The Big Fix

January 1, 2022

Energy Innovation CEO Harvey and award-winning New York Times reporter Gillis join forces to show how we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero and save the earth, focusing on seven key areas where we-can-do-it change will have the biggest effect. Those areas include electricity production, transportation, buildings, industry, urbanization, use of land, and investment in promising new green technologies. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

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May 30, 2022
Harvey (Designing Climate Solutions), CEO of an environmental policy firm, and New York Times reporter Gillis make fighting climate change feel a bit less intimidating in this down-to-earth look at ways the average citizen can make a difference. While they encourage green consumer choices (“recycling diligently, installing smart thermostats, eating less meat”), the authors are realistic about the limited impact of such steps. Instead, they argue that individuals must become “green citizens” who focus “on a relatively small number of public policies that can, over time, bring about sweeping change.” Such policies include designing urban spaces that discourage car use, incentivizing the implementation of climate-friendly technologies, and putting smart electrical grids in place. As for realizing such goals, the authors recommend attending public utility companies’ planning hearings, calling representatives to advocate for clean energy, and organizing behind new transit taxes when they’re on ballots. They cite numerous successes, including a push by Arizona students to have their school board buy electric buses, while still being mindful of political realities in the deeply partisan moment. This is a useful guide for budding activists.

August 1, 2022
As the world's temperature climbs, many people want to make a difference but are stymied about where to start. Here, Harvey and Gillis' goal is to "lay out grassroots political action" in order to create green citizens more so than green consumers. The authors stress that pressure must be brought to bear on power structures to effect real change. They urge readers to talk to utility boards about wind and solar energy, impress on legislators that better emissions standards for cars and power plants cannot wait, and demand of urban planners that cities be made pleasant, livable places (and remind them that building more highways destroys downtowns and decimates poorer neighborhoods). Further, heavy reliance on fertilizers in farming poisons rivers and creates dead zones in oceans. Collective action on all this and more is the way to influence public policy, the authors assert. They also discuss the possibilities and drawbacks of both hydrogen and nuclear power, carbon capture and storage, and geothermal energy. More call-to-action than how-to and overall worth studying.

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