The Climate Legacy of Jimmy Carter

Published on:
January 15, 2025
Episode #:
20
The Climate Dad podcast with Mike Smith logo.

Summary

In this episode of The Climate Dad Podcast, host Mike Smith reflects on the extraordinary life of former President Jimmy Carter, who recently passed away. The conversation explores Carter's significant contributions to climate change awareness, energy policy, and humanitarian efforts. From his early life in Georgia to his presidency during the energy crisis, the episode highlights Carter's vision for renewable energy and conservation. Mike emphasizes the lessons learned from Carter's leadership and the importance of moral responsibility in addressing climate change.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Climate Change and Jimmy Carter's Legacy

10:22 Carter's Presidency: A Turning Point for Climate Policy

18:36 Lessons from Jimmy Carter's Climate Leadership

Transcript

Mike Smith (00:02)

Hi everyone and welcome to episode 20 of The Climate Dad, the environmental podcast where we talk about and explain the news and science of climate change. I continue to be your host. My name is Mike Smith. I'm the father of two great kids, still the founder of Aclymate the net zero climate solution for businesses without sustainability teams. Today we're going to be talking about an extraordinary life, that of former president Jimmy Carter. He passed away last month and he lived a life of service and impact, including very notably upon the climate. But first, here's your climate minute.

The southern hemisphere is undergoing a particularly brutal summer this year, with records falling all over the place and climactic anomalies abounding. Equatorial locations such as Brazil and Benin have seen a failure of the traditional rainy season, and record overnight lows remain in the mid-80s, with daily highs in the mid-100s. It is projected to warm over the coming days, too. Mozambique is in the running for one of the worst climate years of any country.

located just north of South Africa on the continent's east coast. It was struck by cyclone Chido in December, killing 34 people and causing extensive damage. In early January, however, overnight lows have hovered also in the mid 80s with highs projected into climb within to the hundred teens. Not to be outdone, the Northern hemisphere has seen odd temperatures too with the night of January 1st in Europe being a good example. Overnight lows in Denmark that night were as much as 48 degrees.

This is in a place with only six and a half hours of sunlight, while places as far south as Greece experienced severe frost with lows about 24 degrees cooler than what was experienced in Denmark. A little bit of climate global weirding happening in Europe. Also, annual measurements are now pouring in now that 2024 is officially in the books. Most of central and Eastern Europe recorded their warmest years ever. As an example, Germany beat its 2023 record by more than half a degree.

which in turn had beaten 2022, marking a trend where Germany has seen six of the hottest years ever recorded happening in the past seven years. It's also not official yet, but the United States has recorded its hottest year ever, with the entire US west of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers showing above average temperatures. And with all those areas between the middle of Kansas and the Sierra and Cascade Mountains, most of the US west showing temperatures a full three degrees above annual average.

and many large areas within Montana and Wyoming showing between 10 and 13 degrees above average. Again, those are numbers for the entire year of 2024. It's as if the climate of Wyoming and Montana had just fundamentally shifted up a level. Not to be outdone, Australia recorded its second hottest year ever, falling just short, less than a tenth of a degree behind its all-time record, which was set in 2019. In the same time span this year, rainfall was about 28 % above normal.

making the year the eighth wettest recorded. From a global perspective, the 10 hottest years ever recorded have been the past 10, which have led UN Secretary General António Guterres to state that the world is facing a "climate breakdown." This correlates, of course, with the atmosphere concentration of CO2 climbing higher every year of our lives, reaching 426.5 parts per million in 2024, which is 26 % higher than what it was in the year that I was born, 1980, or 300.

38 parts per million Let's close along a little bit of glide Let's close on some good climate news the state of New York though pat However, let's close on some good climate news the state of New York passed its Climate Change Superfund Act into law providing for a rare bit of corporate accountability It's expected to provide and raise 75 billion dollars into the fund over the next 25 years by assigning a fee to fossil fuel providers based upon their

carbon-related emissions from 2000 to 2018. The funding is to be used for climate adaptation, including the upgrading of infrastructure to withstand extreme weather, supporting the development of clean energy, and assisting communities to adapt to climate-related challenges. The law carries significant legal teeth to ensure compliance. And on that bit of good news, there's your climate minute.

