Here Is What Will Make You Optimistic About Fighting Climate Change

tech.hindustantimes.com:

There’s no denying that a lot of the news about the climate crisis is bad. While the threat of water shortages looms in parts of South Africa, a brutal heat wave in China has turned deadly and Europe is suffering through its own blistering heat wave. For a lot of people, this is stressful. According to a 2019 survey by the American Psychological Association, two-thirds of participants reported suffering from climate anxiety.

But Alexander Gard-Murray derives some optimism from the fact that so many people are worrying about the crisis. A postdoctoral research associate at Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab, he says all the added angst actually means 'a lot more people are really aware and really working hard on this.”

Gard-Murray recently launched the Climate Opportunity Map. This interactive tool lets users see examples of immediate benefits where they live—in the form of new jobs or health benefits—that could come from ditching fossil fuels. The advantages are all estimated, and are based on projections and data largely sourced from academic and government research.

Gard-Murray spoke with Bloomberg Green about the map, clean energy jobs, and how acting on climate change isn’t just about protecting glaciers or helping future generations. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

There are a lot of reasons to be depressed about climate change. So what’s your pitch for optimism?

I am more optimistic today than when I started working on climate. When I started working on climate change 10 years ago, we obviously had more time to act than we do today and the warnings, in some cases, were less dire than they are today. But I think politicians were taking it way less seriously a decade ago and I also think that