After last week’s visit to ISO New England, I had renewable energy on my mind. The environmental theme continued this past Wednesday when I visited the Appalachian Mountain Club headquarters on Joy Street (Beacon Hill) in Boston, Massachusetts. I hooked up with some like-minded individuals to discuss AMC happenings and learn a bit too. Don’t think that everyone who loves AMC thinks totally alike. We explored a variety of topics and the entire spectrum of opinions were shared. For the second time in a week, I heard from various experts on the subject of climate change and renewable energy technology. The discussions were stimulating.
Particularly important was a panel discussion with Paul Cunha, AMC’s Director of Facilities, Kevin Knobloch, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Roger Stephenson, Executive Vice President for Programs at Clean Air-Cool Planet. Each spoke about their work and their own efforts to shed light on the climate change debate, before fielding questions from the advisors.
There is a lot of disagreement, even amongst environmentalists about the pressures that our environment faces. Noted environmentalist, Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, wrote a March editorial that has raised eyebrows. It was first brought to my attention at the ISO New England Energy Summit, and again came up at the AMC meeting. McKibben has sounded the alarm and is willing to set aside some of his previous issues in an effort to accelerate the move to renewable energy technologies. I’ve been moving more in his direction lately.
I believe that we have to measure the trade-offs and take advantage of the current momentum in an effort to rapidly reduce our carbon (fossil fuel) consumption, while ramping up the investment in renewables. Every business, every household, every person, must apply themselves to learn more about these issues. We all have to change the way we live now.
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