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So let's talk about Mr. Carter, a personal hero of mine and a central figure in the story of climate and energy. If you'll allow me, I'd like to tell a few quick stories about Jimmy Carter and his life. Born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia, he grew up working on his family's peanut farm. Valuing education his entire life, he went to Georgia Southwestern before transferring to Georgia Tech. And in 1940, excuse me.

valuing education his entire life. He went to Georgia Southwestern in

If you'll allow me, I'd like to quickly tell a few stories about Jimmy Carter and his life. Born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia, he grew up working on his family's peanut farm. Valuing education his entire life, he went to Georgia Southwestern before transferring to Georgia Tech. In 1943, however, he received his appointment to my alma mater, the US Naval Academy, which he graduated in 1946. During this time, he befriended, dated, and ultimately married Rosalynn Smith, to whom he was faithfully married for 77 years.

Commissioned into the submarine service, Carter promoted several times before being selected to the Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program in 1952, led by the famously exacting Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover selected only the most disciplined and talented for the program. In December of that same year, an experimental reactor in Canada at Chalk River, which is a little more than 100 miles from the capital city of Ottawa,

had a partial meltdown and Lieutenant Carter was hand selected by Rickover to lead the containment effort of 26 Americans. At incredible risk to himself and his teammates, he led the taking turns by being lowered into the highly radioactive site for 90 seconds at a time in order to prevent the catastrophe from expanding. Even with protective equipment, he knowingly was exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and it was expected to prevent him from having children.

It was also, I would think, a potential contributor to his later experiences with cancer. I bet you didn't know any of that. Like, did you know that Jimmy Carter was a Canadian action hero? Do you know why you don't know that? He wasn't the sort of guy to brag, even years later when he became a politician. And that's one of the things I appreciated about him. He didn't like to make a fuss, but he almost always did the right thing because it was the right thing. Fancy that.

Shortly after Carter's father's passed, Carter resigned from active duty in 1953 to rescue the family's peanut farm. A drought in his first year caused him and Rosalynn to leverage everything to keep the farm afloat, including their living in public housing within Plains. The farm ultimately became quite successful, leading Carter to take increasingly public leadership roles, including as a member of the Baptist Church and local school board, where he spoke plainly in favor of racial integration, a position that he maintained as he climbed in office from the Georgia State Senate in 1963.

three through the presidency We'll talk about his climate visionary time as a as a president in a bit famously a one-term president Carter did fill his post presidency with incredible international work His efforts at the eponymous foundation named the Carter Foundation have focused on dessert disease eradication peace and conflict resolution human rights democracy and mental health Sent as a peace envoy several times. He was a key player in peace talks within Israel and Palestine

Nicaragua, Haiti, North Korea, Bosnia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Colombia. His foundation observed more than 100 elections in 39 countries, ensuring free and fair elections. And the foundation has been key in raising the need for mental health care throughout the world, especially in areas where those services are scarce. The foundation's most notable achievement has been the near eradication of the Guinea Worm, a painful parasite that used to be found throughout the tropics, primarily transmitted through contaminated water.

The infected person grows long painful worms inside their body, usually the lower limbs that can reach up to three feet in length. It's pretty gross. And it's also pretty painful because about after about a year, the worm breaks through the skin out of a blister and it reproduces. It's a truly awful disease that nobody in the industrialized world cared about, except, of course, you know, Jimmy Carter and his foundation. Before he started on this work in 1986, Guinea Worm affected about three and a half million people per year.

in 21 countries, mostly in Asia and Africa. Last year, 2024, there were seven cases of it in the whole world. It's just like incredible. If he had done nothing else in his life, Jimmy Carter would be considered amongst the greatest of humans for that reduction in suffering alone. It's really just incredible.

Now, if you'll humor me, I'm going to spend 30 seconds talking about Aclymate before your climate dad joke of the week. If you're thinking about the ways to improve your impact on the planet, or maybe just your company is being required to report its footprint, maybe you're inspired by Jimmy Carter and you want to leave a legacy, we'd definitely love to help you over here at Aclymate. Where we have the easiest, the most intuitive climate solution for your business, we're to get you a baseline of environmental assessment. We're going to show you ways to reduce your carbon footprint, and we're going to get you on the path to net zero.

going to help your environmental branding to win new customers, keep those valuable ones you already have, attract and retain the talent you need from the climate generation. And our green business certification program is going to help you to complete a sustainability audit. Maybe you're just looking to improve those EcoVadis scores or win other certifications, such as with CDP, B Corp, or Green Business Benchmark. Maybe you're looking to purchase carbon offsets, but need a reliable carbon credit broker. Well, at Aclymate, we've got you covered with both a friendly climate accounting solution and also

the best carbon offset programs and leading selection of sustainable projects on the web. You're going to get that personal human touch and the great software that you deserve in order to make that climate impact.

