This week I am in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a course at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and it is wonderful to be back in a place where little seems to have changed since lived here with my family 20 years ago. Harvard Square is still full of students of all shapes and sizes and while Mimi’s Oriental Cafe seems to have disappeared, Au Bon Pan is still on the corner of Harvard Square.
What has also changed in these 20 years is the importance of understanding and trying to mitigate the environmental impact of our modern society. Back in 1994, I was a management consultant for Arthur D. Little but also spent some time with my colleagues in the Environmental Health and Safety unit which was busy developing methodologies do perform environmental impact statements and the technology guys who did many things including develop hydrogen fuel cells for space and automotive applications.
Last week, President Obama released the third assessment of the U.S. Global Change Research Program which was actually created by Congress in 1990 and published its first report ten years later in 2000 and the second one in 2009. The full 2014 report is available for download and basically argues that the U.S. is already experiencing climate change and the impact is and will be more negative than positive.
For a brief overview, MSNBC’s Mellissa Harris-Perry makes a great introduction to her show which that day focused on the impact that climate change will have on food production and in which Bjorn Lomborg blasts the U.S. for turning 5% of the world’s food as measured in calories into ethanol for cars!
Like the report of the 3rd working group of the IPCC’s fifth assessment discussed in this space a few weeks ago, The U.S. government is very clear about where we are today and the following is a quote from the report’s introduction.
“Americans are noticing changes all around them. Summers are longer and hotter, and extended periods of unusual heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced. Winters are generally shorter and warmer. Rain comes in heavier downpours. People are seeing changes in the length and severity of seasonal allergies, the plant varieties that thrive in their gardens, and the kinds of birds they see in any particular month in their neighborhoods.”
An interesting aspect of the report is that it involved a huge number of people, 12 different federal agencies and held over 70 open information sessions so that everything about it was done in a inclusive, transparent way. While I do not expect too many people to read the report’s 30 chapters, I do recommend the first appendix which explains the process that was used to produce the report as it is fascinating account of how science and politics come together in our hyper connected society.
For me the irony of President Obama’s time in office is that while he, more than any other American President, has placed climate change at the heart of his agenda and has passed landmark legalisation, little is known about the impact he has made outside of a relatively small circle of policy people, activists, and companies which are directly affected by that legalisation.
