Rafe Pomerance

Last updated
Rafe Pomerance
Born (1946-07-19) July 19, 1946 (age 77)
EducationB.A. Cornell University
SpouseLenore Markwett Pomerance
Children3

Rafe Pomerance (born July 19, 1946) is an American environmentalist. He is a Distinguished Senior Arctic Policy Fellow of the Woodwell Climate Research Center. [1] Since the late 1970s, he has played a key role in raising awareness of the risks of climate change for United States policy-makers. [2] His role during the period 1979 to 1989 is detailed in the book Losing Earth, by Nathaniel Rich.

Contents

Early life and education

Pomerance grew up in Cos Cob, Connecticut, [3] the son of peace activist Josephine (née Wertheim) [4] and architect Ralph Pomerance. [5] He is a grandson of Maurice Wertheim and Alma Morgenthau, and great-grandson of Henry Morgenthau Sr.

He graduated from Cornell University in 1968, with a B.A. in History. [6]

Career

After graduating from Cornell University, Pomerance served in the poverty program as a VISTA volunteer working for the Virginia Welfare Rights Organization. He began his environmental career in 1972 working for the Urban Environment Conference [7] under Senator Phil Hart where they worked on issues of lead in gasoline and reforming the highway trust fund (to include support of mass transit). In 1973 he launched the National Clean Air Coalition and became its coordinator for 5 years. [8]

He joined the Friends of the Earth in 1975 lobbying for clean air [9] and was its president for four years until 1984. [10] From 1986 to 1993, he served as a Senior Associate for climate change and ozone depletion [11] at the World Resources Institute. [12]

In 1993, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment and Development under U.S. president Bill Clinton. [13] In this role he was involved in negotiations on forestry, GMO's, the international coral reef initiative, and climate change [14] leading to the Kyoto Protocol. He left the department in 1999 and founded a non-profit, Climate Policy Center [15] where he led a successful effort to get the Federal Government to found the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, which was signed into law in 2007.

He is an advisor to Rethink Energy Florida and their project "Keep Florida Above Water". [16]

From 2015 to 2019 he served on the Polar Research Board of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2014 he launched Arctic 21, [17] [18] a network of organizations committed to communicating the unraveling of the Arctic. [19]

He has served as President of the Board of American Rivers, Chairman of the Board of the League of Conservation Voters, and the Potomac Conservancy.

Climate change activism

Pomerance first became interested in climate change after reading a 1978 EPA report, "Environmental Assessment of Coal Liquefaction: Annual Report". The EPA report mentions "a report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) which warns that continued use of fossil fuels as a primary energy source for more than 20 to 30 more years could result in increased atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. The greenhouse effect and associate global temperature increase and resulting climate changes could, according to NAS be both 'significant and damaging.'" [20] Reading these words led Pomerance to contact a number of scientists for answers. He teamed up with scientist Gordon MacDonald and began scheduling meetings with government officials to discuss the issue of climate change. Their meeting with top White House scientist, Frank Press, prompted a National Academy of Sciences study, "Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment", informally known as the Charney report, the first National Academy assessment that attempted to quantify the impacts of increased CO2 on the climate. [21]

Pomerance joined the World Resources Institute in 1986 and continued to attempt to fight for climate change policy. He and Gus Speth convinced Senator John Chafee to hold the June 10 and 11, 1986 hearings [22] on “Ozone Depletion, the Greenhouse Effect, and Climate Change", with James Hansen being the key witness. Hansen's testimony at this hearing and his 1988 Senate testimony [23] Chaired by Senator Tim Wirth, on the effects of climate change are now regarded as a turning point in the public's awareness of the issue. [24] Press coverage of these hearings were extensive, resulting in higher public awareness of the issue. [25]

In 1989, at the World Conference on the Changing Atmosphere, Pomerance and others suggested proposing a concrete goal. His suggestion was "a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2000." This goal became internationally known as a target for emission reductions. [26] [2]

In 2023 he articulated a vision of setting a limit on sea level rise, as a way of making climate change goals more tangible. These views were described in "The Case for Capping Sea Level Rise" [27]

Pomerance is considered by the Climate Institute an "Unsung Hero of the Climate Wars". [28] His lobbying efforts in the 1980s were the subject of a 2018 New York Times article entitled "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change". [29] The article brought significant attention to his past work. His views about the evolving debate over climate change policy are summarized in a 2020 interview by Nancy Rosenblum [30] the title of which was a phrase coined by Pomerance: "The Fate of Greenland is the Fate of Miami."

Personal life

Pomerance is married and has three children. He has lived in Washington, D.C. since 1970. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extreme weather</span> Unusual, severe or unseasonal weather

Extreme weather includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Extreme events are based on a location's recorded weather history. They are defined as lying in the most unusual ten percent. The main types of extreme weather include heat waves, cold waves and heavy precipitation or storm events, such as tropical cyclones. The effects of extreme weather events are economic costs, loss of human lives, droughts, floods, landslides. Severe weather is a particular type of extreme weather which poses risks to life and property.

