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 1: Cold Facts on Global Warming from an Icy DC
Ice on the Potomac river
So here I am, in Washington DC. Where it is freezing cold, by the way. Whatever happened to global warming, aye? That, of course, led to a somehow expected conversation with the taxi driver, about climate versus weather, because I mentioned the purpose of my visit: the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) conference Building Climate Solutions. The conference started on Tuesday, 28th of January, so I could be a tourist on Monday. Among many other places, I visited the Library of Congress. Beautiful, with some intriguing sayings on the high walls.For example: “Knowledge comes but wisdom lingersâ€, “There is one only good namely knowledge and one only evil namely ignoranceâ€, and “Science is organized knowledgeâ€. Adding to my U.S. experience, Obama gave his State of the Union speech. I watched it, comfortably in my hotel bed. When he started to talk about energy, I grabbed my laptop and made some notes. He mentioned that his ‘all of the above’ energy plan helps to make the U.S. energy independent, creates jobs, and leads to a cleaner, safer planet. He called natural gas a bridge fuel; interesting in the light of a Dutch project on the role of gas in the energy transition. He further helped tackling the climate zombie argument that wind energy just lives off subsidies: we should stop giving 4 billion a year to fossil fuels that don’t need it, and instead invest more in fuels of the future that do. Interestingly, he called climate change a fact. “The debate is settled.†And we need to act with more urgency, as climate change is already hurting communities with floods and droughts. See also this analysis by Carbon Brief. According to Obama, what unites all Americans, no matter their religion, race, or party, is the “profound belief in opportunity for all…â€. I learned, over dinner in a small Mexican restaurant, it might be something else: the Super Bowl. The waiters told me the entire U.S. would be watching as the season opened. Anyway, Washington is a beautiful city. It’s spacey (especially the Mall) and rather quiet and so far, the people have been very nice. It might be normal for Americans, but the service in restaurants is amazing. You order one soft drink and you get unlimited refill! You’ll also get a glass of water and sometimes even a small bite the minute you sit down. In the Netherlands, I would have to pay for the water, and probably even ask for tap water instead of expensive bottled water with the same quality… So yes, I like Washington. The atmosphere during the conference is also good. People are nice and open, as far as the networking goes (busy schedules, not many networking opportunities). The majority of the participants are scientists and from the U.S., although there are also outsiders like me (not American, and not really decided on the science career yet…). People know climate change is a reality, that’s why they visit a conference on solutions (although, sometimes it felt like a conference on framing). Well, this visit to the U.S. is a good example of how mixing business with pleasure makes for a fantastic time.
Heleen van Soest is an independent researcher at HvS Earth System Research. On Twitter: @Hel1vs
