USA TODAY International Edition
Greenpeace chief finds hope amid devastation
Thinks studies of climate will help to effect change
It may sound counterintuitive, but Jennifer Morgan finds hope in new scientific studies that more precisely link devastating storms, fires and floods to climate change.
Morgan is the executive director of Greenpeace International, one of the world’s most prominent environmental groups. When she reads about studies showing how much more likely Hurricane Harvey was because of rising temperatures — or what percentage of California’s recent drought can be attributed to human emissions — she sees a tool to hold corporations and governments accountable for polluting the atmosphere.
“You now see a whole range of different litigation cases occurring around the world that are working to hold the major polluters accountable, whether it be the youth in Oregon, or the Philippines human rights commission, or the City of New York lodging a case against the five biggest oil companies,” Morgan told USA TODAY. “That is truly disruptive and I think gives me hope that we can accelerate the pace of change.”
Those legal cases revolve around the idea that fossil-fuel companies and countries that have promoted fossilfuel extraction have a legal responsibility to address the damage they have caused through their contributions to climate change. It’s a legal theory supporters have compared to the lawsuits that forced tobacco companies to dramatically curtail their advertising and pay states to cover some of the medical expenses incurred by smokers.
In Oregon, where 21 children and teenagers are suing the federal government over climate change, an appellate court ruled this month that the lawsuit could proceed on merits, denying a request from the Justice Department to dismiss the case upfront.
USA TODAY interviewed Morgan about the Trump administration’s policies, the role of corporations and governments, and the power of regular people to make change. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Question: After a year of climatefueled storms, fires and floods, what gives you hope?
Morgan: I’d say two things. One is how many individuals there are around the world who are fighting and active, whether it be to try to get solar power into their homes and in their schools, whether it be working to stop a local coal-fired power plant, change what they buy, what they eat.
Another thing is the uptake of renewable energy and the fall of prices. That gives me hope that we can scale up, particularly in places where there are no energy sources yet, with renewables rather than fossil fuels.
Q: Do you think the world would be doing more to confront climate change if it weren’t for the influence of corporations?
Morgan: Corporate influence is a massive obstacle, and I think we’re in a moment where we’re seeing around the world that people are losing their faith in institutions like government. In the U.S., just look at who’s funding the various elections. Even Germany, where you have a revolving door between the auto industry and the government, you can look at the corruption that occurs. It creates a very skewed power dynamic.
Q: Is that why you think there needs to be disruption, like the New York City and Oregon lawsuits?
Morgan: At this point in time, yeah. What you’re seeing is people and elected officials like mayors taking things into their own hands because they just can’t wait anymore. In the U.S., to wait until the next administration, we just don’t have that time.
The thing for people to realize is that climate impacts cost a lot of money. If you take the intensity of hurricanes, or if you just take sea-level rise and look at the costs — Munich Re, the reinsurer, estimated it at $135 billion in uninsured losses from natural disasters in 2017. Who pays for that? That’s what New York said: The citizens of New York shouldn’t pay for those impacts because they didn’t cause them.
Q: Do you think cities and states can really tackle climate change on their own?
Morgan: There is a responsibility of the federal government to act, and I think just because this president is saying what he’s saying, it doesn’t remove that responsibility. The world still expects the U.S. to act.
And then I think it’s really important to go into the details of where states and cities can actually play a big role. I think where you’re seeing a lot of that is on the energy front and on the renewables side. But it doesn’t let the White House off the hook.
Q: What do you think is the biggest thing people can do to fight climate change?
Morgan: They can eat less and better meat and dairy. And it doesn’t mean becoming vegan overnight; it means eating less and better. It means being aware of what they’re buying, how they’re getting to work.
And people need to communicate with their politicians.
I would say if they can do one thing, they should become politically active in their communities and communicate with their senators, their mayors, what kind of world they want to see, how they want to get to work, that they want to put renewables on their roof in an affordable way.