Guest Post by Heleen van Soest
To get an idea of climate, energy and biodiversity policies in the US, Heleen van Soest visited Washington DC, in January and February 2014. She attended the 3 days conference Building Climate Solutions, and had interviews at a number of institutions and think tanks. In a couple of guest posts, she shares her thoughts.
Post 2: It’s real. Get over it.
Prof. Richard Alley, Penn State University: It’s cold here – Yes, we still have weather, but the world is warming.
The conference Building Climate Solutions, in Washington DC, was kicked off by governor Bill Richardson, who called for a stronger scientific input in policy-making. “Please lead on climate change in your state.†But then, what I was really looking forward to: Prof. Richard Alley, or as governor Richardson puts it: Mr. Charisma, my kind of scientist. Richard Alley, as always, gave a fantastic presentation. Summing up the state of climate change science: “It’s real. Get over it.†‘Do you believe in global warming’ is the wrong question. It means ‘believing’ in conserving mass and in the physics the air force uses for its heat-seeking missiles. Climate science is solid, long-standing. Signs of warming are everywhere: in ice, the ground, the air, in space. In fact, nature has been trying to cool us with volcanic particles and dimming of the sun, and we have also done our best with our particles and through replacing darker forests by grasslands. Yet despite all that, the world is warming. So more than 100% of the warming is due to human greenhouse gas emissions (think about that, another scientific question resolved). Oh and by the way, the world is subsidizing fossil fuels a lot more than renewables.
Richard Alley: Compare this graph on low-probability events in transportation with climate change.
So what to do? On the second day, some panels discussed building climate solutions in the built environment and in agriculture and natural resources. According to Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, the European Union has a different approach to regulation than the U.S., with some strict performance standards for buildings. For example, every new building has to be near-zero on energy use. In addition to such regulation, there has been a cultural change in Europe. Germans, for example, feel guilty if they travel over 50 km for vacation. In the agriculture/natural resources panel, Australian Anthony Slatyer mentioned three things governments can do when it comes to adaptation:  1) Provide good information, 2) planning for uncertainty, and 3) help people make most efficient use of natural resources (e.g. water) and create rights to access resources. Planning for uncertainty seems to be an increasingly important focus in the face of climate change. For example, Slatyer mentioned how difficult it has become to predict droughts in Australia. That used to be possible based on knowledge of the El Niño / La Niña cycle, but those good times have passed.
