Fighting climate change (Part Two)

Yesterday, we open our toolbox and looked at the tool we could use to “significantly“ more the needle and see which methods are most effective. Today, we’ll try to rank them by their long-term impact. So let’s get started. 

1. Education and scientific literacy, even though their impact is in the long-term, are a necessary step that must become the backdrop to our effort to rein in climate change. 
2. Economic incentives that reward cleaner choices, like tax credit, rebates for renewable energies or devices using them. Technological innovation that can range from cold fusion, thermal energies all the way to turning dangerous materials into new sources of energy. 
3. Government policies and international cooperation. This is super important as individual countries’ action are meaningless and ineffective when the entire world must play from the same sheet of music. Short of a unanimous movement, nothing will ever work. 
4. Leading by example works very well for families and it should also work at the planetary level. Shaming bad actors should be part of the toolkit too. 
5. Consumer pressure and boycotts can work if they are well explained, fully understood and well followed. Continued peaceful public activism instead of violent revolt, that has little evidence of producing durable environmental progress and often causes additional social harm. 

Climate change presents a classic collective-action problem. Every nation benefits if everyone acts, but each has either a temptation or an incentive to let others bear more of the cost. Overcoming that dilemma requires making climate action not merely a moral obligation but also an economic and political advantage. 

History suggests that societies change most rapidly when environmental responsibility aligns with prosperity, security, and technological progress rather than relying on moral persuasion alone. Ultimately this issue is about human nature as much as climate science: How do we persuade billions of people and hundreds of governments to cooperate for the common good? 

There is no single answer, but the evidence suggests that the greatest progress occurs when education, innovation, sound economic policy, and effective leadership reinforce one another rather than acting in isolation.

Fighting climate change (Part One)

There is only one planet, yet more than 200 nations share responsibility for its future. Although nearly all governments acknowledge the importance of protecting the environment, they differ greatly in their willingness and ability to act. Some place economic growth, national security, or political considerations ahead of climate policies, while others simply lack the financial resources to make the necessary transition. 

The challenge is therefore not only scientific but also political, economic, and moral. So the question is, what actually can move the needle? History tells us that no single approach is sufficient. Progress usually comes from a combination of forces.

On paper, education is probably the most powerful long-term tool. It changes how future generations think, vote, consume, and innovate, unfortunately, it works very slowly. Leading by example can be surprisingly influential. When one country, city, or company demonstrates that reducing emissions can coincide with economic prosperity, others are more likely to follow. 

The dramatic fall in the cost of solar panels and wind power is partly the result of countries investing early and proving these new technologies can surprisingly work well at scale. This said, economic incentives are often more effective than moral appeals. Businesses and consumers respond to prices. Carbon taxes, emissions trading systems, tax credits for clean technologies, and subsidies for renewable energy have generally produced measurable changes because they align environmental goals with financial interests. 

It’s true that consumer pressure and boycotts can influence corporate behavior, especially when large numbers of people participate. Companies often react faster to changing customer preferences than governments do. However, boycotts are usually effective only when they are sustained and widely supported which need to be well explained and perfectly understood. 

In theory, international agreements like the Paris Agreement help establish common goals and encourage transparency, but they rely largely on voluntary commitments and peer pressure rather than enforcement. One big hope, held as a “Hail Mary”, is technological innovation that should ultimately be one of the strongest drivers. New technologies become attractive when they are cleaner and cheaper. 

The rapid adoption of electric vehicles, improved batteries, and renewable energy illustrates how innovation can change markets without requiring everyone to make sacrifices. Finally to end that list of tools, there’s always public protest and civil disobedience have historically drawn attention to important issues and sometimes accelerated policy changes. 

Their effectiveness depends on maintaining public support. Peaceful movements tend to have a stronger long-term record than violent revolts, which often polarize societies and distract from the underlying issue. 

Tomorrow, we’ll try to see, which of tools seem the most potent...

Altitude and temperature

Being both a mountain dweller and a skier, I’ve always thought that the rule for temperature change in relation to altitude was 3° Fahrenheit per 1,000 feet (or 6°C per 1,000 meters), but I wasn’t too sure and decided to dig a little deeper into a subject that’s becoming more important as we get into full global warming. 

Here’s what I’ve found, starting with what causes that change. Temperatures drop as we gain elevation simply simply because atmospheric pressure decreases and the air expands and cools. Now, let’s talk numbers for what’s called the Standard Lapse Rate.

In Fahrenheit, temperature drops approximately 3.5°F per 1,000 feet of elevation gain (or roughly 5°F per 1,000 meters). In Celsius, temperature drops approximately 6.5°C per 1,000 meters of elevation gain (or roughly 2°C per 1,000 feet). For example, if we climb a mountain 2,000 feet higher up, we can generally expect the temperature to be around 7°F cooler at the top than at the base.) Of course, while 3.5°F per 1,000 feet is the standard average, real-world conditions frequently break this rule. 

