{"id":12479,"date":"2017-07-11t15:39:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-11t15:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/qa-climate-scientist-jim-buizer-says-leaving-voluntary-accord-wont-matter\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07t19:39:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07t19:39:40","slug":"qa-climate-scientist-jim-buizer-says-leaving-voluntary-accord-wont-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/qa-climate-scientist-jim-buizer-says-leaving-voluntary-accord-wont-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"q&a: climate scientist jim buizer says leaving ‘voluntary’ accord won’t matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

planet forward advisory board member jim buizer is professor of climate adaptation in the school of natural resources and the environment and director of the climate adaptation and international development program in the institute of the environment at the university of arizona. buizer also previously was director of the climate and societal interactions division at the national oceanic and atmospheric administration (noaa) in washington, d.c.<\/p>\n

as a climate scientist, we asked buizer how he felt the withdrawal from the paris agreement would affect science studies and communication going forward. below is an edited version of his conversation with planet forward.<\/p>\n

planet forward: your work at the university is directly related to climate and climate change. how do you think leaving the paris accord will affect your work? <\/strong><\/p>\n

buizer: <\/strong>it\u2019s not going to affect it. other than having to answer questions about what i think. i actually found myself in a different spot than a lot of my colleagues \u2014 lonely in rooms … people were freaking out and i was actually glad. and, in fact, i found myself being hopeful that he would pull. and that was a weird place to be. it probably is counterintuitive to you.<\/p>\n

and here\u2019s why (i was in this mindset): the paris agreement is an accord \u2014 it\u2019s voluntary \u2014 it has been voluntary since the beginning and whether or not the country was going to meet its commitment \u2014 by the way were not on track, even with the obama efforts, to meet them. the voluntary commitment and being a signatory gave us a seat at the table and gave us a chance to develop leadership. it didn\u2019t mean that we were going to do anything about reducing greenhouse gases. the only thing that was required was a recording about 10 levels of carbon that each nation put forward.<\/p>\n

trump had already \u2014 over the last few months \u2014 begun gutting the laws and regulations that epa had, that obama had put in. so it wasn\u2019t going to make really any difference whether or not we were in the accord or not in the accord, whether we were going to reduce greenhouse gases \u2014 that was already happening.<\/p>\n

secondly, in a corollary, that\u2019s the bad news. nationally we were going to do whatever we were going to do no matter what. any chance that we have to reduce greenhouse gases doesn\u2019t happen really on a national level; it happens because of companies like exxon or bp, or states like california, or individuals like you and i are doing things. because we\u2019re in \u2014 we believe we\u2019re in. we\u2019re in this big challenge and we\u2019re going to do what we can do. so it doesn\u2019t happen at a national level.<\/p>\n

the other thing is, i was aware it\u2019s going to take something like 4-5 years to actually be out (of the paris agreement). it\u2019ll be really interesting to see what happens in, say, november or october 2020, the debate is going to be \u201cwhich side of this are you on?\u201d we\u2019ll still be in the accord, having made moves to be out of it, but four years from now is 2021. so, the reason why, i thought, well, mother nature\/father atmosphere \u2014 it\u2019s really going to make no difference whether we are in or out. what is going to matter is whether or not we have a seat at the table, and whether or not we can demonstrate leadership as a nation. so, as an american, that\u2019s sad. …<\/p>\n

for my work specifically \u2014 the impact is actually not about the accord \u2014 my work is being affected by his budget, with him gutting all climate budgets, because that stops the work. \u2026 it\u2019s about the work that gets done, helping people understand the impacts and vulnerability and what we can do about climate variability and change… that work can\u2019t continue. and we support a lot of students. i have four students \u2014 graduate research assistants \u2014 who are getting their ph.d.s with this funding. that\u2019s where it\u2019s going to affect the work. i\u2019ll have a tougher time getting the necessary funding, certainly from the federal government, so i\u2019m seeking other sources.<\/p>\n

q: what challenges do you think the academic and scientific community faces in the coming years as a result of the withdrawal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

