Controlling the Temperature

Earlier this month in Paris, an historic and surprising agreement was reached by 188 countries to steadily and verifiably reduce carbon emissions with a goal to cap global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above pre-industrial levels and to phase out all fossil fuels by 2050. The cost of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, energy efficiencies, batteries, and even nuclear power is falling to such a point that this is a realistic goal. Renewables will be able to compete with coal and oil economically in the foreseeable future.

These are global goals, but to reach them requires action at the national, state, and local level. In Santa Barbara, city and county governments and groups such as UCSB and the League of Women Voters are exploring the concept of sustainability both in terms of energy and the environment.

One definition of a sustainable community is the capacity to endure. But it is not a passive concept. It covers development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Conceptually there are three pillars to a sustainable community — the environment, society, and economics. Action on any one of these can have major impacts on the other two. The recent gathering in Paris dealt mainly with global warming. The primary focus was on reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next 25 years, and all three pillars would be affected: maintenance of green space, rain forest, and wet lands; moving to renewable energy sources; a major impact on the urban environment through reduced air pollution, and improved livability for the poor in big cities; and the economy with both loss of some jobs as oil and coal become less prominent and gains of others in the solar, wind, and other renewable resources.