Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics This is the work of our lifetime: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson urges action after new UN climate report A United Nations report has found that the world will warm to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Climate solutions advocate Ayana Elizabeth Johnson urges a quicker implementation of known strategies - and determination rather than despair. World This is the work of our lifetime: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson urges action after new UN climate report September 5, 20265:01 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Joel Rose , Henry Larson , Sarah Robbins This is the work of our lifetime: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson urges action after new UN climate report Listen · 7:03 7:03 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5954264/nx-s1-9915724" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript A United Nations report has found that the world will warm to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Climate solutions advocate Ayana Elizabeth Johnson urges a quicker implementation of known strategies - and determination rather than despair. Sponsor Message Transcript
JOEL ROSE, HOST:
This week, the United Nations report found that the world will warm to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the next few years. This is a big deal. We've known we've been on track for that threshold, but this report is far more definitive than any data we have had so far. The bleak status update comes just days after a melting glacier collapse in Nepal and Tibet, killed more than 1,000 people with thousands still missing.
But the U.N. report, called Limiting Overshoot, also said there is still a path for return. So we've called up Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, founder of the Urban Ocean Lab think tank and a conservation strategist. She has written a book all about climate solutions called "What If We Get It Right?" and is the host of a podcast of the same name with Bill McKibben. Welcome to the program.
AYANA ELIZABETH JOHNSON: Thanks for having me.
ROSE: The 1.5 degree limit was the target agreed to in the 2015 global agreement signed in Paris by just about every country in the world to limit climate change. Tell me what your reaction was to this U.N. report this week.
JOHNSON: We've been predicting this for years, that at the rate we're burning fossil fuels and destroying ecosystems and releasing all these greenhouse gases, this was almost inevitable. So I'm not surprised, but I'm really glad to see all the information distilled in this U.N. report because I think it makes it clear just how urgent it is.
ROSE: It's fair to say that the solutions to limiting the climate crisis are already pretty well known. The big one is to reduce fossil fuel pollution, which warms the planet. What are the conditions for getting us unstuck from where we are?
JOHNSON: Unfortunately, I think a lot of that has to do with policy because relying on the goodwill of fossil fuel executives doesn't seem to be a terribly effective strategy. And it was really wonderful to see the U.N. be extremely clear about that in a way that they haven't really in previous reports. They've often tiptoed around even using the term fossil fuels in the past. And here, in this new report, they're extremely clear not only that we need to phase out fossil fuels, but also that the existing pledges from individual countries about their emission reductions are insufficient, and the implementation of those weak pledges is also weak. They're really calling on all of us, all nations in the world, to step it up.
ROSE: What needs to happen in order to bring about that kind of policy change?
JOHNSON: That's sort of a social science and culture change question. We're here in the U.S. just two months before the midterm elections. Obviously, who we elect has a huge impact on what kinds of policies are possible to put in place and how they're implemented and how those things are funded.
ROSE: What are the practical solutions then, from your vantage point, as we near and then pass this 1.5 degree change?
JOHNSON: Everything from electrifying our homes and investing in public transit and protecting and restoring ecosystems to green roofs and wind turbines and anything you can think of. It's just a matter of speed. We've been too slow, and now the risks are so much higher. And of course, the impacts of climate change are not distributed evenly, as we've just seen in Nepal and Tibet, places that have an incredibly low carbon footprint and are bearing the brunt of these sorts of things.
ROSE: You're a scientist, and much of your work has focused on the importance of studying oceans as part of addressing the climate crisis. Why? What's the connection there?
JOHNSON: Well, I studied oceans simply because I was enamored with them and thought it could use more advocates. I mean, I was reading this U.N. report and looking to the parts about what the risks are for coral reefs, the ecosystem that I studied for my PhD, thinking about fisheries collapsing on coral reefs that hundreds of millions of people around the world depend on for their food security, thinking about all the jobs that are at risk there, thinking about the loss of coastal ecosystems due to development, due to sea level rise and storms. We are, like, really in a lot of trouble.
But it's also really important to note that the ocean is a source of climate solutions as well from offshore renewable energy, restoring coastal ecosystems that can protect us from storm surges as well as absorb often more carbon than a tropical forest. I know the ocean is an incredibly important part of this climate puzzle.
ROSE: I want to ask you about this Venn diagram that is in your book - it's on your website - which is sort of a guide to figure out what each person can do individually regarding the climate crisis. It's widely used by teachers as an educational game. Can you sort of describe how it looks and what it's for?
JOHNSON: Picture a Venn diagram, three overlapping circles - one is, what are you good at? So what are the skills, resources and networks? Like, what can you bring to the table specifically? The second would be, what work needs doing? So what are the climate and justice solutions you want to be working on? There are hundreds to choose from. And then the third circle is what brings you joy, so sources of satisfaction and delight. Just, like, what gets you out of bed in the morning? Because this is the work of our lifetimes, it's really important to not be miserable while we're doing it. There's plenty of ways to participate. And so I encourage people to think about what is at the intersection of those three circles for them. What are you good at? What work needs doing? And what brings you joy?
ROSE: I get the sense from this conversation and from your work in general that you are a hopeful person. But what keeps you up at night about the climate crisis? What worries you?
JOHNSON: I would say I'm definitely not an optimist. I think because I'm a scientist, I absolutely understand the projections and the odds here and how high the risks are. But I'm mistaken for being hopeful because I focus on the solutions, because all these increments really matter when we're dealing with a challenge this large.
And so the thing that's been keeping me up, literally last night, was reading about the climate impact of the tech industry and thinking about the new data out of Bloomberg that just building out the data sensors that are planned will increase greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity center by 20- to 30% at a time we need to be rapidly decreasing. I think we're in this really intense moment where we have to think about, like, what is technology for? And how do we actually harness it for solutions instead of, in this case, making the problem so much worse needlessly?
ROSE: We have been speaking with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, author and host of the podcast "What If We Get It Right?" Thank you. Thank you for your time.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
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