. Moms Clean Air Force: Fighting Air Pollution & Climate Change has a Michigan chapter which can be found at Michigan - Moms Clean Air Force. Their website states that they “are working in Michigan to fight for clean air and a stable climate. We host events, share information about what’s going on, and create opportunities for mothers to talk to their legislators about their concerns” and priorities.

If you’ve wanted to get involved but didn’t know how, this appears to be an easy way to get through to your representatives. They also focus on toxic chemicals and environmental justice, all with keeping children healthy in mind. Nationwide, they’re over a million members strong, and dads are welcomed, too!

Chicago’s teachers took a different route to make their voices heard and protect their children. They voted to use the power of their pension and retirement fund to stop investing in fossil fuels. Their plan will reach fruition by the end of 2027. Almost five percent of that $11.5 billion fund won’t be available to fossil fuel (FF) companies. What is your pension/retirement fund investing in? Might be interesting to find out what your money is supporting.

Even grandparents, aunts and uncles have mobilized and got involved.

Elders Climate Action is a project of the Elders Action Network. Their mission is “to mobilize elders throughout the United States to address climate change while there is still time to protect the well-being of our grandchildren and future generations. You can all learn together the ways you can help make sure the planet is habitable in their future. There’s a local chapter in Ann Arbor and you may contact Joe Oren at info@ eldersclimateaction.org for more information.

Taking action at work is a good step forward, too. Form a green initiative committee at your place of employment to brainstorm on effective ways of reducing the company’s footprint. Investigate areas where costs can be reduced using renewable energy and then research sustainable sources for recurring supply orders.

Instill an owner-mindset in all the employees for an effective way of reducing costs and expenditures. For more suggestions for employers, check out 10 Ways Companies Can do More to Fight Climate Change (hotjar.com). Another good source is Climate Solutions at Work | Project Drawdown. Better yet, get a green job!

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network defines green careers as “. . .any occupation that is affected by activities such as conserving energy, developing alternative energy, reducing pollution, or recycling.” If you’re past your college years or even past mid-life, environmental volunteering is an excellent way to help and see the world. If you want to stay local, AmeriCorps Seniors has a lot to offer.

If you’re game for starting a new business at this stage of your life, there’s a market that’s practically wide open for exploring. Solar panels have been around for a number of years (since 1883!) and many of them have already been decommissioned.

Instead of trashing them, only one American firm is saving them from landfills and turning them back into valuable raw materials, to make more solar panels. Solar Cycle is harvesting all the copper, aluminum, silver and silicon from old panels.

Within the next 10 years, millions of metric tons of solar panels will be in the same situation, just ripe for harvesting.

Improvements in existing technology are also giving us hope for the future.

Wind turbines have come a long way, from being as tall as the Statue of Liberty to now a small bladeless box that outdoes 15 solar panels on a good day. Andy Corbley reported recently that ‘[t]hey are designed for small-scale, commercial use, as they’re noise free, and incapable of killing birds. Because they sit on the edge of roofs, they pair well with solar panels. If a building also has batteries to store the energy, it could be near to total self-sufficiency.”

They’re made by a company called Aeromine who is running a pilot project on the roof of a BASF factory near Detroit. They’re only for commercial use right now, but that could expand into residential use in the future.

While the rudimentary technology has existed for a while, more attention is being given to the power that can be utilized by tides, rivers, and ocean currents.

“The U.S. Department of Energy last week unveiled a major investment in renewable energy generated by ocean tides and river currents. Some $35 million from the federal infrastructure legislation that passed last year will be deployed to drive further research into the scalability of these technologies . . . Although ocean tides and river currents only generate a small fraction of the U.S.’s electricity today, the agency says they have the potential to account for nearly eight percent of the country’s annual power generation.”

For more information on this interesting topic, go to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC2137118/.

Another experiment is going on locally between Ford Motor, DTE, and Electreon Wireless of Tel Aviv, Israel. Electreon has already been successful in Sweden, Italy and Israel and now they’re partnering to create an electrified road almost a mile long down at the Ford ‘mobility innovation district’ (the old train station on Michigan Avenue in Corktown). This road will charge electric vehicles as they’re in motion over the road and even just stopped on the road. The process is inductive charging, “which uses a magnetic frequency to transfer power from metal coils that are buried under the road to a special receiver on the underside of the EV.

The road will operate normally for all gas cars and EVs that are not equipped with the receiver.

The magnetic frequency method is not the only game in town. Researchers at Cornell University have been working on making a wireless charging process for US highways that would use electric fields instead of magnetic ones — a switch that lead researcher Khurram Afridi said would make the process cheaper and provide more energy.

We came together to solve the ozone problem years ago and we can do that again for the climate crisis.

The next round of global climate talks is in Egypt this month, and the push to transition to a lowcarbon economy must take center stage.

If you’re having a tough time seeing the positive side, there is additional help available at the Good Grief Network. They have a wide variety of articles, videos, quotes, poems, courses, music, and organizations all to help you and your family in this tumultuous time. Yale Climate Connections has an awesome quiz that you can take online that will funnel you right down to where you can do the most good.

For more good news, check out The Daily Climate - Good News.

The challenge is to pick at least one of these ideas and others mentioned in ‘Climate Mitigation: What Can I Possibly Do?’ previously published in this paper and available online at www.PinkowskiBytes. com under Published Articles, and run with it!

Our children and the world are counting on us.