Environmental Defense Fund or EDF is a United States-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group. The group is known for its work on issues including global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans, and human health, and advocates using sound science, economics and law to find environmental solutions that work. It is nonpartisan, and its work often advocates market-based solutions to environmental problems.

Myron Ebell is an American climate change denier who served as the Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), an American libertarian advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. He was also chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a politically conservative group formed in 1997 focused on "dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis". In September 2016, Ebell was appointed by then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to lead his transition team for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human impact on the environment</span> Impact of human life on Earth and environment

Human impact on the environment refers to changes to biophysical environments and to ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans. Modifying the environment to fit the needs of society is causing severe effects including global warming, environmental degradation, mass extinction and biodiversity loss, ecological crisis, and ecological collapse. Some human activities that cause damage to the environment on a global scale include population growth, neoliberal economic policies and rapid economic growth, overconsumption, overexploitation, pollution, and deforestation. Some of the problems, including global warming and biodiversity loss, have been proposed as representing catastrophic risks to the survival of the human species.

Woodwell Climate Research Center, formerly known as the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) until August 2020, is a scientific research organization that studies climate change impacts and solutions. The International Center for Climate Governance named WHRC the world's top climate change think tank for 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States</span> Climate changing gases from the North American country

The United States produced 5.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020, the second largest in the world after greenhouse gas emissions by China and among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person. In 2019 China is estimated to have emitted 27% of world GHG, followed by the United States with 11%, then India with 6.6%. In total the United States has emitted a quarter of world GHG, more than any other country. Annual emissions are over 15 tons per person and, amongst the top eight emitters, is the highest country by greenhouse gas emissions per person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental issues in the United States</span> Overview of the environmental issues in the United States of America

Environmental issues in the United States include climate change, energy, species conservation, invasive species, deforestation, mining, nuclear accidents, pesticides, pollution, waste and over-population. Despite taking hundreds of measures, the rate of environmental issues is increasing rapidly instead of reducing. The United States is among the most significant emitters of greenhouse gasses in the world. In terms of both total and per capita emissions, it is among the largest contributors. The climate policy of the United States has a major influence on the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental policy of the United States</span> Governmental action to protect the environment

The environmental policy of the United States is a federal governmental action to regulate activities that have an environmental impact in the United States. The goal of environmental policy is to protect the environment for future generations while interfering as little as possible with the efficiency of commerce or the liberty of the people and to limit inequity in who is burdened with environmental costs. As his first official act bringing in the 1970s, President Richard Nixon signed the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into law on New Years Day, 1970. Also in the same year, America began celebrating Earth Day, which has been called "the big bang of U.S. environmental politics, launching the country on a sweeping social learning curve about ecological management never before experienced or attempted in any other nation." NEPA established a comprehensive US national environmental policy and created the requirement to prepare an environmental impact statement for "major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the environment." Author and consultant Charles H. Eccleston has called NEPA the world's "environmental Magna Carta".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change in the United States</span> Emissions, impacts and responses of the United States related to climate change

Climate change has led to the United States warming by 2.6 °F since 1970. The climate of the United States is shifting in ways that are widespread and varied between regions. From 2010 to 2019, the United States experienced its hottest decade on record. Extreme weather events, invasive species, floods and droughts are increasing. Climate change's impacts on tropical cyclones and sea level rise also affects regions of the country.

The climate change policy of the United States has major impacts on global climate change and global climate change mitigation. This is because the United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world after China, and is among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person in the world. Cumulatively, the United States has emitted over a trillion metric tons of greenhouse gases, more than any country in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Holdren</span> American scientist and presidential advisor

John Paul Holdren is an American scientist who served as the senior advisor to President Barack Obama on science and technology issues through his roles as assistant to the president for science and technology, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arctic policy of the United States</span>

The Arctic policy of the United States is the foreign policy of the United States in regard to the Arctic region. In addition, the United States' domestic policy toward Alaska is part of its Arctic policy.

Michael Calvin MacCracken, has been chief scientist for climate change programs with the Climate Institute in Washington, D.C., since 2002; he was also elected to its board of directors in 2006.

The environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration represented a shift from the policy priorities and goals of the preceding Barack Obama administration. Where President Obama's environmental agenda prioritized the reduction of carbon emissions through the use of renewable energy with the goal of conserving the environment for future generations, the Trump administration policy was for the US to attain energy independence based on fossil fuel use and to rescind many environmental regulations. By the end of Trump's term, his administration had rolled back 98 environmental rules and regulations, leaving an additional 14 rollbacks still in progress. As of early 2021, the Biden administration was making a public accounting of regulatory decisions under the Trump administration that had been influenced by politics rather than science.