a: <\/strong>\u2026 we (used to be) listened to. we were invited to the table. we were doing the inviting \u2014 we had a seat at the head<\/em> of the table. i\u2019m imagining a future where that is no longer true. because why should they? we\u2019re seated leadership \u2014 we\u2019re \u201cjust another country\u201d now. in fact, we\u2019re the largest undeveloping<\/em> country there is.<\/p>\n

look around infrastructure, positions on nationalism, and weirdness in government \u2014 it looks an awful lot like (undeveloped) countries and the way those countries govern themselves. \u2026 it will be a while, but that\u2019s the direction we\u2019re heading. social justice issues, and governance and all the broader issues \u2014 the corruption. there\u2019s a list out there done by the un body that ranks the countries and corruption and we keep going down and down and down on that list. … in literacy and education \u2014 literacy, corruption, life span. everything that\u2019s considered to be a developed country \u2014 we are going down.<\/p>\n

i certainly can\u2019t walk into a room and can\u2019t be sitting at the head of the table seat. the europeans will be sitting in that seat or the chinese will be sitting in that seat.<\/p>\n

q: how can academia bridge the divide on climate in america?<\/strong><\/p>\n

a: <\/strong>sure. but not in the same way we thought it was going to be in the past. we had the finest (universities) \u2026 if you look at the shanghai rankings, u.s. universities are something like 16 out of the top 20; we have the best higher ed. universities and colleges are really strong in the u.s. and revered and respected. in coming to the debate, we have legitimacy as a place. but where i say, \u201cmaybe not so much, or we have to change our way\u201d \u2026 in the past our legitimacy was based on the rigor of our science.<\/p>\n

as an aside, for something for ncse (the national council for science and the environment), i was adding the nobel prizes \u2026 and since world war ii we, the u.s., in the sciences \u2014 not peace or music or art \u2014 we have as many nobel prizes as the next seven countries that follow. so there is some credibility about what we do in science and engineering.<\/p>\n

so i don\u2019t think that is necessarily what needs to happen for the political divide \u2014 it has to be storytelling; it has to be communication; it has to be understanding that we as scientists might be good at piling up knowledge and proving fact. but we\u2019re not really as good at communicating.<\/p>\n

it struck me that some people park climate change \u2014 something that\u2019s fact \u2014 in the same place that we have to park our faith.<\/p>\n

q: how does leaving the paris accord change the way we tell the climate story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

a:<\/strong> i think we shouldn\u2019t let paris distract us from what we\u2019re saying and how we\u2019re doing it. more than ever we have to come at it with sort of clarity of message and steptoitness – and all the stuff i said at the beginning, about how it doesn\u2019t really matter. it doesn<\/em>\u2019t<\/em> really matter, but only if we keep trump\u2019s feet to the fire. we\u2019ve gotta keep the conversation going … and we need to make sure the rest of the world knows that our president doesn\u2019t speak for us.<\/p>\n

and that\u2019s why i love the, yes, \u201cwe are still in\u201d \u2014 i\u2019ve been seeing that all over the place. and california doing what they\u2019re going to do, saying, we\u2019re going to go talk to the chinese, since we can\u2019t talk to our own white house. so i think that kind of activity, as far as messaging \u2014 most of what we need to do is actually use our own tactics. so if they say it\u2019s all about the jobs, then it\u2019s absolutely all about the jobs. they said we added something like 55,000 jobs in coal in this last year. well, then i\u2019d like to know what was added in renewables, etc.<\/p>\n

and here\u2019s another one \u2014 you want to save money on healthcare? \u2026 how strong is a healthy country \u2014 is it because of healthcare or the quality of air? imagine if we\u2019re not burning any fossil fuels in this country; that\u2019s one way to save it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the planet forward advisory board member explains his unconventional opinion about how he felt toward the withdrawal from the paris agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9205,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4916],"tags":[144,716,3828,354],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-12479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-expert-voices","tag-paris-climate-accord","tag-we-are-still-in"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nq&a: climate scientist jim buizer says leaving 'voluntary' accord won't matter - planet forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/qa-climate-scientist-jim-buizer-says-leaving-voluntary-accord-wont-matter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"q&a: climate scientist jim buizer says leaving 'voluntary' accord won't matter - 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