Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, has a new take on how to save the world from a changing climate: We need to approach it the same way communities in the Middle Ages approached cathedrals, the Washington Post explains.
As an example, the Post cites Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It's a soaring 10-plus-story building and was described by author Victor Hugo as a "symphony in stone." But like Rome, it wasn't built in a day. In fact, the construction of the exterior took place over centuries and several generations — and the cathedral is still a work in progress.
No one who started the building could expect to see it completed. Yet entire communities of skilled laborers and artists spent lifetimes pouring their best work into this structure.
As Leiserowitz explained, we need "cathedral projects" in the modern world when it comes to our warming planet.
The world has been dramatically altered by human industry over the last two or three centuries. Air pollution that has trapped heat inside the atmosphere has raised the Earth's temperature, affecting wildlife and even landscapes as glaciers and ice caps have melted. Other forms of pollution have overtaken the water, and the heat and toxic chemicals have had a devastating impact on wildlife. All of these factors damage human health and harm people's livelihoods.
As the Post reveals, not all of these changes are reversible. Of the ones that are, many will take decades or more to resolve.
To get there, we need people to buy in on climate projects that may not bear fruit in their lifetimes.
"The climate needs big, public, audacious goals that everyone can contribute to," Leiserowitz told the Post. "Cathedrals were not completed in the lifetime of anyone starting them, but communities bought into these projects."
The good news is that with that kind of sustained effort, recovery is possible. The Post highlights an analysis by the International Energy Agency, which estimated that it would take 2% of annual global GDP in added spending to switch to an eco-friendly energy system by 2050.
In the United States, for example, we've started installing electric vehicle chargers nationwide to reduce our reliance on polluting combustion engines. International treaties have been created to protect natural areas and stop air pollution.
Still, projects like reforesting the Amazon or restoring the ice caps will be measured in generations, not years. If you'd like to know how you can help, check out this guide for places to start. You can switch from gas appliances to electric, drive an EV, start supporting greener businesses, and even take local climate action.
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