Increasing methane emissions are a major contributor to the rising concentration of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, and are responsible for up to one-third of near-term global heating. During 2019, about 60% of methane released globally was from human activities, while natural sources contributed about 40%. Reducing methane emissions by capturing and utilizing the gas can produce simultaneous environmental and economic benefits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate and energy</span> List of Climatological research organizations

In the 21st century, the Earth's climate and its energy policy interact and their relationship is studied and governed by a variety of national and international institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Joy Hassol</span> American author and science communicator

Susan Joy Hassol is an American author and science communicator best known for her work around climate change. Hassol is the Director of Climate Communication and was the Senior Science Writer on the first three U.S. National Climate Assessments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durwood Zaelke</span> American environmentalist

Durwood Zaelke is an American environmental litigator, professor, author, and advocate. As President and founder of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) in Washington, D.C., and Paris, he currently focuses on fast mitigation strategies to protect the climate, including strategies to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, in the context of the need for speed to limit anthropogenic warming to 1.5 °C.

Armin Rosencranz is the founder of Jindal Global School of Environment and Sustainability, at OP Jindal Global University, in Sonipat, India. In 1987, he founded the international environmental NGO, Pacific Environment, which he led until 1996. He has received five Fulbright grants – two to India, and one each to Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Rosencranz has a long-standing association with Stanford University, where he served as the President of the Student Body, a Faculty Resident in an undergraduate dorm, and a Trustee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change in South Africa</span> Emissions, impacts and responses of South Africa related to climate change

Climate change in South Africa is leading to increased temperatures and rainfall variability. Evidence shows that extreme weather events are becoming more prominent due to climate change. This is a critical concern for South Africans as climate change will affect the overall status and wellbeing of the country, for example with regards to water resources. Just like many other parts of the world, climate research showed that the real challenge in South Africa was more related to environmental issues rather than developmental ones. The most severe effect will be targeting the water supply, which has huge effects on the agriculture sector. Speedy environmental changes are resulting in clear effects on the community and environmental level in different ways and aspects, starting with air quality, to temperature and weather patterns, reaching out to food security and disease burden.

References

  1. "Scientists". Woodwell Climate. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  2. 1 2 Rich, Nathaniel (5 August 2018). "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change" . The New York Times Magazine. pp. 4–. ISSN   0028-7822. Archived from the original on 15 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Longtime Kalorama Triangle resident, a 'dauntless warrior,' continues his 40-year fight against climate change". TheDCLine.org. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  4. "Josephine Wertheim Pomerance". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2023-06-17.
  5. "Ralph Pomerance, Architect, 87". The New York Times. 1995-08-25. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-17.
  6. "Alum who sounded climate change alarm featured at Reunion". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  7. "Urban Environment Conference Flyer · Give Earth a Chance: Environmental Activism in Michigan". michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  8. "Longtime Kalorama Triangle resident, a 'dauntless warrior,' continues his 40-year fight against climate change". TheDCLine.org. 2019-04-26. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  9. Anderson, Gordon (16 May 1994). "Don't forget Friends of the Earth". High Country News. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  10. Rich, Spencer (8 July 1984). "Directors Oust Founder From Friends Of the Earth's Board". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  11. "Rafe Pomerance". SilverLining. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  12. "Global Warming: Myth or Reality | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  13. "Rafe Pomerance". 1997-2001.state.gov. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  14. Kellow, Aynsley; Murphy-Gregory, Hannah (2018-09-28). Handbook of Research on NGOs. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN   978-1-78536-168-5.
  15. "Polar Research Board Members". dels.nas.edu. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  16. "Keep Florida Above Water". ReThink Energy Florida. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  17. "Scientists to discuss global threats from climate change in the Arctic". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  18. "Arctic 21 on Twitter/X". Twitter. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  19. Kumar, Sheila V . (2016-03-29). "Sea Ice in Melting Arctic Dwindles to Another Record Low". Inside Climate News. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  20. Budden, K; Zieger, W (1978). "ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF COAL LIQUEFACTION". U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA/600/7-78/019.
  21. "The Charney Report: 40 years ago, scientists accurately predicted climate change". phys.org. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  22. Majkut, Joseph (2016-06-15). "John Chafee's 1986 Climate Hearings". Niskanen Center. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  23. Shabecoff, Philip; Times, Special To the New York (1988-06-24). "Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-17.
  24. Besel, Richard D. (2013). "Accommodating Climate Change Science: James Hansen and the Rhetorical/Political Emergence of Global Warming". Science in Context. 26: 137–152. doi:10.1017/S0269889712000312. S2CID   18364313.
  25. "Time to Wake Up: Chafee Hearings, Climate Change, and Trump | U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island". www.whitehouse.senate.gov. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  26. Manne, Alan S.; Richels, Richard G. (1991). "Global CO2 Emission Reductions - the Impacts of Rising Energy Costs". The Energy Journal. 12 (1): 87–107. doi:10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol12-No1-6. ISSN   0195-6574. JSTOR   41322404.
  27. Hill, Alice C.; Pomerance, Rafe (2023-04-03). "The Case for Capping Sea-Level Rise". Foreign Affairs. ISSN   0015-7120 . Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  28. "Unsung Heroes of the Climate Wars". climate.org. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  29. Rich, Nathaniel (2018-08-01). "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  30. "A Conversation". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2023-06-12.