Climate Change – What Can One Person Do?
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Climate change is the defining challenge of our times, with expected impacts on national security and the economy, and implications for all social issues of concern, from physical and mental health to environmental justice and democratic governance. Yet many people feel that the problem is too complex to understand, and any solutions are too daunting; so there is no role for them. This colloquy will explore several aspects of the climate change challenge, with a variety of solutions that have been proposed, and what a motivated citizen could do to push in the right direction.
Barbara Bramble, Vice President for International Conservation and Corporate Strategies of the National Wildlife Federation, a Blue Hill resident and environmental lawyer, originally from the ‘wilds’ of Washington, DC. Other expert speakers will be invited to present quick overviews of some of the proposals via Zoom.
Syllabus/Reading
Each of these is very short, except two, where I recommend only the Executive Summary. These are worth a look, if not deep study, to get a flavor of the topics for discussion.
Session I: Treaties, regional agreements, laws, regs
Review of existing laws, regulations, international treaties, regional/national/ local agreements, regarding ending use of fossil fuels and deforestation and promoting the green energy transformation. Focus on the role for citizens in each. Example: legal case brought by children in Montana for violation of their constitutional rights; they won against state officials granting oil and gas leases with known adverse effects on the future of all residents in the state (and of course, the world). This session would include relevant information on the status of climate change indicators and how the legal systems do or do not deal with those.
Global:
https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol
(The US ratified the Framework Convention on Climate Change but NOT the Kyoto Protocol which operationalized it.)
https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement
(The US, under President Obama, ratified the Paris Agreement)
Science in the climate change negotiations:
EU climate law
https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/european-climate-law_en
https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
United States
https://www.c2es.org/content/multi-state-initiatives/
https://usclimatealliance.org/news-events/?jsf=epro-posts:posts-list&tax=post_tag:131
Maine:
https://www.maine.gov/climateplan/
https://martenlaw.com/news/state-and-local-climate-laws-draw-federal-scrutiny
Landmark legal case:
Session 2: The Clean Energy Transformation
Review of prospects for wind/solar/geothermal power generation; transformation of cement, aluminum and steel production; progress on sustainable aviation fuel; electric vehicles, energy grid improvements and battery storage. Focus on private sector investments. Examples of how consumers can push for progress.
Clean energy growth:
https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/q1-2025-ev-sales/
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-clean-energy-contributed-a-record-10-of-chinas-gdp-in-2024/
https://shalemag.com/clean-energy-growth-2024/
https://seia.org/research-resources/solar-market-insight-report-2024-year-in-review/
https://www.maine.gov/energy/sites/maine.gov.energy/files/2025-03/2024%20Maine%20CEIR%20Final%20Version.pdf (executive summary only)
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64705
Examples of private sector initiatives:
https://www.nwf.org/-/media/Documents/PDFs/Climate/Future-of-Sustainable-Aviation-Fuel.pdf
https://mainecommunitysolar.org/
Session III: Natural Climate Solutions
Wetlands, forests and other green spaces absorb impacts of climate change and can help communities adapt to reduce damages. Examples: Restoring oyster bars and wetlands, planting trees and growing seagrass/rockweed/kelp, can be done at all scales and produce local as well as global benefits. Focus is on manageable sized citizen-led projects underway in different parts of the US and around the world.
https://www.nwf.org/naturalsolutions
https://www.nwf.org/-/media/Documents/PDFs/Environmental-Threats/NCS-Summary-Fact-Sheet.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032122001459
https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2023-032-En.pdf (executive summary only)
Regarding Maine
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/26/new-york-seaweed-farming-kelp-producers
Session 4: Climate Restoration
In addition to reducing climate change emissions as fast as possible, and adapting to the rapid changes that are already underway, the world needs to reduce the excessive amounts of ‘legacy’ CO2 and other greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.
Focus on the concept of CO2 removal from the atmosphere, which is very different than reducing emissions, but both could be pursued in parallel. Examples include proposals for industrial machines which are expensive and would depend on government subsidies. Others are more akin to ‘biomimicry,’ using nature based approaches to restore the climate. Any such approaches would need to be deployed on a very large scale to be effective, thus careful scientific testing and monitoring of pilot projects would be needed before proceeding.
But there are barriers to even considering these approaches, since they are not sanctioned by current legal systems and may spark community opposition. Is it worth adding this concept to society’s conversation about climate solutions? What ethical values are raised, what legal changes are needed, and who gets to decide whether to proceed with development and testing ? Citizen groups are asking their state legislatures to pass resolutions to establish climate restoration as a state goal. Should Maine do the same?
Climate Restoration Basics:
https://foundationforclimaterestoration.org/
https://www.peterfiekowsky.com/_files/ugd/1259d0_4da1d663ef5245f2b991c372f0fb2de0.pdf
Ocean Iron Fertilization basics:
Methane basics:
https://www.peterfiekowsky.com/_files/ugd/1259d0_3f34e7bffe7b4dfaa0ce850008b1d5f4.pdf
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