Introduction & Visit To Oxford, 29 January 2008
Hello, I am Jock Whittlesey, the Environment Counselor at the American Embassy in London. My family and I arrived in London in August 2007 and I’ll be working here until 2010 to promote understanding and cooperation between the United States and the UK on environmental issues, and especially on climate change. I’m starting this blog to tell people about my work and to encourage them to contact me with their ideas and opinions. I hope to hear from you, because I believe that an important part of my job is listening. I look forward to blogging with you.
I’m a bit of an unusual creature in the State Department, a career diplomat who has chosen to specialize in environmental issues. I first started working full-time on environment during my 2001-2004 tour in Beijing, China. I enjoyed the work, the issues and the people I came in contact with, so I decided to take a job from 2004-2007 as the State Department’s Regional Environmental Officer for the Middle East and North Africa. I traveled all over the region to understand environmental issues in each country, to call attention to environmental issues, and to promote cooperation. My family has been with me throughout these years overseas, and it has been a great experience for all of us.
So I’ve had a bilateral (U.S.-China) job in environmental diplomacy, a regional (Middle East) job in environmental diplomacy, and now I’m in the United Kingdom, which I and others see as having a global role in climate and environment. A big part of my job is to meet people from all walks of life – not just government officials, although I meet many of them of course and respect them highly, but also people who work at environmental consulting companies, banks, investment firms, big industrial firms, academic institutions, and Non-Govermental Organizations (NGOs). I like to talk with them about their work and what they do on climate change. These discussions help me to understand what is going on in the UK, because what happens here matters to the United States.
A Visit to Oxford – January 29, 2007
On January 29, 2007, I was one of three speakers in a discussion at Oxford University about the interactions of the United States and China on climate change. There were about 100 people in the audience, ranging from students to professors to retired folks to interested citizens from the community. I talked about how the United States develops ideas and policies from the grass roots, and how political consensus develops through interactions and discussions between the many different groups that are affected by an issue. I also talked about how it is important for all countries to have open dialogue, transparent processes, objective information and a good legal system so that they can make good policy decisions. After the speeches, we took questions, and there were several people who were skeptical about the engagement of the United States on climate change. I tried to reassure them that we take climate change seriously, that we’re doing a lot about it, and that the fruits of that work will start to become clear soon. I hope I was able to make them see some of the good things that the United States is doing on climate change.
First, thanks for making rhetoric a reality by opening opening the world of environmental foreign policy to the grassroots!
Also, I sympathize with your position in defending the U.S. record on climate change. As a student of both international relations and environmental studies, I’m often put in the same position. I find that in Europe, at least, the lack of movement by the U.S. in the legal/policy sphere is highlighted. What is often overlooked is that the U.S. is acting, just in a different way, using a research and techno-centric approach.
Finally, as a “listed” ECON FSO candidate interested in a career in environmental diplomacy, I look forward to hearing about your experiences.
Who said discussion with most americans is like jumping in front of a juggernaut doing seventy five on the free way with trailers.
So
From the nation who created lend lease (Britain not America) here goes.
For a nation who has the largest economy in the world why are we still using oil without diluting it with other products oil companies oil companies can buy into and pass as Green.
I don t mean nut juice either they need to be more creative.
Another, why is there not a line or two or three of trees down the side of every freeway to swallow up what those detroit motors put out.
Another how many trees have been cut down since America saw Walter Raleigh and has that had more impact than most things
Robert,
You will be interested to know that the United States has passed a law in December requiring the supply of 36 billion gallons of fuel from renewable sources by 2022. We produced 6 billion gallons of ethanol in 2007, plus nearly half a billion gallons of biodiesel.
On the topic of trees, I am a big fan of trees of course, but not along the sides of highways (for safety reasons). I can tell you that many cities and states are well aware of the benefits of trees. Have a look at New York City’s “Million Trees NYC” program to plant one million trees: http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/html/about/about.shtml
To answer your last question on the changes in forest cover in the United States since the time of Sir Walter Ralegh (I will use the spelling he apparently preferred, according to the following website: http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/raleghbio.htm), I turned to forest inventory specialists at the U.S. Forest Service. I was told that forest cover in the United States in 1630 (some years after Sir Walter was beheaded in 1618) was just over 1 billion acres, or about 46 percent of the total land area. The 2005 “U.S. Forest Resource Facts and Historical Trends” report ( http://www.fia.fs.fed.us/library/briefings-summaries-overviews/docs/2002_ForestStats_%20FS801.pdf ) continues: “By 1907, the area of forest land had declined to an estimated 759 million acres or 34 percent of the total land area. Forest area has been relatively stable since 1907. In 2002, forest land comprised 749 million acres, or 33 percent of the total land area of the United States. Since 1630, there has been a net loss of 297 million acres of forest land, predominantly due to agricultural conversions. Nearly two-thirds of the net conversion to other uses occurred in the last half of the 19th century when an average of 13 square miles of forest was cleared every day for 50 years.”
I doubt that 19th century deforestation in North America has contributed more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels, as atmospheric CO2 levels rose much faster in the 20th century than before.
So thanks for your questions. I learned a lot myself about the United States and about England.
Do environmentally-focused jobs like yours fall under the Political cone? When it comes to specializing in particular issue areas in the Foreign Service, is that something only political officers can do, or could public diplomacy offers do it as well?
Alison,
In most U.S. embassies, environmental issues “belong” to the Economic Section, as they do here at Embassy London. I am an Economic Officer working in a job that focuses on environment and science. There are no restrictions on officers from particular specialties (or “cones”) working on environmental jobs, so it could be any type of officer – economic, political, consular, management or public diplomacy. All are welcome!
Jock