By Ariel Miller
From our earliest years, ESRAG’s leaders have recommended Project Drawdown to our members as a powerful resource for evidence-based climate solutions. On Dec. 16, Drawdown’s Executive Director Jonathan Foley, PhD, shared the strategy this leading global climate nonprofit will implement in 2025. “Climate is a time problem more than a technology problem: now is more important than new,” he said. “We have to focus on the near term, not 2050.”
I urge you to watch the webinar because of its clarity, urgency, and practicality. Foley summarizes important data on what’s driving global warming and explains how Project Drawdown is working to inform and equip us to choose what climate actions to implement. In June, they will publish a new, interactive tool, Drawdown Explorer, which will provide maps and data on efficacy and cost of potential climate solutions in your region. This will include suggestions on what various stakeholders can do, and will showcase co-benefits of climate action, such as reducing air pollution, which kills millions of people each year.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the December webinar:
Dr. Foley starts with a survey of the technologies at hand and the trends the data reveal:
- The expansion of clean energy and energy-saving solutions like solar panels, LED lights, and batteries is “exponential,” beating forecasts every year due to dramatic drops in price and improvements in capacity and efficiency. These are small, modular technologies that are being rapidly scaled thanks to market forces and some policy support.
- Expensive strategies like nuclear energy and high-speed rail are lagging.
- The food system’s emissions are getting worse, not better, and account for more GHG emissions than the United States. Publicizing the impact of deforestation, the meat and dairy industry, food waste, and fertilizers will be a top Drawdown focus.
Project Drawdown’s Climate Roadmap prioritizes the solutions which are the most effective, affordable, and fast. “We must stand up for science because we need it: facts and evidence. It’s a path where we iterate towards the truth, learning what works and what doesn’t,” said Foley. Drawdown’s top solutions include the emergency breaks: actions which we can implement immediately to achieve major impact in reducing carbon emissions.
He highlighted two emergency breaks. Preventing methane emissions is “the fastest because its greenhouse gas impact is so awful,” Foley explained. This is feasible because satellite data can pinpoint pipeline leaks and other point sources. Another is preventing deforestation: “infinitely faster in stopping future warming than planting a seedling,” Foley pointed out. “We could stop it today. If we prevent deforestation, all the benefits happen on Day One,” including co-benefits to watersheds, biodiversity, and the health of people nearby.
Drawdown’s scientists and communicators will “call out bad ideas,” Foley said. He described carbon capture as a fig leaf, with carbon being pumped underground to get more natural gas out of wells. He added that feed additives for cattle have only a tiny marginal impact on methane emissions, as does regenerative grazing, which uses a lot of land. “We have to reduce the demand for beef,” he urged.
There will be tradeoffs, and the solutions have to fit local realities, for example “where to cut fertilizers without sacrificing food solutions,” Foley says. ESRAG will update you when Drawdown Explorer goes live. This resource will provide data you can use to choose the most effective, affordable, and fast actions for your region.
In addition, Drawdown Nexus will publicize actions that combine climate solutions with protecting biodiversity.
Foley listed other realities which Rotarians can address by applying the Four-Way Test to design timely and united action:
- Leadership at the top will be lagging, whether from major countries or international organizations like the UN.
- Disinformation will continue, including greenwashing to serve very powerful industries and politicians.
- Foley warned that science is being sidelined in climate, public health, and AI in ways he has never seen before.
‘Who can lead the way if the White House and the UN will not?” asks Foley. His answer is perfectly tailored to fit Rotarians’ strong networks and the trust they have earned in their communities: “Cities, states, investors, philanthropists: mobilize the players you have.”
Project Drawdown’s top three strategies for the year ahead all begin with S: “science needs to get into the hands of stakeholders. And we need to use the power of storytelling,” sharing the actions of people that readers or viewers can identify with. Drawdown is compiling a rich online library of stories and documentaries about ordinary people.
Storytelling is a core Rotary practice. This is the bulwark of ESRAG’s reporting via the newsletter, social media, and website and the weekly Projects + Seminar. If you have an inspiring story, you should share it with newsletter editor Maggie Spizzirri. She and ESRAG’s communications team can help you prepare it to upload on Project Drawdown’s Global Solutions Diary. This could be the platform for you to give hope and practical guidance to a worldwide audience and showcase Rotary’s commitment to effective environmental action.