Let’s start with humidity and moisture. If the air is dry, it cools faster as it rises, at a rate that’s about 5.4°F per 1,000 feet (9.8°C per 1,000 meters). If, on the other hand, the air cools to its dew point and moisture condenses into clouds or fog, latent heat is released into the surrounding air. This slows the cooling rate down to roughly 3.0°F per 1,000 feet (5°C per 1,000 meters). 

Then we’ve got the temperature inversions, in which if temperature always decreases with height, during an inversion, the opposite happens as warmer air sits over a pool of cold air. This is very common in mountain valleys (Salt Lake City) during winter or clear, windless nights, where cold heavy air sinks into the valley floor while Park City’s higher elevation stays significantly warmer. 

Finally the terrain topography and wind also influence the system. Dark rock faces and exposed alpine terrain can heat up significantly under direct sunlight, creating warm microclimates high up that defy the surrounding free-air lapse rate. Conversely, strong alpine winds can pull down cold air masses (these are called katabatic winds) or enhance wind chill, making it feel far colder than the ambient lapse rate suggests. 

Now you know all the details about the whole altitude and temperature relationship!

Mistakes are the bricks that build wisdom

A friend recently reminded me of this when I shared a cartoon about getting older and wiser. He said, “I still make lots of mistakes,” and it struck me that wisdom isn’t what happens after mistakes — it’s what happens through them. 

Without mistakes, wisdom has nothing to grow from. Every misstep gives us another piece of insight, another angle on ourselves, another chance to understand the world a little better. 

Wisdom isn’t a fixed quantity or a final destination; it’s a structure we’re always building, one imperfect brick at a time. So rather than fearing mistakes, we can welcome them as part of the ongoing work of becoming wiser. 

Not because mistakes are fun, but because they’re fertile. They keep us learning, adjusting, and alive to the world. In that sense, wisdom is never finished — and that’s exactly what makes life interesting.

The hardest fear to overcome?

We all fear different things. What frightens one person may hardly concern another because each of us has a different tolerance for uncertainty and risk. Some people—even professional risk-takers—become so accustomed to danger that what once seemed intimidating eventually feels routine. 

As we grow older, experience often teaches us to accept that many events lie beyond our control. Yet logic alone does not erase fear, and many anxieties remain with us throughout life. Among these fears, one stands out as particularly powerful. It’s not the fear of dying, but the fear of being wrong.

Admitting that we have made a mistake, exercised poor judgment, or held a false belief can be extraordinarily difficult because doing so challenges our pride, our self-image, and sometimes even our identity. Perhaps this is one of the greatest psychological hurdles we face. 

While some people learn to acknowledge their mistakes with humility, many spend a lifetime defending opinions they know, deep down, may no longer be true. 

Ironically, the willingness to admit we are wrong is not a sign of weakness but one of the clearest marks of wisdom and personal growth.

Thank you Exxon-Mobil!

We are currently experiencing a hot weather spell in Park City, and while the temperatures are far from excruciating compared to those experienced in the Salt Lake Valley and many other places, we’ve been blessed, so far, without much smoke in the air except for 2 or 3 days in June. 

But when one look at the climatic devastation around the world, from the gigantic forest fires in Europe to the flooding in many places, global warming remains more than ever the humongous elephant in the room. 

Of course, no one is talking about what currently ails the planet and is going to be humanity downfall as the eyes are turned towards wars everywhere and politician’s eccentricities but chickens always come home to roost, which clearly means that meaning that past actions, particularly humanity’s wanton plundering of our planet will eventually catch up with all of us and what we experience is just a sampling. 

This is in spite of the fact that for decades, many members of the fossil fuel industry have tried to convince us that a causative link between fossil fuel use and climate warming couldn’t be made because the models used to project warming were too uncertain.

Recently, it’s been showed that one of these fossil fuel companies, ExxonMobil, had their own internal models that projected warming trajectories consistent with those forecast by the independent academic and government models. What they understood about climate models thus contradicted what they led all of us to believe. 

This is why I’ve decided to say every time I greet someone during our morning walk, if they happen to answer “It’s gonna be another hot one” I always use my follow up answer “Thanks to Exxon-Mobil!” 

Neighbor relations...

My neighbor seems like a nice guy, but like many people likes to have things “His way”. The other day he had visiting guests at his home. The weather was warm and they had dinner on their outdoor deck that is less than 30 feet from our bedroom. 

All the diners were loud and when we went to bed at 9pm we could hear them pretty clearly. We were hoping that at 10pm everyone would all retire inside the house, but they kept their loud encounter going until about 11:30pm. I was so mad that I couldn’t sleep. 

The following night the same thing happened and fearing a repeat of the previous evening, right after 10:30pm, I texted my dear neighbor asking him to “please tell your guests to tone it down, thanks” A few minutes later they all quieted down but my neighbor never answered my text, as he probably felt too embarrassed to respond. 

I felt good about the way I handled the incident. Would you have responded differently and if so, how?