by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
September 2, 2024 | 3:00 pm
We’ve learned a ton about carbon since 1925. Human activities, we know, have increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by a third since the Industrial Revolution. This is triggering the climate disruption we all now face.
Nevertheless, it must be news to the creators of Project 2025. The exhaustive document’s energy section should be called Project 1925 for its retrograde proposals.
Project 2025 proposes scrapping tactics for reducing greenhouse emission like so much debris. It advocates downsizing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and abolishing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The underlying logic seems to be disappearing carbon pollution by refraining from understanding its extent.
An alternative strategy to the proverbial ostrich head-in-the-sand is to face hard truths with hope and action. The hopeful sign I highlight comes from an unlikely source – the transportation sector.
Last spring, the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization committed to creating the world’s first global carbon price.
While 70 countries and states already institute some level of price on carbon through taxes or trade mechanisms, this proposal would be the first global tax. It would require shipping companies to pay a fee for every ton of carbon they emit while burning fuel.
The U.N. believes this fee would raise tens of billions of dollars for ameliorating climate issues. Just as importantly, it could function as a marketplace incentive. Shippers will have the impetus to develop new technology to reduce their carbon emissions.
World Bank economist Dominik Englert believes this type of solution could reach beyond shipping. “We are talking about something that can really improve the landscape of climate finance,” he told The New York Times.
While the shipping industry is undergoing this transformation, artificial intelligence is churning out carbon as if it were air.
On the public side, AI is touted as a key to saving energy in building design, energy efficiency, environmental modeling, transportation, manufacturing, and renewable energy. It is also an enormous user of energy.
Google has disclosed that its AI use has already increased its greenhouse gas emissions by 48% over 2019.
I can believe that. My husband is testing Claude, his favorite AI engine, by feeding it all my columns to categorize. Guys just love new gadgets.
Given AI’s heavy use of and drain on computers, AI is already creating an outsized share of electronic waste. Currently, about 85% of electronic waste goes to landfills.
Furthermore, AI’s ability to rapidly spread disinformation is counted by many as a climate threat multiplier.
How do we keep striving to provide a sustainable earth in every sector? The answer is not new: improved carrots and sticks.
Aviation, for example, produces almost as much greenhouse gases as the shipping industry. Though the carbon equation is different for maritime shipping versus flights, aviation would be ripe for innovative ideas such as in maritime shipping.
AI is at the beginning of its lifecycle, which means there is lots of low-hanging fruit for improvement.
To see what AI could suggest about self-improvement, I queried Google’s generative AI algorithm to solve the AI carbon use dilemma.
The response included suggestions to improve energy efficiency of AI training models through energy-efficient hardware, optimizing data centers for energy efficiency, and using renewable energy.
Carrot and stick solutions are not sufficient, but they are necessary.
We need to break down energy issues and pair frustrations with achievements; problems with appropriate solutions. It’s 2024, not 1924, and hope is in the air.
Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer, sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.