Green Reads: H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z

“If people believe things will only get worse, they feel overwhelmed. If they feel overwhelmed, they’re apt to throw up their hands, thus guaranteeing that things will only get worse. A diet of bad news leads to paralysis which yields more bad news.”

- H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z by Elizabeth Kolbert

H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z by Elizabeth Kolbert is a rejection of the doom and gloom that typically envelopes discussions around climate change and instead embraces a sense of optimism that is grounded in action. Aided by spectacular illustrations drawn by Wesley Allsbrook, that evoke a sense of joy and curiosity, this book uses hope as a catalyst rather than fear.

Elizabeth Kolbert takes readers back to basics with the ABCs of climate change. Searching for hope, Kolbert embarks on a journey to “go looking for hopeful climate stories and they are everywhere.”  They are in the block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island and the electrically powered planes being built in Burlington, Vermont. Readers learn of a lab in Montreal that is developing cement-free concrete, and in Dallas, Texas, scientists are hoping to get a better understanding of the effect of extreme heat on the human body using a hyperbaric chamber. Meanwhile, in Somerville, Massachusetts, a research lab is creating a new kind of battery using a “reverse rusting” process that could replace lithium-ion batteries!

Kolbert acknowledges the many limits and ever-present obstacles of these emerging technological advancements and cautions against premature celebration. Shifting focus from what will happen if we don’t, to what happens if we do and how we already are, this book is a triumphant, yet sober lifting of the head. Wesley Allsbrook’s art helps us to see the world we imagine become real, tangible, and closer than ever. H is for Hope gives a glimpse into the science that can, literally, save the world! There is an air of joy that energizes the passionate innovators and scientists who find this necessary work to be exhilarating and fun, and it is contagious to the reader. Hope is catching!

With that mindset, let’s take a short break from what we can do, and take a look at what others are already doing.

What’s Being Done:

1. UPS has placed an order for 150 Alia electrical planes made by Beta for cargo
2. Wright Electric of Albany, New York hopes to begin running short, zero emission commuter flights as soon as 2026
3. Minnesota based utility company, Great River Energy has been promised the “first 30 shipping containers worth” of Form’s reverse rust batteries, for which the only materials needed are “air salt water and iron”
4. CarbiCrete is, ideally, a carbon-negative alternative to cement, of which the “production makes up 80% of global carbon emissions”, that can be made “using waste from power plants and steel mills” and “permanently captures CO2, and reduces need for landfills”
5. “In the past decade, the price of offshore wind energy has declined by half” and “it is cheaper to put up turbines than it is to operate an existing power plant that burns natural gas”
6. “Since 2010 [the price of solar power] has dropped by more than eighty percent”
7. “…Denmark, Ireland and western Oklahoma sometimes have so much power… they have to pay to get rid of it”

More recommended reading on the subject 

• What if We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
• Futures After Progress: Hope and Doubt in Late Industrial Baltimore by Chloe Ahmann
• Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie
• The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What's Possible in the Age of Warming by Eric Holthaus
• Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty by Darrel Moellendorf