Yes, this retrospective is a little strange--this blog didn't start till way into 2012 and then it sorta went sideways along the way. With escrow challenges, plus Sandy effects, and general malaise arising from a lack of engagement during the election followed by post election fiscal cliff posturing, inconsequential Doha UN Climate Talks, etc, etc. , there's been an big gap in posting.
Nonetheless 2012 was a significant year for Climate Change. The Climate IS changing--faster than most forecasts and although humans are the primary cause, they have, at this point, no control over the process and for the most part no clue in how to get that control. Guess that means I'm not using "significant" in a good way?
The local Green Your Business Challenge finished up with some winners--well, most offices were winners, but there weren't many participants. It's safe to say the gasoline consumed by the members of the committee in attending the meetings exceeded the CO2 saved by the conservation measures undertaken by the offices. That's pretty common with many Climate Change programs. The Energy Event put on the the County of San Luis Obispo was another example in which the carbon footprint of the gathering far exceeded any CO2 savings generated by the content (there were photo-ops for politicians, so it wasn't a total waste--LOL).
Personally, the most important epiphany of the 2012 occurred when I quit trying to identify a threshold of factual information about how bad things were getting in a more rapid than forecast way to turn the tide. The scientist in me kept seeking the holy grail of statistics that, when viewed by any remotely rational person, would instantly galvanize them into focused, energy wise action. The information keeps flowing, but there is no magical tipping point related to public action. Quite the contrary, many people are sick of hearing, reading, thinking about the negative news concerning Climate Change. The incredible super storm Sandy came, went and except for the areas still recovering, or attempting to, has largely left public consciousness, certainly as a possible artifact of Climate Change. I still review the latest new on the science front, but that's my background. The majority of people really don't care to be aware of the details.
This "tuning out" process is a danger, because of the time factor. As I've mentioned previously, there may be a 4-5 year window within which CO2 emissions must depart the "business as usual" curve and begin to decline. If they don't, the chance of non-linear, unpredictable climate events occurring could increase to a virtual certainty. Few of the governmental, organizational, technological "solutions" aimed at achieving CO2 reduction will come to meaningful fruition inside that 4-5 year window.
What CAN happen within 4-5 years are simple changes in personal behavior that could reduce CO2 emissions by 10-20% with little adverse affect on lifestyle. The challenge to find a way to achieve that behavior change. Forget media and big money. They flow elsewhere, as does the political power. In fact, it makes many of those industrial-institutional types extremely uneasy that the public even consider changes in present lifestyle---who knows where that might lead?
I'll explore this line of reasoning further soon (really!), but it is really very simple. Motivation and awareness meet a trigger and choices are made. Where does that process happen every day, millions of time across the nation? Restaurants! People desire food (motivation) they become aware of options and consequences (the promise of gastronomic delight vs calories and price) and with the help of a menu (the trigger) they make choices. WHAT IF there were a menu or menus to help trigger energy wise decisions?
That's one of the projects in development for early 2013.
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