Brighter Climate Futures — engineer and activist Hari Lamba’s book/plan for rejuvenating the Earth
How is your plan to address climate change unique, compared to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ Green New Deal, Bill McKibben’s Drawdown, etc? What does your book add to the discussion?
My book describes a detailed plan that will provide us with brighter climate futures. By implementing a plan of the type described in my book, we will have an Earth that is transformed to one that is clean, has plenty of renewable energy, has gotten rid of the bad pollution by fossil fuels, and is beautiful and healthy.
Most of the books out there are genuine messages of the worsening conditions of climate change and provide very good descriptions of the science and evidence based worsening in planetary conditions. Their general approach is to argue for the need to cut back on fossil fuel use, stop deforestation, adapt to climate change and reduce the damage to our natural world. But they leave most people with a feeling of gloom and despair. They reinforce the arguments of climate deniers that claim that they are asking us to go backwards and to do without. For the world for each of the nations for which plans are presented, the book describes the worsening conditions that are hurting these nations in a big way (from worsening natural disasters, to bad pollutions, worsening health, and the worsening conditions for agriculture, water shortages and heat waves), and why these nations CANNOT AFFORD not proceeding boldly towards climate change solutions described in my book. A plan for transitioning out of the use of coal, which is the worst polluting fuel, is given a high priority.
My Plan and Book starts with the approach that there can be plenty of Renewable Energy for our expanding needs while we are getting rid of fossil fuels and reducing our carbon emissions to zero by 2050 in order to keep global average temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius (1.5C). This is the temperature rise which the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned us we must not exceed in order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. So there is no question of doing without or even going backwards. My calculations show that Solar panels of the kind that directly produce electricity, on less than one percent of the Earth’s land area, are enough to produce ALL of the whole world’s consumption of energy, and not just the current use of electrical energy, which is only a small part of total energy use. Since Global Warming is a GLOBAL issue, my plan presents a Global Energy Plan that is quantitatively adequate and timebound, in order to do exactly that by the year 2050. It also presents detailed and quantitative Energy, Climate and ecosystem plans for the US, California, China, India, the European Union and other categories of nations. Best of all, although technical innovation (or new developments) is needed in some areas, the solutions are technically feasible (meaning they can be applied practically) and are economically viable, meaning that they are within the capacity of global society to implement.
Since a temperature rise of about 1.5C will still happen, the book describes a detailed plan for year round and organized disaster risk reduction for all the natural disasters worsened by climate change, and the strategies for adapting to heat waves, floods and droughts. It further supplements that with global plans for carbon sinks (that absorb carbon) like afforesting the earth over one billion hectares, restoring degrading land masses, expanding all coastal ecosystems over the entire global non-ice coastline, and transforming to a regenerative agriculture. In this way, we will have an Earth that is transformed to one that is Clean, has plenty of renewable energy, has gotten rid of the bad pollution by fossil fuels, and is beautiful and healthy.
Most of the books are excellent descriptions of the developing problem of climate change, point to the worsening of conditions and disasters, and say that we must proceed towards renewable energy. Books by Bill McKibben (“Fighting Global Warming Now”) and Al Gore (“An Inconvenient Truth”) are in this vein. The Book “Drawdown”, edited by Paul Hawken, provides an excellent list of alternative energy and other activities that will help reduce our carbon emissions and the descriptions, costs and benefits of each activity on the list — but it does not amount to a plan. The US Green New Deal as defined and championed by Alexandria Occasio-Cortez is a very good set of aspirations that aims at what the US should do to help with its share of solving the climate crisis, while at the same time improving the lives of most of the people in the US. But it is a very good and courageous New Deal but it does not amount to a plan, and would need specific legislation and programs and a plan for implementation.
