Rethinking Climate Change — Paul Deane — TEDxClonakilty

[00:00:00] Speaker ?: Reviewer: Denise RQ [00:00:02] Speaker 1: When I was first asked to give this talk a couple of months ago, I was really excited, I was very happy. So I ran home and I talked to my wife and said, "I've got some great news. I've just been asked to give a TED Talk." She said, "That's fantastic. What's the subject?" I said, "It's on global warming and climate change." She said, "That is going to be the most boring, depressing TED Talk ever." So I thanked her for the vote of confidence. And it is a pity. Often when we hear the story of climate change and global warming, it can be just a tiny bit negative, a tiny bit depressing. But the story actually doesn't have to be that way, particularly when we look at that story from a different perspective. And that story starts with us. We are the first species living on this beautiful planet to have prior information of a danger or calamity that will befall us. That makes us so special. But what's even more special is that we know the solution to the problem, and we know we can solve the problem. That's pretty awesome. The world's best climate scientists have shown us that the warming of this planet is unequivocal and it's unusual. And we know that in all but unlikely scenarios, the quality of our life will be affected by climate change. We understand the problem. We know the problem is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and gas. And this creates greenhouse gases. They're the fundamental problems. But we know the solution is to reduce our emissions. And we have alternative technologies and alternative fuels, such as low carbon technologies and renewables. But we're not really acting. This year, global greenhouse gas emissions have peaked and are today at a level that have not been seen on this beautiful planet in almost 800,000 years. We hear about the story of climate change every so often in the printed media, in the papers, in the cinema. A lot of us would have seen Al Gore's brilliant documentary film on the causes, the science, the consequences and the solutions to climate change. But according to box office figures, an awful lot more of us have seen The Day After Tomorrow, a mildly amusing Hollywood plot based entirely on the science fiction of climate change. So why is it that we're not really engaging with the story? Why is it that as a global community, we don't seem to be acting in this very serious problem? And I think a part of the problem, certainly not all the problem, but an important part of it is the way we tell that story of climate change and the way we communicate that story of climate change. often the messaging around climate change can be very negative. You know, it can be dire, it can be apocalyptic, it can be hopeless. You know, and that can give people a sense that, you know, maybe that problem is too big to solve. And that's a pity. For example, here are some of the common images and messaging techniques that are often used in the media to talk about climate change and global warming. Now, don't get me wrong here. Obviously, there are some very serious and real consequences to global warming. But by focusing on these extreme elements, you know, we do frighten people. And I think it distances us from the problem and from the solutions. It can have the unintended effect of disempowering us. And when we're disempowered, we disengage. And again, that's a real pity in the context of something that we know we can solve. So, we need to look at climate change and think about climate change a little bit differently. And here are a couple of simple ideas. Why not, instead of focusing on the negative consequences of inaction, because all this stuff here, this all tells the story of what happens if we do nothing. Instead of giving that narrative, why not focus or tell the story of doing something, the story of action, and tell the story of the positive benefits around doing something. That might help reframe the story and maybe look to empower people. I sometimes get a sense when I talk to my friends or talk to people about climate change that there's a feeling that, you know, do we have to return to the stone age to solve the problem? We'll be able to drive our cars. We'll be able to fly anywhere, you know? And that's not the case. So, the alternative version, the alternative side of that story must be told. Also, we pitch it as a global problem. But by doing that, what we're allowing or enabling is us as individuals, as communities or as nations, to avoid our responsibility in dealing with it. We can assume, oh, someone, somewhere will do something to solve that problem. It does not have to be me. So, when we talk about climate change, we need to make it more local. We need to make it more relevant, because the solutions to climate change are going to come from that local level. And the story of those solutions are going to be different, depending on where they come from, for different countries, different communities, depending on their cultures, depending on their locations, and depending on their backgrounds. We don't have polar bears in Ireland. We don't have icebergs in Ireland. Telling a story around climate change, around these elements, it's irrelevant. We can't relate to it. It's very important for us as a society to understand the solutions. And we can't understand them if we can't relate to them. So, we need to make the messaging of climate change a lot more meaningful. We need to explain to people, as scientists, how our lives, how our communities, how our countries will be different if we choose to act, if we choose to do something about it. And that's some of the work that we do up in UCC, in the Environmental Research Institute. We look at how the story of climate change in Ireland may evolve and change as we go through time, and what the story of addressing climate change actually means for us in Ireland. What our country would look like, what our communities would look like. So, if you will, just over the next couple of minutes, let me share with you some of the things I think about and we think about when we hear about addressing climate change. So, I'm not going to talk about what the US should do, what India should do, what China should do. Let's look at the opportunities and the stories that we have here in our own country. And what is our story of addressing climate change? Let's start with our homes. Wouldn't it be great to have warm, cosy homes that didn't cost a fortune to heat? We have a very poor housing stock in Ireland. Better insulated homes require less heat, therefore put less emissions out into the atmosphere. It's good for the environment, and it's good for your pocket. Fuel affordability is a huge issue in Ireland. 