What Should Oregon’s Role Be in Addressing Climate Change?
No amount of carbon reduction in Oregon will have a measurable impact on the temperature of the planet.
Jessica Gomez is Founder/CEO of Rogue Valley Microdevices and serves on the OIT Board of Trustees, Oregon Healthcare & Oregon Business Development committees.
“No man is an island entire of itself.” – John Donne
Climate change has no borders. Neither should the solutions. Each time I read a new proposal from either the City of Portland or the State of Oregon, I ask myself: “How many degrees will this new regulation, fee, or tax, reduce the temperature of the earth?” The answer is always the same; the impact on our climate will be negligible. When I saw the photo with a dozen school-aged children wearing t-shirts stating what age they would be when their climate fate was sealed if we didn’t pass Cap and Trade, I wondered if the well-intentioned students realized that the legislation they were advocating for would have a mathematically negligible impact on the earth’s temperature.
How much impact does Oregon’s carbon emissions have on the earth’s temperature? Using the current global carbon emission trajectory, the earth is expected to warm by 2.9 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. If Oregon eliminated all carbon emissions starting today, the earth’s temperature would still warm by 2.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Even at Oregon’s current carbon emission levels, Oregon’s contribution to the earth’s overall rise in temperature by the end of the 21st century is estimated to be less than 0.005 degrees Celsius.
The global pandemic perfectly illustrates the challenge of dealing with an enemy that knows no borders. The coronavirus, much like climate change, is a global problem that requires a global solution: a vaccine to ultimately bring the pandemic under control. Our scientific community, funded in part by the federal government, worked tirelessly, employing the latest technologies to develop a vaccine and export it across the globe.
Climate change is a similar challenge and will take a similar approach. No amount of carbon reduction in Oregon will have a measurable impact on the temperature of the planet. On the other hand, if Oregon were to help develop low-cost clean energy technology, energy storage technology, or reduced power consumption technology that could be readily exported across the globe, then Oregon will have a real, measurable impact on climate change.
How do we make this happen? The first step is to admit that this is a global problem and that we should refocus our resources toward a global solution. We then need to support our scientific and engineering community by making the necessary investments in higher education, especially math, science, and engineering. We need our universities like Oregon Tech, Oregon State University, and Portland State to establish relationships with other academic and scientific institutions around the globe that are working on carbon mitigation and alternative energy technology, and assist them in each and every way possible.
We must also ensure that Oregon is resilient against the impacts of climate change. Modernizing our water infrastructure and improving forest management practices will help protect our farms and wildlife against drought, and reduce the risk of wildfire and smoke in our rural communities.
Feel-good solutions that have no measurable impact on climate change squander Oregon’s precious resources. Oregon can, and should be, a leader on climate change. But to have a measurable impact, Oregon needs an outcomes-focused climate policy.
Years ago, impactful legislation like the Bottle Bill, the Beach Bill and the preservation of the Columbia Gorge were designed thoughtfully, and supported by a coalition of bi-partisan elected officials and community leaders. We need to approach the issue of climate change in much the same way by setting aside our partisan ideology and tapping into the collaborative problem-solving skills of Oregonians, otherwise known as “The Oregon Way”.
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Jessica, I agree somewhat, certainly in regard to the need for investments in resiliency (e.g. our water infrastructure) and a focus on our unique assets (e.g. forest policy), but I disagree when it comes to dismissing smaller efforts. Taken to the extreme, I suppose we could add up all of our possible actions to address climate change in Oregon -- from recycling to EVs to wind in the gorge and solar east of the Cascades and better storage of carbon in our coastal forests -- and still not move the global needle by 0.1 degree centigrade. But if we pioneer these approaches and do them well, there will be a modeling effect on other states and a proof of concept for the benefits of a less carbon-intensive economy that will can help drive a virtuous circle of investment within and beyond our borders. For years now, we've been talking about the need for an all-of-the-above approach to addressing climate change. If we're serious about that, we'll embrace the small as well as the big and work them both into an ethos of progress toward the larger, global goal.
Except that global climate action is a cascade of actions that create a collective shift. This article ignores the collective momentum Oregon feeds and supports through climate action policies, ultimately helping move the US, which moves the world. "Outcomes focused" means decarbonizing a nation--the most important nation--which means decarbonizing all its regions, all its states--and adding to the momentum underway... in our region (CA, WA, ...) and country. "No measure impact" is a message and lens of hopelessness--in a world where all contributions matter, collective momentum matters, where tipping points are arriving and passing (good and bad). "Feel good" also omits the new economic reality of renewables -- where many of the power sector decarbonizing actions will save money, but need legal and policy frameworks to nudge incumbent utilities to change. Renewables are cheap. It's time to start building. It's all-hands-on-deck time.