On the other hand, the PLAN that I am proposing that is described in my Book, is comprehensive and A-Z. It provides a complete way for the world of where we are, where we need to go, and HOW to get there in a timely fashion by 2050. In the Book SUB-PLANs are defined in 18 needed areas (including disaster risk reduction) — what is needed, how to do it, how to fund it, how to organize it, and how to implement it. The PLAN also includes the development of non-carbon fuels like Hydrogen and Ammonia, that can store large amounts of Renewable energy, and the fuels are portable, energy dense and capable of replacing gasoline (petrol) and diesel in a big way. My plan and book describes how it would help IMPLEMENT the US Green New Deal (and so is intended to support and supplement it) , and then describes a Global Green New Deal and how to implement that at the same time. Most importantly, my book also includes what no one else has — anywhere — a global plan for strengthening and empowering a Global Organization to plan, organize, fund, coordinate and implement a global plan of the type my book describes.
What expertise do you have that prepared you to write this book?
I have knowledge and experience in all of the areas that are proposed in the book — engineering, energy, renewable energy, climate and ecology. With a Bachelors’ degree in Aeronautical engineering I understand the basics of how wind turbines operate and how the wind causes the blades to rotate. Then with a Ph.D. in engineering in mechanical and materials engineering, with some education also in electronics and electrical engineering, and chemistry and physics, I have good understanding of all technical areas proposed in the book.
In addition to that, because of all the reading and writing of an earlier book on the global situation (problems and solutions) I began to understand global issues relating to environment, development (economics and how nations develop or change), politics and democracy, and the content and kinds of education needed for the future. In addition to that, because of participation in the volunteer efforts of formal and informal non-profit groups, I have developed a good understanding of many of the national and global processes and the discussions on climate change.
After about forty years of work experience in engineering and engineering management I learned how to do innovative product development and over my career developed a good understanding of how to develop new types of products that meet the new needs of different customers. In the last few areas of my work career, I developed a good understanding of the areas of electrical energy and battery technology that are used in all energy technologies (that are a very important part of my book). In addition to the work career, on the side, I developed a good knowledge on the technology, business and sales sides of renewable energy (solar and wind), solar hot water heating and electric heat pumps that use the constant temperature of the ground underneath for heating and cooling. Lastly, for about the last fifteen years, I have been organizing panels at conferences and have given talks on Climate Change, to highlight problems, global and national movements, and to propose solutions globally and for some nations. In this process, I developed a good understanding of the science of climate change, what had happened historically and globally, and to understand climate change solutions proposed by different people.
Do we have to trade economic growth and our standard of living to rejuvenate the environment?
Absolutely not. Our sun provides us with more than a hundred times of solar energy on just our land areas, than the whole world is consuming or even if it expands its energy use. What my plan and book is showing that we can have plenty of renewable energy, especially solar, and that living conditions will actually be heathier and cleaner as the dig, burn and dump cycles of fossil fuels will be gone. The high levels of air and water pollution that causes severe health problems will be gone. Unless dominated by monopoly interests, the cost of energy will go down as the “fuel is free” — the sunlight and wind are free items that the Earth furnishes us, which we do not have to pay for.
The main thing is that we have to learn to do things differently. First, we have to invest in and use solar and wind energy for most of our needs. Then we need to learn how to store this energy so we can use the stored energy when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. We can store these in batteries, as we are learning to do in cars and in large scale battery systems that work with our large electrical power plants. Then we can use solar, wind and other renewable energies to produce non-carbon fuels like Hydrogen and Ammonia, which when they are burned do not release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (Hydrogen when burned only results in water). These fuels are already used on a commercial scale (Hydrogen for refining oil and in making Ammonia), and Ammonia as a fertilizer in agriculture). These fuels are portable, and energy dense and can begin to replace gasoline and diesel fuels. All of this means driving more electric and fuel cell vehicles and fewer gasoline and diesel vehicles.