10% of Irish households are currently affected by fuel poverty, and today, this year, almost 400,000 people require a fuel allowance to help them heat their homes. For such a rich country like ours, isn't that disappointing that that has to happen? But by addressing that issue, we can also address the issue of climate change. Imagine the employment opportunity, the workforce we could build in not only insulating these types of houses, or improving them, but also in converting the 1 million or so houses in Ireland today that burn dirty fuels such as coal, such as oil, such as peat. Converting these to alternative cleaner technologies such as stoves, heat pumps and high efficiency boilers. Imagine how cleaner the air that we breathe would be if we addressed this issue. Imagine that instead of having a country that spends 6 billion euros every year importing fossil fuels from outside our boundaries, that we look to produce more energy in a more responsible and in a more ethical fashion within our own boundaries. Imagine communities here, like Clannacilty, producing our own renewable gas. Technology exists today, called anaerobic digestion, which are basically bacteria and microbes that eat waste. They eat everything, they eat food waste. Agricultural waste such as slurry, which can often end up in our lakes and in our rivers. Grass, silage, even seaweed. Here are colleagues of mine from UCC picking sea lettuce, harvesting sea lettuce from a beach not far from here, and turning it into renewable gas in our lab. There's huge potential for this in Ireland. 100 hectares of Irish grassland will produce enough renewable clean gas for 1,000 Irish households. And this isn't something from Back to the Future or from some exotic technology. This exists today. There are 8,000 of these systems in Germany in operation right now. There are seven of these systems in Ireland. Not 7,000, seven. [00:10:20] Speaker ?: We could do this. [00:10:22] Speaker 1: Imagine empowering local communities to save and to generate their own electricity. Imagine communities actually owning a part, being a shareholder in your own energy infrastructure. Producing electricity from wind projects, solar projects. And not a novel concept. There's 2,000 of these systems in operation in Denmark today at a community level. There's one in Ireland today. Fossil fuel subsidies are a huge problem worldwide, globally. Last year we spent half a trillion US dollars paying companies to burn dirty fuel releasing emissions. And in Ireland, we're not immune from that either. This year, through our electricity bills, we as electricity consumers are paying over 100 million euros in subsidizing the generation of dirty electricity from fossil fuels, generating 2 million tons of emissions. Isn't that ridiculous? Imagine if that money was put into research. Imagine if that money was diverted towards training and upskilling a workforce into a low-carbon future that we know is going to come. Let's look at forestry. Forests are great for the body, they're great for the soul, great for the mind. And they're also awesome at absorbing emissions. Ireland has one of the lowest forestry cover rates in Europe. Wouldn't it be great if we had more forestry? Places to picnic, mountain bike, run. Imagine the lifestyles we could build around that if we had more parks, woodlands and green areas in this country of ours. So you see, when you look at climate change from this perspective, from this angle, you see often that the solutions to climate change are actually embedded and hidden in other problems. And by addressing climate change, we can also address a wide range and a wide variety of problems. Telling people that we need to save the planet isn't working. [00:12:55] Speaker ?: It means nothing. [00:12:56] Speaker 1: The planet will be fine. The planet will be fine. It's been here long before us. It's going to be here long after us. The real story of addressing climate change is one of cleaner air, better homes, more local employment, more affordable energy, and protecting the vulnerable in our society. That's what I see the real story of climate change as. Now, let's not be naive here. Of course, there's going to be challenges and there's going to be costs involved. And that's the work that we do up in the Environmental Research Institute up in UCC. We look at these costs and we understand these costs and we look at the challenges. So let me share that with you. The cost for Ireland to reduce our emissions from energy by 80%, between here and the year 2050, for example, over and above what we call a business as usual scenario. Business as usual is where we don't try and reduce our emissions. That extra cost is 3%. Now, that's not a significant amount of money between here and 2050. Let me put that into context for you. That's about what we spend on importing fossil fuels into this country over two years. So, you know, this is doable. We have solved a very serious economic issue in this country and spent significantly more money in the last four years in solving that economic problem. And that economic problem was solved because there was a strong political will to do so. Imagine if there was a strong societal will driving a political will to solve an even greater problem. Imagine the awesome country we could have then. 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