Turn Down the Heat

Three Steps to Stabilize our Climate

Mar 03, 2022

A cartoon showing an emissions pipeline from town and country leading to a central global heat valve. It illustrates climate actions that town and country can each contribute to turning down the heat together.

They say it’s you, not them. They say we need to choose between town and country. They say it’s the economy or the future.

Dividing people wins votes and serves the powerful. Don’t let them divide us. We are connected on this by the air we breathe, by our children’s future, by the only planet we have. We are united by solving the climate crisis together.

There are three simple steps that can stabilize our climate: Clean up energy, waste less, protect nature. Town or country, every step turns down the planet’s heat forecast. We can turn down the heat if we do it together.

We use fossil fuels to make electricity, to move our cars, and in industry. It is a dirty business and very wasteful. Now we can change that.

Renewable energy is ready and affordable but waiting for it to replace fossil fuels will take decades we do not have. We need government and industry to invest what it takes to rapidly replace fossil fuels with wind turbines, solar panels, and smart grids with energy storage.

All energy has a cost so wasting less is critical. Heat pumps for warmth use many times less energy than burning fossil fuels. Good insulation turns buildings into energy stores. People who fly more than necessary should pay for sustainable aviation fuel. Government policy should ensure that it’s costly to waste energy and affordable to save it.

Town planning and infrastructure investments can dramatically save on the energy it takes to get around. Compact buildings and mixed-use zoning make it convenient to get things done close to home. Working from home, walking, e-bikes, buses, and rail use less energy per person than cars, so we should prioritize giving people those choices. Done well “15-minute cities” like Utrecht have proven these options are safe, pleasant, and affordable. When people still need cars, the government should ensure that electric cars are more affordable than equivalent fossil fuelled cars.

Food matters. It takes less energy to produce protein from plants than from animals. Michael Pollan’s famous advice was for health, but it is true here too: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” For any food, farmers and manufacturers make important choices about energy use and so we should transform to regenerative agriculture and foods with a net zero lifecycle. Government and industry should drive transformation and develop reliable labels to prove it.

Everything we buy took energy to make. The adage of the environmental movement applies more than ever: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” This adage must be supported with the guiding hand of law. Individual altruism alone cannot ensure that products are sensibly designed and packaged, that electric vehicle batteries are reused and recycled, or that refrigerants with powerful warming effects are recaptured from old appliances.

We treasure nature’s beauty, and we need it for the air we breathe. Few know that nature is also our greatest ally on climate stability. Nature’s ecosystems draw more carbon out of the atmosphere than any invention. Trees store carbon in wood where it can be safely stored away in forests, or inside buildings and durable goods. Policy should nurture nature, conserving what we have, regenerating at every opportunity.

Clean up energy, waste less, protect nature. Please do what you can to encourage these three steps where you work, where you live, where your kids go to school, and where you shop. These three steps will help you find and support leaders who are serious about the future in local elections and nationally.

Together we can set our course for a clean economy and a beautiful healthy world full of opportunity. We can build a future that can provide enough for everyone.

Please like, and share, and most importantly talk to the people around you.