| THE BIG FIX 7 Practical Steps To Save Our Planet Hal Harvey & Justin Gillis Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, January 2022 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-1-9821-2399-4 | ||||
| ISBN-10 1-9821-2399-0 | 305pp. | SC/GSI | $18.99 | |
There are many books about climate change: the science behind it, the economic impacts of its effects, the best ways to mitigate those effects, the deceptions and political maneuvers that put us in this predicament, how to counter the crooked politics, and what to say or do to foster public action. But only one book I have read pulls together the practical reasons why clean energy is more cost-effective with practical approaches that citizens can use to shift the political calculations in their states and communities toward clean energy. That would be this book.1
Technology will play a large role in the fight to save our climate. But what we really need, even more than new technologies, are better policies to ensure we implement these technologies widely enough to make a differrence. You might think that such decisions are made by businesses and governments, with little opportunity for citizen input. But that's not quite true. When your town decides how strong the local building code will be—and so how much energy new buildings will be allowed to waste, for decades to come—You can bet many local builders ply their influence to try to get the weakest code they can. You, as a citizen, can ply your influence, too. The board in your state that makes the final decisions about what kind of power plants get built is likewise required by law to listen to the public and take its interests into account. And your states have more influence than you might realize about everything from what kind of cars will be sold on the local market to how efficient appliances have to be. It's dozens of actions like these, carefully chosen and then intensely pursued, that are, collectively, the key to solving the climate crisis. You can think of these decisions being made at different levels of government as, in effect, secret levers that help to determine the way the economy develops. They are secret only in the sense that most citizens do not know about them; one of the core messages of this book is that the time has come to learn. Is your voice being heard as these decisions are made? That, fundamentally, is what this book is about: how to make the transition from green consumer to green citizen, becoming someone who speaks up and holds your government accountable, ensuring more sustainable choices are made not only for your family but for your town, your state, and the nation. We need to use the tools of democracy to grab those levers and pull them in the direction of a better future. – Pages 7-8 |
The authors begin by explaining, using examples from offshore wind turbines to the Model T Ford, how the learning curve lowers the cost of technology and how governments can expedite that process by stepping in with research and development for new technology. It has been found to follow Wright's Law, which says that every time production doubles, unit cost falls by between 15 and 20 percent.
This background informs the rest of their analysis as they explain how to foster sustainability in power generation, homes, transportation, city design, food and agriculture, and manufacturing. They end each chapter with a section on "pulling the levers" — advice on how citizens can influence local and state governments to change zoning regulations and other laws to favor greater energy efficiency and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Hal Harvey is the CEO of Energy Innovation, "a non-partisan climate policy firm" that advises leaders around the world on methods for driving down greenhouse-gas emissions. Justin Gillis is a journalist with four decades of experience explaining complex issues in simple language for great metropolitan newspapers. Their no-drama panorama of the fast-evolving energy picture in the United States would make Sgt. Joe Friday proud: just the facts. The understated exposition underlines the depth of their expertise. I found no errors of fact or grammar — just a solid explanation of where we can go to reach our much-vaunted goals for staving off the dire predictions about climate change. Therefore I rate it one of the essential books on climate-change mitigation.
As we write these words, some small American states are getting 30 percent or more of their electricty from wind turbines. In 20202, nearly 60 percent of the power generated in Iowa came from turbines. Even in mighty Texas, the second most populous state in the country, that figure is 20 percent. Nationwide, more than 8 percent of the nation's power is coming from wind farms, with plenty of room for them to grow—and room for the costs to fall further. They have already fallen so far, though, that that wind turbines are the cheapest way to produce electricity across large swaths of the country. In early 2019, three-quarters of the coal-burning plants in the United States were uneconomical just to operate compared to building new wind and solar farms from scratch. And the economics are changing rapidly; by 2025, more than 85 percent of the coal fleet is likely uneconomic. Driven in part by the book in renewable energy and and in part by cheap natural gas, well over half the coal-fired power plants in the country have already shut down. – Page 42 |
As we make our way along the various learning curves, and the evidence piles up, the picture becomes clear: renewable energy sources are the future — both less expensive in economic terms and less damaging to the environment and human health. I think it's about time we woke up and smelled the coffee.
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