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Now, are you ready for that climate dad joke? Why did Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House?

because he wanted the future to be bright.

All right, let's talk about his work in the presidency and his impact on climate and energy. Now remember, the time that he was in, 1977 through 1981, it was a time when energy crises had Americans waiting in long lines at gas stations. At the time, the US was importing nearly 9 million barrels of petroleum per day, mostly from OPEC, which Americans felt deeply and were still kind of reeling from the effects after the oil embargo of 1973.

Jimmy Carter took office in 1977, as I said, and he made it clear. America really needed to move away from its heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Carter started on his very first day in office, but the reviewing stand for his inaugural parade was meant to be reusable. It actually became a bandstand in a public park in Atlanta. And that bandstand, that reviewing stand, was warmed by solar panels. His very first day in office, his very first act, he had solar panels. Sure.

It was largely symbolic, but it was the start of his commitment to energy efficiency. Three months after taking office, Carter gave a speech from the White House. This was in April 1977, often referred to as his, "Sweater Speech" because of the symbolic attire he was wearing. In a move that was kind of panned at the time as being a little bit weird, it would now sing to the hearts of dads across America today. Turn down the thermostat, put on a sweater, and save money, energy, and emissions.

I mean, how can you not love that? Though it was laughed at by many at the time, that has become part of the nation's collective dad identity, I think means he was not only right on the substance of the issue, which of course he was, but also that he was a true leader on the issue. Later in the summer of 1977, Jimmy Carter became the first US president that we know of to be briefed on climate change. The memo he has documented who have read is titled, "Release of Fossil CO2 and the Possibility of Catastrophic Climate Change".

and it's the beginning of the US public's policy forays on climate. The memo stated that the problem at the time, "...does not justify emergency action to limit the consumption of fossil fuels in the near term", , but that the CO2 hazard must be part of the country's long-term energy strategy. It's worth knowing that the guy was thinking about and acting on it, because on a more substantive front, Carter championed the National Energy Plan of 1977, and his goal was to invest in renewable energy like solar and wind power.

and to encourage energy conservation. And guess what? The guy loved solar panels. He installed 32 solar panels on the White House. Now again, those panels were fairly symbolic, but they sent a message. Carter said, real quote, a generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity or part of one of the greatest adventures ever taken by the American people. And that in directly harnessing the power of the sun, we're taking the energy that God gave us, the most renewable energy that we will ever see.

Pretty forward thinking and of course, little appreciated at the time. As part of the plan, he set a goal of having the US get to 20 % solar power, excuse me, 20 % solar power generated electricity by the year 2000. Unfortunately, we're still not there and a lot of that is due to much of the roadblocks put up by other politicians that lacked either Carter's vision or character. But the US now has over 80 % of its new generation for electricity coming from renewable sources.

And frankly, that's only really possible because of Jimmy Carter. Also included in the National Energy Plan was the precursor to what is often considered the most impactful policy position that can be taken, a national carbon tax. Carter's vision primarily focused his energy efforts around energy security, which is obvious considering its origin in the oil embargo. So his standby gasoline tax and his crude oil equalization tax were steeped in some of that language.

In the days prior to fracking, they would have had the practical effect of encouraging energy conservation and the development of alternative energy sources. Of course, this made him enemies within the oil industry and neither tax ultimately passed, but they remained our first forays into carbon pricing mechanisms.

Jimmy Carter was also instrumental in the creation of the Department of Energy, signing the Department of Energy Organization Act in 1977. The DOE's primary goal was to develop a comprehensive energy strategy that promoted energy security, it diversified energy sources, and it increased efficiency. As always, efficiency was at the top of Carter's vision, with him stating that conserving energy was, "the moral equivalent of war".

and ended with the DOE launching initiatives in weatherization of homes and incentives for businesses to adopt energy saving practices. The DOE was also directed to invest in research and development of renewable energy technologies and including near and dear to my heart, the creation of the world leading National Renewable Energy Lab here in Golden, Colorado. With his focus on energy security, the DOE also established the strategic petroleum reserve to help reduce price shocks and to ensure future supply during shortages.

