Al Gore was in Paris two weeks ago. Me too. I was excited like a fan girl – and reminded of my age – those younger than 40 had no idea who I was talking about. It is 25 years since Gore lost the US presidential election to George W Bush. How different the world might have been. While Iraq and Afghanistan no longer dominate headlines, Ukraine, Gaza, wild weather and record temperatures now compete with crazy pronouncements from the White House. Was 2000 a turning point? Could Al Gore’s election have led us into a brighter and more sustainable future? We will never know, but as the elders say, the best time to plant a tree is 25 years ago; the next best time is now.
Al and I
In any case, from 28-30 March both Al and I were in Paris for the Climate Reality Training. He was running it, I was participating (along with 800 others, including my 23-year-old son). It is ten years since the historic Paris Agreement aiming to limit global warming to 1.5°C. I guess Al, me, and everyone else were asking ourselves the same question: what do we do now? Now that the planet has already warmed by 1.5°C .
Since 2000 Gore has built an organisation giving climate activists the basic science. Following the logic that if people understand the science, they will act accordingly. This is a battle I’m sure he thought could be won in 25 years. It is clear the battle is far from over. Despite all this the enthusiasm in the room beneath the Louvre was palpable. Day one, subdued and serious, people sat through an overlong presentation of the state of the climate today (Al is a confirmed science nerd). Day two there was cheering, wolf whistling, and standing ovations for climate negotiating heroes Christiana Figueres and Laurence Tubiana. By Sunday morning it felt like a huge climate mass. Filled with hope that the exponential curve of solutions (huge investment in renewable energy, the Exponential Roadmap for Natural Climate Solutions) can catch and outpace the exponential curve of destruction (while coal burning has plateaued, oil and natural gas consumption continue to rise).
It’s not just about science
A partial answer to our collective question became clear. Since 2015 behavioural scientists have shown that it is not about the hard science, i.e. the physical reality. Things now rest on the human sciences, the so-called soft sciences. It sounds easier (no maths) but it’s actually really difficult. Even when we understand the physical science, why can we not divert ourselves from the trajectory that sends us off the cliff? The human brain is an extraordinarily skilled denial machine. Cognitive dissonance is possible for a long time.
The world is too complex for us to take it all in, so we’ve become experts at taking the bits we need to survive and make our way (with a big emphasis on improving or maintaining our social status). The job of saving the planet now lies with the sociologists, the psychologists, and the political activists. And perhaps the green marketing experts, who combine all this to encourage action from us individually, that will then spur the collective. How to encourage the ultimate social animal, individually and collectively, into planet positive action?
Doom and gloom do not spur action, merely denial or despair. Hope that the battle can be won is what really engages people. That can be fuelled by focusing on all the extraordinary things that are already happening. The exponential curve of solutions. And by joining the fight, not just individually as I have always done, but collectively. That was the big takeaway from Paris 2025. I’m now officially an activist who is joining a group.
Saviour Trump?
Bizarrely the Trump administration may be an unlikely contributor to slowing or pausing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. There have been two pauses in the last 25 years. One following the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC), and the second in 2020-2021 during Covid. Economic growth is the main driver of emissions growth, and Trump’s tariffs may be as big a shock to the world economy as the GFC and Covid. Might Trump be nature’s way of forcing us to slow down?! Truly a mind-bending thought.
Dr Sian Grigg: PhD Macquarie University 2000-2005. Dr Grigg studied the development of a simple ocean-atmosphere-sea ice model of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) to investigate long -term climate variations.
This article appeared in print in Sustainability 2025 – a Byron Shire Echo supplement with issue 39.47.
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