Lastly, rather than just blindly destroying and consuming our forests and coastal ecosystems, which worsen local micro-climates, destroy species and collapse fisheries, and emit carbon dioxide, we have to learn that we have to restore our forests, our biodiversity, and our coastal ecosystems. So, the changes that we need are eating more of a plant based diet and less meat (that causes deforestation) and releases methane from livestock and manure lagoons. Other changes are that we would recycle almost all of our paper, again cutting down on deforestation.
Although fossil fuel jobs are lost (and we need to do just transition activities to help the workers to transition), we will gain jobs in all of the activities outlined in the book: Renewable Energy (solar, wind, and geothermal), electrification of everything, expansion in electrical energy needed with electrification of everything, production of non-carbon fuels like Hydrogen and Ammonia that store renewable energy, big expansion of infrastructure needed to store, transport and supply these fuels, massive expansion of battery supply for both electrical energy production and for vehicles (cars, trucks and buses), massive expansion in livelihood activities related to forests (including ecologists), massive expansion in coastal ecosystems (civil engineers, construction, ecologists and in fisheries) and in a transformed agriculture that will become more skin intensive.
How can we keep working towards eco-sustainability when so many resources have been diverted towards fighting coronavirus?
As we can see, coronavirus has created a situation of high unemployment and in which there will be massive business closures. Then, as we begin to recover economically from coronavirus, we will find ourselves in a situation that many of the jobs will not come back. While there are certain to be efforts at traditional infrastructure repair and expansion through stimulus spending, that situation will present an excellent opportunity to “build back better” and redirect the stimulus spending efforts into all of the following activities that help global society and the US to transition to new Green Economy with lots of renewable energy and restored ecosystems.
Although fossil fuel jobs will lost if the plan is implemented as described in the book (and we need to do just transition activities to help the workers and companies transition to other activities and jobs, as outlined in the plan), we will gain jobs in all of the activities outlined in the book: Renewable Energy (solar, wind, and geothermal), electrification of everything, expansion in electrical energy needed with electrification of everything, production of non-carbon fuels like Hydrogen and Ammonia that store renewable energy, big expansion of infrastructure needed to store, transport and supply these fuels, massive expansion of battery supply for both electrical energy production and for vehicles (cars, trucks and buses), massive expansion in livelihood activities related to forests (including ecologists), massive expansion in coastal ecosystems (civil engineers, construction, ecologists and in fisheries) and in a transformed agriculture that will become more skin intensive.
Who else would you recommend we read or listen to on these issues? Who else is making sense right now?
Globally, we need to begin with the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and its leaders (including UN leaders such as the Secretary General), that have been guiding the nations of the world since 1992, when the Global warming Treaty was signed. Next we need to listen to and champion the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its leaders, who have been monitoring how the Climate Change problem has been developing globally, have been describing solutions, and have set the goals for greenhouse gas reductions by 2050 if the global average temperature rise is not to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
In the US, the people we need to listen to right now, who make sense are climate activists like Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein and Al Gore, as well as politicians like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Occasio-Cortez, Tom Steyer and Jay Inslee, who have proposed the right kinds of activities and plans for Climate change and energy. In terms of the organizations, the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA) has recommendations on renewable energy that are going in the right direction and needs to be communicated with — as also American Solar Energy Society (ASES), the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), and all of their international counterparts.
In terms of the countries, states and regions that are in the forefront, these are the European Union (of 28 nations — that has led in many areas but needs to up its ambition) , Iceland (use of Geothermal energy and Hydrogen produced from it) and California (that is leading in many of the areas outlined in the plan, but which needs to up its ambition). California organizations that are leading in technology areas are the Among developing nations, Costa Rica stands out as a shining example with 100% electrical renewable energy (mainly Hydroelectric and some Wind), in restoration and expansion of its forests (both cloud and tropical), and in the encouragement and eco-tourism of plant and animal species.
Hari Lamba’s Brighter Climate Futures will be available very soon from publisher Regent Press.
If you’re a research scientist or an environmental activist with a following, you may comment to receive a copy of Brighter Climate Futures for review or endorsement.
