With the wave of recent hurricanes, floods and wildfires as real reminders of what we value in the face of climate-related loss, yet another climate report was just released. This one, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) bears special mention because of the worldwide stature of the IPCC and it’s decades-long work on climate, including a Nobel Prize. Without elaborating, the new report’s main take away is “12 years”– that’s how long we have to avert catastrophic change. It lays out various “pathways” to avert these impacts.

Our concern with the IPCC work is that it’s too cautious and understated. But, of any climate report, this is the one most likely to be mentioned in the mainstream media (even if in the context of being attacked by denialists). There are many other scientific reports and journalistic reports, for example, here. Point is- read the IPCC report here or at least the policy executive summary.

AIRE’s interest in developing community-owned renewable energy explicitly recognizes contexts such as climate, among others. This sort of “bottom-up” approach is advocated by many others, including biologist Rachel Smolker of the University of Michigan, writing in Truthout:

“Ultimately, it is increasingly clear that the real solutions to climate change are not global-scale techno-fixes, but rather the locally adapted and locally controlled solutions that people have been pushing for decades, including preventing buildout of fossil fuel infrastructure, protection of lands, respect for rights of humans and nature. The ruthless pursuit of corporate wealth and power and economic growth at all costs stifles those local, grassroots solutions from reaching fruition.”

To Smolker’s list of “to-do’s” we’d of course, add build solar on your home and throughout your community. So there’s plenty of work and motivation wherever you are. We can recommend plenty of places in your community to envision solar and help you build it (here and here).