Inspiring people to combat climate change, protecting and growing forests and increasing the use of wind turbines were keys three high school students suggested to avoid the predicted catastrophic path of inaction to deal with a warming planet.
Greta Cahill, 16, an Animas High School junior; Luke Nicholson, 18, a Durango High School senior; and Hannah Whitmer, 17, a Bayfield High School senior, made their suggestions based on their three winning essays submitted as part of the Climate Change Solutions conference held Tuesday at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.
“I believe the most inspiring climate change solution is not an equation to reduce carbon emissions or a solar panel that is installed around the world. But the most inspiring climate change solution is sparking something in others to do work that helps in the battle against this pressing issue,” Cahill, the daughter of Art Cahill and Katie Chicklinski-Cahill, told a crowd of more than 400.
Students from Animas High School, Bayfield High School, Durango High School and Pagosa Springs High School attended. The three winning essayists each received $100.
Nicholson called for afforestation, expanding forests, as a solution to keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, a process called biosequestration. He estimated optimum afforestation would reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by 4.8 percent – taking the greenhouse gas back down to levels measured in 2013.
Nicholson, the son of Jimmy and Lindsey Nicholson, added, “In the war against global warming, there is no one correct or perfect solution; therefore, it is imperative that other mitigation strategies are utilized in conjunction with necessary afforestation efforts.
Whitmer, the daughter of Jared and Aimee Whitmer, said, “The fact that humans can produce electricity without reducing limited fossil fuels and without producing any pollution is just amazing.”
Whitmer estimated an 18 percent increase in land-based wind turbines can reduce carbon dioxide by 84.6 gigatons – a gigaton is 1 billion tons.
Students also heard from several experts dealing with climate change, including Travis Rieder, a professor at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at John Hopkins University.
Rieder told students via a video link the time has passed when conventional ethical views of climate change, such as urging people to choose more fuel-efficient cars, will suffice. He said conventional ethics now must be supplanted by what he called “radical climate ethics.”
While climate models show the planet is in depressingly bad shape based on predictions of future global warming, he said he is optimistic for one reason: Most models don’t take population into account.
As part of his radical climate ethics, Rieder is urging people to have smaller families. He said the decision to have a child is the single most-impactful decision a person can make in terms of his or her carbon footprint. He said deciding to have a child increases a person’s carbon footprint by six times.
“We should consider smaller families. There are good reasons to,” he said.
parmijo@ durangoherald.com
