Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
In a past episode, we talked about how a small South American country has managed to transition their electricity grid to be powered by renewable energy.
Former Possibly senior reporter Juliana Merullo has been living in Uruguay for the last year, and today we’re going to be talking to her about what it’s like living in a country that runs on renewable energy. Hi, Juliana.
Juliana Merullo: Hi, Megan.
Megan Hall: So, remind us how Uruguay managed to do this?
Juliana Merullo: Right. So, in the early 2000s, they were having a lot of blackouts and economic crises, and they managed to attract a lot of international investment to transition their grid fully to renewable energy.
They use a mix of hydropower, a lot of wind energy, and also biomass and solar.
Megan Hall: Did you know about this when you decided to move there?
Juliana Merullo: Yeah, it was actually one of the big reasons that I wanted to come here. And I think a big part of me was curious what it would be like, because so many opponents of renewable energy in the U.S. say that it’s unreasonable the things that we’d have to do to reduce our carbon emissions. And I guess for context, I should say that the average U.S. person emits about eight or nine times as much greenhouse gas pollution as the average Uruguayan. So it’s a big difference.
Megan Hall: So what did you expect before you moved there?
Juliana Merullo: I think I thought it would be like a green paradise, that everyone would be driving around in their electric cars, that all of the houses would have solar panels on them. That there would be those tree wind turbines on the street.
Megan Hall: So is it a green paradise? Is it really like that?
Juliana Merullo: No, I wouldn’t say it’s like that at all. I do love living here, but it’s definitely not a green paradise. And sometimes the buses I ride are electric, but other times the buses seem like they’re 50 years older than I am, and you can practically see the pollution coming out of the tailpipe. So it really just depends.
Megan Hall: So do you notice that this grid is renewable in your day to day life? Is it obvious?
Juliana Merullo: No, definitely not. You know, you still turn on the light switch, the light still comes on, But it’s not like I’m thinking that that light is actually being powered by a wind turbine out in the countryside here. I think it’s easy to confuse having a fully renewable grid with all of the things that we attribute to global warming or to climate change.
There were other things that I was expecting to see in a country with so few carbon emissions. Like I thought recycling would be everywhere. And you can definitely find it, but I wouldn’t say that it’s a focus. People eat a lot of beef here. The houses don’t have solar panels on top. And I think it made me realize that a lot of the things I think about in the U.S. as ways to reduce my carbon impact, they don’t necessarily make as big of an impact on a country’s overall emissions. There’s bigger factors at play.
Megan Hall: So what are those bigger factors?
Juliana Merullo: I think one thing is that the average Uruguayan just uses a lot less energy. An average Uruguayan uses about a quarter of the energy that an average person in the U.S. uses. A lot of people here don’t have cars. They rely on public transportation to get around. A lot of people also don’t have clothes dryers. And it’s also a small country that’s very centralized, so people aren’t traveling as much.
Megan Hall: So what does that teach us here in the U. S.? What lessons can we learn from this?
Juliana Merullo: I think a big thing that I’ve learned, at least, is that a lot of it matters what your country and what your government is doing on a much bigger scale than your individual actions. Is the grid being powered by renewable energy? Those things do make a big difference in emissions. But I also think there are some smaller sacrifices that people could make to reduce their overall emissions.
Things like my clothes take a little bit longer to dry, or I have to wait to take the bus in the morning instead of driving my car like I would in the U.S. But I also still have a really good life here, right? And my quality of life, I would say, is even higher here than it is in the U.S. And it’s also a nice feeling when I realize that when I turn on the lights, that’s actually not being powered by fossil fuels, that’s being powered by wind turbines.
Megan Hall: Great. Well, thanks for the update, Juliana.
Juliana Merullo: Thanks so much, Megan. Miss you guys.
Megan Hall: Bye. That’s it for today. You can find more information or ask a question about the ways your choices affect our planet at askpossibly dot org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts, or follow us on social media at Ask Possibly.
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and Ocean State Media.
