1**: DEVELOPING A COMMON LANGUAGE**
- Climate Change Mitigation looks at ways to avoid and reduce emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to prevent the planet from warming to more extreme temperatures. (World Wildlife Fund)
- Climate Change Adaptation means altering our behavior, systems, and in some cases ways of life, to protect our families, our economies and the environment in which we live from the impacts of climate change. (World Wildlife Fund) Climate Adaptation Initiatives are those that help people, animals, and plants to survive despite rising climate volatility.
- Renewable Energy is energy that comes from naturally replenished resources, such as sunlight, wind, waves, and geothermal heat. By the end of 2014, renewables were estimated to make up almost 28% of the world’s power generating capacity, enough to supply almost 23% of global electricity. Because renewables don’t produce the greenhouse gases driving climate change, shifting away from fossil fuels to renewables to power our lives will put us on the path to a safe, sustainable planet for future generations. (The Climate Reality Project) A more current look suggests that renewables are providing 29% of electricity generation globally in 2020 and 30% in 2021 in the United States. www.c2es.org You can find more good educational material at this site.
- Sustainability or Conservation is defined as avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance. (Oxford Languages) A sustainable lifestyle is one that attempts to live in harmony with the earth and protect the planet for future generations.
- Carbon Neutral means no net release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere; reduce what you can and offset the rest so the net increase is 0**. Net Zero** and Carbon 0 are often used interchangeably with carbon neutral, although Carbon 0 technically means no greenhouse gases are produced in the process in question.
- Drawdown is the point when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start declining. www.drawdown.org
- Carbon Capture involves trapping the carbon dioxide at its emission source, transporting it to a storage location (usually deep underground) and isolating it.
As a reminder of how we know this is a problem we need to work on together, let’s view this short video: https://www.climaterealityproject.org/video/ten-clear-signs-our-climate-changing
2**: POSSIBILITIES FOR MITIGATION**
Efficiency: Being efficient with our use of power (and water) is a first step, for example, turning off lights, unplugging technology not in use, turning down the heat at night, turning off vehicles while waiting in line, etc. Also improving our home insulation and windows will often decrease energy use. Here is a short video on retrofitting homes in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5w1Uggn8_w
Electrify Everything Now:
Saul Griffith and his team at Rewiring America mapped the entire U.S. energy system and as a result, believe the most effective way to solve climate change begins in our homes. The best part? Every household in the U.S. will save thousands of dollars per year by powering their homes with clean energy. Here is their website: https://www.rewiringamerica.org.
Watch Saul’s short video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCioNPpLhbE
Saul says that 40% of mitigation decisions are made around our kitchen tables!
Many groups are encouraging the electrification of our transportation, our homes and buildings, as well as creating that electricity with renewable energy. More videos are available in the additional resources below.
Agriculture as Part of the Solution: