[Author’s note: I’ve written earlier versions of this short essay, but recently I’ve been exploring AI and clarifying what AI can do for me.  Much of my attention has been directed toward AI’s capacity as a research agent, and while even just weeks ago the results were disappointing, over the last month or so the capacity of various public AI (e.g., Gemini, OpenAI, Co-Pilot) has exploded in functionality. I’ll be writing about this more. This note addresses my more recent efforts to investigate how AI may help in the writing process. I used the essay below–it’s several generations preceding, that is–to see how AI assessed the writing and offered suggestions.  I’m impressed, although there seems a common slide toward composition lacking distinct voice, so I also asked for the tone of the piece be considered. Over the course of this experiment I used OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but mostly stuck with Google’s Gemini. Only at the end of the process did I ask Microsoft’s Co-Pilot AI to weigh in. Just to mix things up, I installed Grammarly (the free version, of course), both because of its reputation for copy editing and proofreading capabilities and because Grammarly now also claims the mantle of AI. Jury’s out on Grammarly, and I’m annoyed by it’s desire to be ever-present, but this may mean only that I haven’t figured out how to customize the program. As of now, I can’t easily turn it off, and it is a bit of a nosy parker.] 

What can you do about climate change? This is an oft-asked question by many American citizens increasingly concerned about its consequences. One of the most fundamental and effective actions we can pursue nationally and internationally is to transition from a fossil fuel-based energy system to a renewables-based energy system.

The good news is that electricity is a highly efficient power source, unlike fossil fuels, which lose intrinsic energy along the path from production to consumption, mainly in the form of waste heat. Nonetheless, transitioning our energy system involves international agreements and national policies, as well as national, regional, and state regulatory bodies and public utilities. Part of what we can do is pay more attention to these regulatory bodies and get involved in their public processes. Go to utility rate increase hearings and demand that the regulators focus on the transmission and distribution of renewable energy. Attend zoning board meetings when NIMBY wants to keep a community solar project from being built, and let your voice be heard.

We should also expect continuing opposition from fossil fuel corporations and utilities directly responsible for and profiting from our current dirty energy systems. These corporations, who are still allowed to dump the greenhouse gases their products generate into our atmosphere without cost—even as the consensus has been clear about the resulting climate change—will fiercely resist losing the benefits of passing along this dire consequence to all. It makes no sense to accept health problems and our children’s more dangerous future just so giant companies can keep making money.

Even though solar, wind, and batteries have become the least expensive and fastest way to implement power generation systems, the renewable energy transition will be harder and take longer without the right national, state, and local governments. Because changes at the scale to effectively solve climate change are typically acts of legislation, the most consequential action any of us will take is voting for climate progress candidates. We all must pay attention to where candidates stand as regards climate change and the programs to help keep the worst of climate change from happening. Considering the stakes, this is a valid single-issue vote, as insufficiently addressing climate change makes all other issues moot, since, over time, ignoring climate change will result in our no longer having a well-functioning society and economy.

We must accept the costs of dealing with climate change and get to work. Doing nothing about reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions is the vastly more expensive choice.

Beyond the political realm, the biggest challenge for each of us is to understand the costs of climate change to our own households. Without doubt, household costs will increase as indirect and direct climate change consequences negatively affect our food supply, public infrastructure, health, and personal property. Most Americans are already seeing higher property insurance costs.

Any of us who are financially able to do so must accept the costs of combatting climate change directly, especially in pursuing household electrification. Look at heat pumps if you’re heating your home with gas or oil heating, and likewise for air-conditioning. In the market for a new car? Choose an electric vehicle, whether new or used. Have you been putting off getting a home energy audit? Stop procrastinating and do it.

There are many other energy efficiency choices a homeowner can make, including, for instance, when it is time to buy a new appliance. While energy-efficient appliances are more expensive upfront, for those with the means the payoff is there, both economically and environmentally. Buying an induction range to replace a gas stove, for example, can have much of its higher cost reimbursed through state-based rebates or Federal tax credits, or both, so you’ll pay just a bit more than you would for a “normal” gas or electric range. Maybe you have the money and circumstances to install rooftop solar, maybe with accompanying battery storage. There are many ways to be part of the transition to renewable energy today.

Of course, with the economic trends of the last four decades, there are too many who don’t have sufficient financial resources to carry the upfront costs of electrification and energy-efficiency improvements, despite the subsidies and tax credits of the IRA and the other programs that are designed to help with these costs. But when you can undertake one or several of the energy efficiency and electrification steps mentioned above, you are helping to build up the companies you hire and those manufacturing what you buy, and that means such services and products may drop in cost through economies of scale as these businesses and manufacturing plants expand. As prices fall, others who are financially unable to undertake one or another of the energy efficiency and electrification projects today become more able to do so tomorrow.

We are in a war against climate change. The last time America was engaged in an existential war was World War II, when the nation mobilized its citizens and businesses and asked for sacrifice from all. Climate change will increasingly exact costs, but such costs will hit the less financially fortunate among us the hardest. All who have the means must take direct action contributing to the clean energy transition, even if just one heat pump installation, or political campaign support, or climate organization contribution, or EV selection, or home solar panel project at a time. Another call for sacrifice must be to those with top incomes. Shifting the tax rates to match the top income tax rate of 91% during the post-war periods of 1945-1963, instead of today’s top rate of 37%, will more fairly balance the burdens of this fight. It is again time for us to support raising the progressive income tax rates at the highest end of income. It is time, too, to make sure that the true cost of fossil fuels is not ignored, and therefore ending fossil fuel subsidies, imposing carbon tax or fees, and insisting that the producers of the oil, gas, and coal directly take on the real-world cost of their product.

Here, in list form, are five direct actions to pursue in the fight against climate change:

1. Vote for climate progress candidates locally, statewide, and nationally.
2. Undertake electrification and energy efficiency improvements in your home and business.
3. Switch from a gas-powered vehicle to an electric vehicle.
4. Encourage “Polluters Pay” laws that bring the cost of pollution and climate change back to the source of pollution: fossil fuel corporations.
5. Support fair and balanced taxation, including a 91% top income tax bracket for the highest incomes.

ChatGPT Result from My Asking for a Rewrite as an Op-Ed

Here’s the screen capture of the top part of the result when I asked ChatGPT to revise as an op-ed:

Here’s the screen capture of the middle part of the result when I asked ChatGPT to revise as an op-ed (continuing without cuts):