Russ Vernon-Jones

love, justice, and climate change … I know you can make a difference.

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Is There Still Time?

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When I was a very young child I loved books and I loved being read to. My mother, or my father when he was available, would read to me at bedtime. It was a brief, happy time each day. It always ended with the announcement that it was time to turn out the light and go to sleep. I couldn’t tell time yet, but each night I knew that time for books was running out. My constant question was, “Is there time? Is there time for one more book?”

Many of us have that question about climate change. Is there still time? Is there still time to reduce emissions, sequester more carbon, and avoid the most catastrophic effects of global warming?

There are some bright spots, some big challenges, and some hard realities in the current answer to this question, as I see it.

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A Surprise

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I got a surprise the other day. I came across a reference to the Yale Climate Opinion Maps produced by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. I remembered that I had been intrigued by these maps once before, so I decided to browse a bit and see what I could find. These maps show how Americans’ climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy support vary from place to place.
*Should schools teach about global warming?
*Environmental protection vs. economic growth
*All is not rosy

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Only a Global Green New Deal Will Work

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It will cost the nations of the world roughly $73 trillion to transition to completely renewable energy by 2050, according to a report from Stanford University. The expense will pay for itself in under 7 years. The shift to a zero-carbon global economy will also create 28.6 million more full-time jobs than if nations continued their use of fossil fuels at current levels. After the payback period trillions of dollars will be saved annually.

Only about 10% of the $73 trillion will be required to transition the United States. So that leaves a lot of money that needs to be spent outside the U.S., much of it in poor, developing nations. These nations don’t have the resources to make those investments themselves, but they are critical to stopping global warming.

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Biden, Enthusiasm, and the Future of the World

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Throughout my writing of this blog I’ve been exploring connections between climate change and racial justice. I see them as deeply connected and I’m passionate about both. This post will focus on a connection I’ve not mentioned before — both require that Donald Trump be defeated in the presidential election in the United States this year. The re-election of Trump would be a horrible affirmation of racism and its vicious effects, and would likely doom the entire world to the horrors of runaway catastrophic climate change.

I don’t think we can get through this election season with simply opposing Donald Trump. I think we need to get behind Joe Biden and support and work for his election with our passion, our time, and our money.

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“How to Be an Antiracist”

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I’ve started reading Ibram X. Kendi’s book, “How to Be an Antiracist.” For Kendi, there’s no such thing as “non-racist.” If an idea or policy creates racial inequities or allows them to continue, then it is racist. If an idea or policy produces or sustains greater equity between racial groups then it is antiracist.

Kendi has found that antiracist and racist ideas can exist simultaneously in the mind of any person — White, Black, or any other race, including himself. In his words: “The good news is that racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be a racist one minute and an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what—not who—we are.”

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3 Things We Can Do About Racial Injustice

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Whatever our feelings about the present situation, the reality is that racial injustice as been a major feature of the Unites States from long before we were a nation, right through to the present. No attempt to build a sustainable, just, healthy society can go forward successfully without making dismantling racial injustice central.

I’m often asked by white people, “What can we do?” There are many answers to this question.1 Here are three that are close to my heart today. Each of them I learned from African Americans who have guided and corrected me.

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Piano Man

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A nurse who is a friend of my partner had an amazing experience recently (and is amazing herself). She described it this way:

I woke up this morning singing “Piano Man.” At work I cared for a patient named Ted – a 60 year old guy who was really sick with COVID pneumonia. They were trying not to intubate him and he was on that edge….

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Earth Day Is for Being with the Climate Movement

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April 22, 2020, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, was gearing up to be the biggest world-wide day of climate rallies and protests ever. Organizers from New York to Nairobi to the Philippines saw this as a pivotal moment for the climate movement and were planning to get millions of people into the streets to demand action on climate change. Then came the COVID-19 crisis and physical distancing. That didn’t stop the organizers, they shifted quickly to create a 3-day online experience called “Earth Day Live”, for April 22, 23, and 24.

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A Future of More Fear or More Connection?

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I walked through my town a few days ago ….
I tell this story because something I read got me thinking about what our mindsets will be when this crisis eases and we are again able to have closer contact with each other. We could come out of this fixated on the potential transmission of infectious diseases, with a constant low-level fear or suspicion of each other. Or we could come out of this feeling triumphant and connected – glad that together we behaved in ways that kept far more people alive, that our caring about each other was real, and with a new sense of all being in it together. We could come out with greater confidence that we can have a similar united front against climate change and work together to build a future that works for everyone.

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Retrospective – 12 Starters for “Talking Climate” with Everyone

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This month, March 2020, marks the one-year anniversary of my blog, “Love, justice, and climate change … I know you can make a difference.” – 25 posts in all. Whether it’s because you have a busy life, or because you only recently started reading this blog, you likely haven’t read all of them. This post provides a retrospective of the first 12 posts (more to come later) — an annotated table of contents, if you will. This will let you see what’s there and perhaps go back and read ones that are of special interest to you.

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