The National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee has released a Draft Climate Assessment report. I've started but not finished it. It does, however, seem to have clearly moved on from the 'well, disclaim, scientist are uncertain, it's controversial blah blah' to a much more clear 'this is happening, what are the consequences and what should we do about it'.
Some conversations this week around relationships between sustainability and making money and who makes the decisions about, say, what kind of energy sources we use. Reiterating the idea that 'regular people' feel and/or are fundamentally powerless. Also bringing up the idea that 'regular people' won't get on board with something unless they see a concrete benefit to themselves. Both of these ideas are problematic but important - I don't believe that most individuals are ultimately powerless and also driven only by a limited short-term semi-rational self-interest - but we do need to feel that our actions have a meaningful impact, and that those actions are (in some way, tangible or emotional, short-term or long-term) beneficial. And it would help if those feelings are backed up by reality.
Also reading that book on sustainable design, and thinking about manufacturing processes and how invisible they can be. For example, if I have an unmarked wooden box sitting on my desk, I can't tell by looking at it how it got here. Where did the wood come from, and how was it logged? What processes were used in turning the wood into a box? Where did the waste from the manufacturing process go? How was it transported from its origin to my desk? In some cases, I could do a little research project and find that out, but fundamentally all of that background is invisible (and suffers from being boring, especially if you were to apply it to all the objects you come across), and in some cases what is visible may be misleading.
(A napkin sitting on my desk is printed with "recycle. 100% recycled." It's also brown with green ink.)
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