by Auden Schendler, via EDC Magazine

Sometimes a failure can arrive disguised as a success. For example, DDT. The A-bomb. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The Industrial Revolution (if it ends up destroying civilization with runaway climate change). Highly profitable energy efficiency.

Wait—energy efficiency? Isn’t that what’s going to help save humanity?

Well, yes. Efficiency is one of the key climate solutions, according to virtually anyone thinking about the problem. Joe Romm, of the blog “Climate Progress,” points out that it’s cheap, easily and rapidly deployable, abundant, and therefore arguably the biggest carbon-free resource we have. Studies confirming this abound, whether from Mckinsey[1] or PricewaterhouseCoopers[2].

So how can energy efficiency, especially the really profitable kind, be a failure dressed as success?

Here’s how: Successful energy efficiency programs almost always mean “picking the low-hanging fruit” or “cream skimming.” This means implementing the most cost-effective retrofits—upgrades that offer the largest and quickest return on investment (ROI). This sort of action is praised as “win-win” by consultants. You save tons of energy and money, and do good for the environment. What’s not to like?

The problem is that even though “picking the low-hanging fruit” implies there’s more work to be done (now get the higher stuff!), nobody ever gets the ladder. Progress typically stops with the out-of-the-park home run project that was almost too good to be true, like a lighting retrofit. The result is that only the highest ROI projects comprise the entirety of an organization’s or household’s energy efficiency program, achieving, say, 5 or 10 percent of the total available carbon footprint reductions (if you’re lucky) and leaving the rest on the table.

While climate scientists tell us we need to cut CO2 emissions 80 percent globally by 2050 if we hope to stabilize warming, our energy efficiency efforts typically stop at a fraction of their full potential.[3] The result: While property owners save money, help reduce emissions and get great PR helping to “save the planet,” collectively we fail in the ultimate goal of stopping or abating climate change. This state of affairs remains true even though many leaders know that runaway warming will hurt their business or community, or could eventually render them unviable.

This cream skimming problem has been documented by The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s 2009 Survey of Corporate Energy Efficiency Strategies,[4] which showed an average corporate energy savings target of 20 percent: “Simple payback criteria were mostly three years or less, though two were as high as five years.” Even at five years, that’s the definition of cream skimming.

Cream skimming isn’t all bad. I’ve argued that purely cream-skimming projects can sometimes help grease the skids for future, bigger energy efficiency work by educating how incredibly profitable efficiency can be.[5] After a few successes, managers might as well happily move forward with deeper (and typically lower return and longer tenor) investments.

But my experience suggests that while that may happen sometimes, the mainstream reality is less rosy. In fact, picking the low-hanging fruit, while cutting emissions and creating great PR, actually hurts deeper sustainability and prevents firms, governments and households from undertaking more comprehensive efficiency.

Why it Can Be Harmful

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“The worst U.S. drought in decades has deepened again,” reports the AP. “Scientists struggled for an explanation other than a simple lack of rain.”

Over half of the continguous U.S. has been in a drought since summer. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor report showed a rise in the extent and increases in the severity of drought:

The report showed that 60.1 percent of the lower 48 states were in some form of drought as of Tuesday, up from 58.8 percent the previous week. The amount of land in extreme or exceptional drought — the two worst classifications — increased from 18.3 percent to 19.04 percent.

The AP has a bizarre form of balance in the story, I guess so those suffering in the drought won’t feel as bad:

A federal meteorologist cautioned that Wednesday’s numbers shouldn’t be alarming, saying that while drought usually subsides heading into winter, the Drought Monitor report merely reflects a week without rain in a large chunk of the country.

Seriously! I feel so much less alarmed knowing that the drought worsened only because we had “a week without rain in a large chunk of the country.”

“The places that are getting precipitation, like the Pacific Northwest, are not in drought, while areas that need the rainfall to end the drought aren’t getting it,” added Richard Heim, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center. “I would expect the drought area to expand again” by next week since little rain is forecast in the Midwest in coming days.

How reassuring!

Lou Leonard, via HuffPost

We think of Thanksgiving as an eating holiday. And why not? One thought of Mom’s candied sweet potatoes and my salivary glands are off to the races. But Thanksgiving is about something more, isn’t it? The average American travels nearly 600 miles for Thanksgiving and — my mom’s sweet potatoes notwithstanding — we are not traveling that far for the food.

We endure crowded airports and screaming kids in the backseat, so we can spend time reconnecting with family and friends. While our mouths are full some of the time, more often we are using them to share our stories from the previous months. So Thanksgiving is really a talking holiday; a time when we slow down and spend the day in conversation.

What if we spent a little of our “talking holiday” this year speaking with each other about our warming planet and what we can do about it? There’s plenty to talk about, from the scary (Sandy, the record drought in the Midwest affecting 80 percent of U.S. agricultural land) to the hopeful (America’s first major climate law coming online in California on New Year’s Day or a Motor Trend Car of the Year that for the first time doesn’t run on gasoline).

These kinds of conversations would make a big difference. Over the last two years of climate silence in America, it has largely become socially taboo to even mention this enormous growing threat to humankind. That silence was broken, at least temporarily, three weeks ago as climate disruption roared back into our public discourse in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Suddenly, newspapers, business magazines and even politicians began to talk again about the risks we face and the solutions within our grasp, if we take practical steps to prepare.

Can we take the next step and begin to talk about global warming socially? For many, the years of not talking about climate change have left us a little out of practice and even uneasy about broaching the subject, especially in the mixed company of our holiday dinners. This uneasiness is completely understandable. And we must get over it.

Only if we quickly begin a major conversation in America about climate disruption can we give our leaders the courage to act. And what better time to launch this conversation than on America’s “talking holiday.” So I encourage you to join me in taking a Thanksgiving climate pledge: “I will talk to at least one person during Thanksgiving about my concerns around global warming and my hopes for a safer future.”

“But wait,” you say, “how do I start a conversation about climate change?” Well, if you can be certain of anything it’s that folks will talk about the weather. So how about going a little further and talked about our weirdly changing weather?

“Okay,” you say, “but I’m not a climate expert. I don’t want to get into a debate with Uncle Howard about peak oil and volcanic eruptions?” So don’t. These conversations don’t need to be scientific debates. The best advice I’ve heard is to tell your own story, explain why you are worried about a future where we fail to address climate change. Resist the impulse to debate and instead really listen to what your aunt/brother-in-law/high school friend has to say. Rather than questioning science, is she really just worried that there’s nothing we can do to about climate change? And most importantly, this isn’t about “winning” or convincing someone that you’re right. By meeting your climate conversation partner where they are and truly listening, you can begin to break down our collective anxiety around talking about global warming.

But if you’re still looking for a little confidence boost heading into that after-dinner chat with Cousin Ray, here are a few myth-busters:

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