Taking Steps Toward Carbon Zero
Anyone studying climate change-related CO2 production understands that trans-boundary emissions are inadequately accounted for. Those are the emissions emitted by the airplanes that bring tourists to Sonoma Valley hotels, restaurants and wineries. They include the internal combustion engine emissions that out-of-county tourists generate getting to our wineries in cars, trucks and busses. Presumably they also include the emissions generated in the transport of Sonoma Valley wine to every out-of-county or out-of-state destination at which it is ultimately consumed.
It is wise to be reminded that our accounting of fossil fuel emissions is imperfect, incomplete and that it therefore contributes to an inaccurate understanding of our attempts to reduce atmospheric CO2.
A recent commentary submitted to the Sun did just that, suggesting that the Sonoma City Council may have erred in not considering the issue while permitting a new hotel that will attract out-of-state tourists. But it seemed to us to be an inadequate and dubiously effective measure of environmental purity, and accurately measuring trans-boundary emissions at the level of a Sonoma hotel or winery or drive-through visit is improbable if not impossible. Still, the question demands to be answered, what can any of us do, individually, or as members of an aware and politically engaged community, to lower the production of atmospheric CO2?
We already know that roughly 58 percent of Sonoma County’s total emissions in 2022 were transportation related. (Nationally, that figure was 39 percent in 2023.) So one step we can take locally is drive electric cars. The problem with that solution is cost; electric cars are still out of reach for many of us and while production and sales of EV autos has increased dramatically, they still account for only 6.8 percent of new vehicle sales, as of May 2024. So that’s not a quick fix. But there is one really inexpensive, instantly effective action we can all take: drive less. The COVID shutdown demonstrated the benefit of that strategy. So, every time you have the impulse to drive somewhere, ask first if you could walk, ride a bike, or consolidate a trip with friends or family.
What else can we do by taking personal initiative?
Roughly 20 percent of U.S. carbon emissions come from our homes, which means heating, cooling and lighting. Which makes going solar an eminently logical consideration. If you think you can’t afford solar installation, you may be wrong. The Sonoma County Climate Action and Resiliency Division is a useful resource that can help you evaluate a number of grant, rebate, and financing programs related to energy efficiency, sustainability, and resilience. And the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program (SCEIP) can provide financing for solar installations with no capital outlay and repayment spread across 10 or more years, while the savings in utility fees help amortize the cost. Home insulation, dual-pane windows, heat pumps and other infrastructure improvements can dramatically improve home energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Almost all of us are proceeding into the climate change future without significantly adapting our lifestyles to accommodate current climate reality. And, of course, there is a far more radical reality with epic consequences looming on the global horizon that few if any economists want to confront. And that is the absurd and persistent fiction that the global economy can only survive with infinite growth, which requires the infinite consumption of finite natural resources. David Wallace-Wells tells us in “Uninhabitable Earth” that the limits of fossil capitalism will be accelerated by the Impacts of an overheating Earth, resulting in a shattered global economy.
Meanwhile, Rowan Hooper tells us, in his book “How To Save The World For Just a Trillion Dollars,” that eliminating global carbon fuel subsidies would reduce GHG production by 25 percent. Seems like fiddling with increments of trans-boundary carbon emissions pales by comparison. Would we not be better served by a ground-up demand for the kind of trillion-dollar global investment Rowan Hooper suggests could get us to carbon zero?
