Electrifying Everything With Saul Griffith

Crowdsourcing Sustainability

In this episode, we got to chat with Saul Griffith about what it means to electrify everything, why it matters, and what people like you can do to help electrify your community!

Saul is an inventor, engineer, MacArthur Genius award winner and much much more. He probably knows more about the US's energy system than anyone and helped shape the Inflation Reduction Act with his teammates at Rewiring America .

(The graph mentioned can be viewed here! https://youtu.be/TxeD1Y68tLM?t=1627)
Timeline:
0:00 Intro & Saul's climate journey.
7:20 What electrification is and how much more efficient it is than fossil-fueled machines.
15:45 Committed emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure would take us to 1.9°C or 2°C.
18:20 IPCC's pathways to 1.5°C over-rely on negative emissions.
21:25 What the mobilization we need right now looks like.
23:35 Electrification is anti-inflationary.
28:25 Community-level activism.
35:30 Our laws were made for a fossil-fueled world. What regulations need to change? What should people invest their time and energy into to change these rules and laws?
42:00 Why we need climate loans.
47:45 Public vs. private infrastructure.
51:20 Final message and call to action!
Relevant Links:
- Rewiring America: https://www.rewiringamerica.org/
- Other Lab: https://www.otherlab.com/
- Diagram of how US Energy flows through society: https://www.otherlab.com/blog-posts/us-energy-flow-super-sankey
- 1 billion machines: https://saulgriffith.medium.com/one-billion-machines-48a7c3cf0694
- Personalized Savings Calculator for the Inflation Reduction Act: https://www.rewiringamerica.org/app/ira-calculator
Crowdsourcing Sustainability links:
- Sign up for the Crowdsourcing Sustainability newsletter! https://crowdsourcing-sustainability.ck.page/c34a46ed01
- Join the Crowdsourcing Sustainability Community! https://crowdsourcingsustainability.community/
- CS Website: https://crowdsourcingsustainability.org
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And a huge thank you to Diego Rentsch as always for editing!!

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