‘THERE IS STILL HOPE.’ Dr. Samuel Goodman, an Eau Claire native, recently penned a book about reversing climate change,
Beyond Carbon Neutral. (Submitted Photo)

“There is no silver bullet or magic fix for climate change,” said Eau Claire native and author Dr. Samuel Goodman. What we already have available, Goodman said, is good enough to curb ongoing damage and begin to repair what has been harmed. 

“There is still hope,” he emphasized. “The task is not yet insurmountable.”

What society needs, Goodman said, is significant, substantial change generated by a multitude of small actions that we can take together. In his new book, Beyond Carbon Neutral, Goodman lays out explicit steps that individuals and organizations can take to begin reversing the destruction caused by many of our current ways of living and working.

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What we have to do is make the necessary changes as easy as possible for people

dr. samuel goodman

AUTHOR, Beyond Carbon Neutral

Goodman was inspired to write when COVID-19 hit last March. “I’ve had various ideas kicking around for a while,” he said. “I think climate change is an incredibly complex, fundamentally interesting topic.”

But, his interest in the topic piqued years ago when he did a presentation on global warming in his 10th grade English class at Memorial High School, he said. Now, he posits we can attain carbon neutrality by halting any further emissions of carbon dioxide. How and when we get beyond that, however, is crucial in our fight against time.

And time is one thing we do not have in abundance. “Climate change is a problem that affects everyone, so everyone needs to get involved in fixing it,” said Goodman, who holds a doctorate in chemical engineering and now works in Washington, D.C.

Societies already have a multitude of tools, technologies, and process that – when systematically and intelligently applied – can begin to reverse decades of environmental damage. What Goodman is asking readers to do is choose ways to make a difference. That could include individual sacrifices, advocating for commercial change, and using the power of our democratic freedoms and institutions to support and invest in large-scale improvements.

“All the different challenges we face are interconnected,” Goodman says. “What we have to do is make the necessary changes as easy as possible for people to accommodate.”

Beyond Carbon Neutral is published by New Degree Press and will be available from Barnes & Noble.