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"Your Climate Inheritance" | Delivered by Kim Cobb at Brown’s 260th Convocation

Thank you, President Paxson, for that generous introduction, and thank you to all my faculty colleagues, to all new and returning students and their families, and to the incredible staff that made this event possible today. 

And to the newest members of our community, including the class of 2027, welcome from all of us. 

It is such an honor to stand before you on this very special day. It also happens to be a very hot day — the 4th hottest on record here in Providence for this time of year. So while you may or may not appreciate the irony of this backdrop for my speech about climate change, I know you will appreciate me keeping this brief. 

So let’s talk about climate change. I know, I know. If you felt a wave of anxiety rise up inside you, you’re in good company. The vast majority of your generation registers one or more of the following emotions about climate change:  anxiety, overwhelm, fear, helplessness. 

And as a climate scientist, I get it. For every headline trumpeting progress, there are dozens that highlight the many ways in which our actions are grossly insufficient to the magnitude of the problem. And with every year, the ravages of climate change hit closer to home, literally, as we, and the ecosystems that we depend on, face a punishing assault over land, over water, and in the air. 

And for some, it’s already too late. That was true for the coral reefs that I’ve worked on for 25 years, in the remote central Pacific, that succumbed to a marine heat wave back in 2016, then the hottest year on record. This year, another global-scale coral bleaching and mortality event is underway as 2023 becomes a virtual lock for the warmest year on record. 

And it’s too late for many of the world’s most vulnerable communities — low-income communities and historically marginalized communities of color — who have already paid the highest price of climate change, sometimes with their very lives, and will continue to do so with every increment of future warming. 

Science tells us that our sluggish pace of emissions reductions to date guarantees another two decades of continued warming, in a best case scenario. And despite over thirty years of scientific clarity about the drivers and pace and consequences of human-caused climate change, we are woefully ill-prepared for our climate present, let alone our climate future. Even in the face of crushing and ever-escalating costs of climate change, we are still squandering precious time.

So yes, that’s part of your climate inheritance. It’s unfair. It’s wrong. And it hurts all the more because it was avoidable. I’m not here to sugarcoat that reality. But I am here to shine a bright light on the other parts of your climate inheritance. 

For one, you’ve inherited the most complete picture of our climate past, present, and future, thanks to decades of research, some conducted right here at Brown. This allows for evidence-based decision-making about our climate and energy future that will save lives and ensure continued prosperity for as many as possible, for generations to come.

You’ve also inherited a global network of “climate people”, as Mary Annaise Heglar — a leading voice on climate justice — refers to them in her essay in the recent book It’s Not Too Late by Rebeca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua. Climate people just can’t, or won’t, shut up about climate change. I’m one of those people, just ask my kids. When I was in your shoes, that network was vanishingly small. And now, thirty years later, they number in the many millions and they come from all walks of life, geographies, ideologies, and ages. They are people like Zanagee Artis, who graduated from Brown in 2022 after founding the youth-led climate justice organization “Zero Hour”. And they are pulling on an increasingly diverse set of levers:  They are working on energy efficiency and carbon markets and journalism and public health and art and ethics. They are advancing racial justice and indigenous rights, local renewable energy ordinances, K-12 climate curriculum, climate law, and conflict resolution. And in our increasingly connected world, they are finding each other, sharing strategies, and building community. 

Collectively, this global network is building the momentum needed to stop global warming by mid-century, and potentially initiate global cooling by the time your children are entering college. Yes, you heard me correctly. Here in the US, their accomplishments include the historic Inflation Reduction Act that unleashed $370 billion in support of clean energy and climate resilience. Now we’re talking. And this year, growth in solar and wind energy will increase a staggering 33%, making global renewable capacity equivalent to the total power output of China and the US combined. Globally, almost one out of every five cars sold is now an electric vehicle. This momentum is also part of your climate inheritance. 

People are finally connecting the dots between climate change and their core passions. Care about the economy? You care about climate change solutions. Public health? Social justice? National security? Healthy ecosystems? You guessed it — you care about climate solutions. This work of connecting the dots is happening at dinner tables, in boardrooms, in newsrooms, and at the polls. And it’s happening in classrooms all across Brown.

Which brings me to the most exciting, and perhaps most relevant, part of your climate inheritance. As a Brown student, you are now part of a community that over many decades, has continually redefined climate, environmental, sustainability, and social justice leadership in higher education. At every step of the way, progress has required deep collaboration between Brown students, staff, faculty, and the administration, with deep support from the rest of the Brown family. 

In 1978, Brown became one of the very first institutions to create an environmental studies program. Brown students then rolled up their sleeves to fully renovate an old carriage house into the Urban Environmental Lab, which you’ll recognize as that shabby chic building adjacent to the new performing arts center. Several years later, students organized the first Global Warming Information Week.

In 2006, Brown students lobbied the administration to adopt a net-zero emissions pledge. Two years later, Brown became one of the very first institutions to pledge a 42% emissions reduction by 2020. In 2019, with ongoing engagement from students and faculty, Brown set even more ambitious goals:  to reduce emissions by 75% by 2025, and achieve net zero emissions by 2040. Today, we are on track to meet those goals. And in 2020, again with strong engagement from students, Brown pledged to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. 

What’s next? Well, that’s where you come in. Brown’s new Sustainability Plan embraces a whole-of-campus-and-beyond approach to climate and sustainability innovation, leadership, and action, through its facilities, research, academic programming, and partnerships. One could say Brown is reshaping itself into a climate solutions machine. Anchored in Brown’s core principles around justice, equity, and inclusion, Brown can play a transformative role in advancing equitable, durable, and scaleable climate solutions with impacts that stretch far beyond our campus. But we will only go as fast as our community can come together to overcome the many structural obstacles that lie in our path. That’s as true at Brown as it is across broader society.

In your coursework, and through student activities, internships, and research assistantships, you can connect the dots between your individual passions and goals and the many levers of collective climate solutions. You will find champions in Brown’s faculty, staff, and administrators all across campus who can help you on the next step of your climate journey, whether it is your first step or your millionth.

But remember this: wherever you find yourself at Brown, you are exactly where you need to be. Because we need chroniclers and storytellers and sensemakers of this unique moment in time. We need policymakers and economists and doctors. We need big data wranglers and technology innovators and finance gurus. We need urban planners, psychologists, and carbon sequesterers. We need teachers and artists and lawyers. We need journalists and yes, we need voters.

But most of all, we need dreamers who are not afraid to do, not because our success is guaranteed, but because failure is simply not an option.

We have the opportunity not of a lifetime, nor even a generation. Rather, we have the opportunity to shape the arc of human history on this planet. For our pace of progress on climate solutions during this next decade will be measured for generations to come. It will be measured in lost lives, communities, and in some cases, whole nations and entire species. But it will also be measured by all that we managed to save. 

So let us work together, in community and shared purpose, to ensure that our climate inheritance to the next generation is as large and enduring as it can possibly be. We are all deeply honored to be a part of your journey, beginning today, continuing through your time here at Brown, and far, far beyond. 

The world deserves you. And you deserve the world.