And finally, the DOE is famously the home of the US nuclear programs, both civilian and military. Carter, of course, direct experience with the dangers of nuclear power, as we talked about just a minute ago, and had concerns with the proliferation of the technology to threat nations. But nonetheless, remained a staunch supporter of the technology, believing that it would both diversify our energy sources and promote a low carbon energy source were to be properly regulated. He was, of course, right on this. On the fronts of constant fri- on-

Now let's talk about conservation. 1980, Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which protected over 157 million acres of land in Alaska. To give you a sense of that scale, that's an equivalent area to twice the size of California. It's one of the biggest conservation efforts in all of US history. This act doubled the size of the national park system and ensured that critical ecosystems and wildlife habitats would be preserved. I was raised in Alaska for a bit.

and I've hiked within Denali and I've seen otters in Glacier Bay, and I have Jimmy Carter to thank for that. But even if you haven't been, because you're kind of a remote part of the world, you should know that these landscapes, not only are they incredibly beautiful, essential for wildlife conservation, but their protection has also kept them as natural carbon sinks. Nature can continue to fight climate on our behalf.

Now, in the interest of fairness, he wasn't perfect on climate and the environment. Jimmy Carter made some errors and we should recognize this. For example, on nuclear energy, the Three Mile Island accident happened during his administration. And while that was no fault of his, the fallout in public perception and the need for tighter regulations around safety caused the nuclear industry in the United States to stall out for a generation. For an advocate of nuclear power, he didn't do enough to move it forward.

Carter also, in his focus on energy security and in a need to shore up his political fortunes, also was a huge advocate for the coal industry. In a 1980 campaign speech, he boasted that the United States would, quote, produce more coal in 1980 than has ever been produced in the United States of America. His advocacy for coal is calculated to have been responsible for about five extra years of US emissions at 2000 levels. That's a pretty significant negative impact on climate, and it really should not be ignored in the balance of things.

So the man's not perfect. He was a human being after all, but it does seem to me, and a lot of others that are in this space, that even with those significant negative outcomes, Carter truly was a climate leader. And that his efforts on coal created midterm problems on climate, but his efforts on renewable energy and energy efficiency are going to be essential to our climate future. So what can we learn from Jimmy Carter? First, being a climate leader means thinking ahead, even when it's not popular.

Jimmy Carter paid real political prices and lost battles, but ended up winning the war. The second thing is that small actions, like those solar panels on the White House, can inspire actually some pretty big changes. Carter planted metaphorical trees under whose shade that we all sit today. We should also recognize that any language around bridge fuels must remain as buried as coal should have been. It doesn't help politically, and it definitely hurts environmentally.

And finally, we shouldn't shy away from labeling our work protecting the planet as both a moral and practical responsibility. In immoral time, being clear about the moral need without being hectoring is essential to our progress. If anything, it'll help the issue stand out. And Mr. Carter, he lived his values until his last days. For example, I love this story, in 2017, he leased 10 of his own acres in Georgia for solar development. That solar project now provides his hometown of Plains, Georgia with half of its electricity.

At the event, he told the assembled crowd, quote, this site will be as symbolically important as the 32 panels we put on the White House. People can come here and see what can be done. So I want to, and I would encourage you to, live your life a little bit like Jimmy Carter, publicly, earnestly, and as an example to others.

Anyway, here are three... Alright, here are today's three big takeaways. One, the things you're doing today can change the world, but it's not going to happen immediately. Take the long view and do it anyways. Two, don't be afraid to be public about the faith and morality of your work. It shouldn't be hectoring or shaming in any way, but talking about why your values compel you to stand and act gives the cause and the issue that you stand for real legitimacy.

And three, bridge fuels and making trade-offs for politics will generally neither help you win politically nor help the climate move forward. Don't trade on doing the right thing.

Let's wrap up. Do you have a question or comment for the show? Go to Aclymate.com or send an email to TheClimateDad at Aclymate.com to submit a question for us or the show. As always, Aclymate is spelled A-C-L-Y-M-A-T-E. If your business needs help measuring, reducing, reporting, or offsetting your company's climate footprint, reach out to our team here at Aclymate. We're going to get you set up with the best, the most affordable, the easiest, a real human climate solution. Thank you all for listening.

And make sure to subscribe to The Climate Dad where you get your podcasts and to share, like, and comment on social media. And wherever you are, God bless you, Jimmy Carter.

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