It's Your Week. Hope in a climate crisis
If my allergies are telling me anything, it's that springtime is finally here.
I'm Sallee Ann and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for Paste BN subscribers. Ahead of Earth Day this Friday, April 22, we're talking to reporter Elizabeth Weise about climate change.
Did you know climate change means a longer allergy season? Read on to learn more about climate change and, thankfully, the hope experts have for (good) change.
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'We have the knowledge' to face climate change
Reporter Elizabeth Weise writes a lot about climate change. Headlines might include phrases like "'dystopian' hellscape" and "'perilously close' to tipping points of irreversible climate change," but all hope is not lost.
"For the changing climate, it’s especially important to tell stories about what can be done," Weise said. "It’s not hopeless and it’s not impossible, even though it will be hard and – especially at the beginning – more expensive in some cases to shift to carbon-neutral energy and industrial systems.
"I was talking to an MIT scientist yesterday who made an important point. The United States has the brains and business acumen to find ways to fix the problems we’ve created. Just look at fracking. In the 1970s people said there was no way it could be an economically viable way to produce oil and natural gas. But the economics changed and brilliant minds worked on the problem and we got the fracking boom and cheap natural gas.
"Now turn that on its head. Shifting to carbon-neutral energy and industrial systems is the same kind of problem. People say it can’t be done at a price point that makes sense. But Sergey Paltsev, a senior research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative, said this to me: 'We have the systems, we have the knowledge. The United States is a unique place where you can move that creativity in the right direction with the right incentives. If we can channel that, I think you’ll see miracles.'"
Pop quiz! Take this quiz on climate change and how if affects our environment.
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See you next week!