By Sally Chappell

Guest Columnist

Are you skeptical that a solution to climate change can ever be achieved? Banish your skepticism! There are many solutions to climate change, the climate crisis, global warming, whatever your preferred manner of referral. The unfortunate aspect is that all the solutions will have to be mobilized. That is why in the 21st century, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming should be in everyone’s reference library along with your dictionary, thesaurus, etc. Edited by Paul Hawken, it is a compilation of 100 climate solutions ranked in order of potential to “draw down” our greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

I took my copy of Drawdown to our friends’ cottage on Long Lake in a manner of show and tell. As we enjoyed the beauty of the setting donned in our masks and practicing social distancing, the conversation ensued with questions about the book: “What’s number 67? How about 34? Do you have a favorite solution?” Eventually, “What’s number 1?” For those of you not familiar with Drawdown, the number one solution to climate change involves common items in people’s homes: our refrigerators and air conditioners.

Remember, when we were concerned about the ozone hole in the stratosphere? It was mainly caused by CFCs and HCFCs (chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons) used as refrigerants. The Montreal Protocol was an agreement among nations to stop the use of CFCs and HCFCs. Since the 1980s the replacement for these chemicals, HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), while not harming the ozone layer, have been found to be potent greenhouse gases. How potent? They are “one thousand to nine thousand times greater than that of carbon dioxide, depending on the exact chemical composition,” as stated in Drawdown.

In 2016, at a meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, an amendment to the Montreal Protocol, the Kigali Agreement, addressed the dangers of HFCs. One hundred nations have since agreed to phase out HFCs by replacing them with safer refrigerants that are available. In spite of our federal government’s refusal to ratify the agreement and its resistance to the acknowledgment of the climate crisis in general, there are measures we can take to restrict these potent, climate-changing chemicals.

If you need to replace your refrigerator, make sure the new model uses a safer refrigerant such as R-600a (isobutane) with a GWP (global warming potential) of three. Older refrigerators use R-134a, which has a GWP of 1,400. Some companies that sell models with safer refrigerants and are Energy Star compliant are Bosch, LG, Samsung and Summit, according to EIA (Environmental Investigation Agency), a nongovernmental organization based in London and Washington, D.C. Leakage of refrigerants from old cooling appliances and end-of-life disposal are other formidable problems that need to be addressed.

Refrigerant, leakage management and end-of-life disposal are the issues facing supermarket chains here in the U.S.A. presently exempt from following the Kigali Agreement. That is why Green America (www.greenamerica.org) is sponsoring a campaign called, “Cool It For Climate.” According to campaign information, a typical supermarket consumes 4,000 pounds of refrigerants each year with a quarter leaking out due to faulty systems. Green America’s campaign is starting with Walmart, one of the world’s largest retailers, in its efforts to bring awareness to the public of this source of greenhouse gas emissions. Pursuing this tactic could have significant effects because HFCs, while extremely potent, do not last in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide.  According to Drawdown, worldwide refrigerant conversion has the potential to save up to a half-degree Celsius in our climbing average global temperatures. Supermarkets?that are replacing HFCs include Whole Foods, Aldi, Target, and Ahold Delhaize (owner of Hannaford). Here in Maine, we have two Hannaford stores that are HFC-free. 

Like refrigerators and air conditioners, heat pumps also use refrigerants. We recently had a heat pump water heater installed in our home. Subsequently, as I was researching refrigerants, I thought I’d ask our salesperson what type of refrigerant our new water heater uses. You guessed it! It uses the hydrofluorocarbon R410A (GWP 2088). Despite the salesperson’s reassurances that their technicians use the utmost care to ensure no leakages occur, I wonder: How will I know if my water heater is leaking refrigerant and at the time of disposal; how will I know if the refrigerant is being disposed of responsibly? Such is life. Sometimes, lessons are learned too late. May we redouble our efforts to draw down greenhouse gases to ensure that our children and grandchildren and other creatures’ progeny will not pay too high a penalty for our generation’s climate ignorance.

By the way, my favorite solution to the climate crisis is #11, regenerative agriculture.