Climate Change

Scientists around the world are studying global climate change and developing various scenarios regarding its potential impact. But the real action and impact will occur at the local level. This is what Switzer Fellows Lisa Micheli and Healy Hamilton are working on in a project they call At the Water's Edge.

California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) law requires all utilities to generate 33 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. The state's 10 largest publicly owned utilities (POUs) deliver approximately one-quarter of the state's electricity needs and have made significant strides in clean energy investments since the start of the RPS program. However, the degree to which these investments promoted new clean energy resources varied significantly by utility.

Matt Orosz is an inventor and entrepreneur focused on overcoming the challenges to building sustainable energy infrastructure in underserved areas. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho, Matt's experience living without electricity or running water catalyzed his study of engineering and the foundation of STG International, an organization that works to build capacity for solar micro-utilities. Read the full story

"I call them heat storms. Because they are so dramatic. In 2006, we had a heat wave and 147 people were documented as dying by the Los Angeles County Coroner. But researchers believe the number was three or four times higher - that over 600 people died as a result of that heat wave," explained Nancy Steele, executive director of the Southern California-based Council for Watershed Health, which used to be called the Los Angeles & San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council.

"This is really pivotal research that will help us plan for mitigating the effects of climate change," said Amber Pairis, climate change adviser for the Department of Fish and Game. Pairis said the state agency is building similar lists for rare plant species, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. She said the study and guide provide a platform for allowing climate change to become part of conservation discussions and not treated as a separate topic or chapter.

Colleagues said Gleick was acting on the growing frustration that many other scientists are also feeling. "Scientists are up against a political machine trying to create controversy and uncertainty where none exists," said Healy Hamilton, a biodiversity scientist and visiting scholar at UC Berkeley. "How do you deal with an enemy that actually refuses to believe science?"

When Joseph Aldy trekked up Mount Kilimanjaro with his father in 2000, he was a long way from the farm in Kentucky where he grew up—but close to the things that matter to him. Aldy is an economist who works on energy and climate-change policy. He loves to hike. On Kilimanjaro’s 19,341-foot peak, he got to see the last vestiges of the 11,000-year-old glaciers there—they are expected to disappear within the next decade or so. Read the full story

About the book: The United States produces over seventy percent of all its electricity from fossil fuels and nearly fifty percent from coal alone. Worldwide, forty-one percent of all electricity is generated from coal, making it the single most important fuel source for electricity generation, followed by natural gas. This means that an essential part of any portfolio for emissions reduction will be technology to capture carbon dioxide and permanently sequester it in suitable geologic formations.

"There is regulation in market systems all over the place. There is no such thing as [a] free market in existence in the world because government is an actor in our markets. Its job is to regulate .... Markets can work in concert with public policy." - Daniel Morris, a fellow at Resources for the Future Watch the program