Victories for Sanity

A handful of uplifting stories

After the last few newsletters on shrinking genitalia and more pandemics, I felt the need to discuss something positive today. It is heartening to be reminded that as dire as our problems are, much of our society is working towards ecological and justice solutions. Some work on political angles, others on technological solutions, and some are working on rewilding our overly tamed world. These kinds of stories make my eyes well up and my heart swell. I wonder why I don’t dwell on them more. For your enjoyment then …

You may recall that shortly after Biden became president, he committed the US to protecting 30% of its lands and oceans. Dwelling on this alone can cheer me up. But Biden also is working to make real an economic recovery packagewhich aims to lead the global clean energy revolution. And, on the very day Biden was inaugurated, he resigned the US to the Paris Climate Accord, which aims to keep global warming below 2 degrees C (3.6 F). There has been great concern that the Accord might fail because of the recent surge of political strains between the globe’s two largest fossil fuel emitters, China and the US. But this week, the two giants appear to be behaving like grown ups and have issued a joint statement that they will act with urgency to curb climate change. Not there yet, but phew, a necessary and momentous step. But there is more good climate action news.

The US has previously stated it will aim for carbon neutrality by 2050 and an emissions free power sector by 2035. However, just this week Biden announced that the US will now aim to halve its emissions by 2030, relative to 1990 levels, an almost doubling of previous short term carbon reduction commitments. This is in line with what Europe has committed to doing and is a critically important step for easing climate induced disasters. That’s because the next ten years of emissions must drop dramatically if we aim to meet the 2 degree C target. As someone who has been working on climate issues for 30 years, both as a scientist and an activist, I can tell you this news is so astounding, wonderful and heartening that I’m almost (almost!) speechless.

Sometime ago, China pledged that they will be carbon neutral by 2060, aiming for peak emissions in 2030. As the country with the greatest emissions, this is troubling for it doesn’t meet the near term need for emission reductions. But a stronger Chinese reduction may be in the cards as world leaders work together to discuss accelerating the work on slowing global warming, both later this week at to Biden’s Earth Day (April 22-23) gathering of 40 world leaders and at the gathering of all parties to the Paris Accord in November in Glasgow.

In a more local story, my adopted state of Maryland has just passed a new law that says Home Owners Associations can no longer stop property owners from having native gardens, as opposed to mono-culture mown grass lawns. As bizarre as it is, some neighborhoods in the US require home owners and renters to grow, and mow, turf grass on their property. These are probably the same neighborhoods that forbid you to line dry your clothes. But the insanity of the planting requirement, at least, is now over in Maryland, in large part because one woman fought to protect her 15 year old pollinator garden from the scythe. She was repeatedly told to cut it all down and plant grass. But she stood her ground and worked incredibly hard. Sanity finally won the day and the native gardening law was passed. It seems to me, it would be even saner to ban mono-culture, pesticide ridden, river polluting, carbon intense ‘killer lawns’. But one step at a time.

In addition to good news political stories this week, there was an announcement of an exciting technological development which could reduce our use of air conditioners dramatically. The development is new kind of paint to put on rooftops. White roofs reflect far more sunlight than traditional shingles and are common in New York and Chicago where they aim to reduce the urban heat island effect. A new white paint has been developed that reflects more sunlight light than older white paints, 98% reflected as opposed to 80-90%. In addition, a pigment in the new paint, barium sulphate, doesn’t absorb UV but rather emits infrared radiation. This leads to an actual cooling of the roof surface by as much as 8 degrees F (4.5 C) below the ambient temperature, thus the added reduction in air conditioning needs. On average, cities are 2 to 6 degrees F warmer than the nearby countryside. Old school white paints have been estimated to be capable of reducing extreme heat wave temperatures by as much as 5 degrees F, if applied on a large scale, and the newer ones will be able to cool even more. This could have dramatically positive health impacts especially in the face of the increasing intensity of deadly heat waves..

I’ve saved my favorite story for last and that is the saga of the Survivor Tree. At the turn of the millennium in the Carrifran Valley in southern Scotland, in what used to be a thick mountain woodland, there stood a lone Rowan tree. It was surrounded primarily by grass and rocks, with nary a shrub let alone a tree friend anywhere in sight. One day, along came a troop of dedicated volunteers and the Borders Forest Trust. The heros worked tirelessly over the next two decades years and planted 600,000 trees in the valley. Seeds from the Survivor Tree were propagated and other native tree species were brought in. As the trees grew up, they brought up nutrients from deep within the soil column and other plants and new trees started self propagating in the valley. The once denuded valley became a richly diverse, self sustaining habitat. The transformation spell had worked and even expanded, for the valley serves as wildlife corridor between two other wild areas the Carrifran Wildwood and the Gameshope Valley. As many readers will know, the greater the area of wild lands, the more biodiversity there will be both because some creatures require large ranges and also because larger areas mean greater diversity and therefore greater resiliency in the face of different stresses.

All these stories share an underlying theme of hard work paying off. So perhaps it is appropriate to conclude with the adage “As we sow, so shall we reap”.