Key Takeaways:
|
It is in our best interest to face an uncomfortable reality, make informed decisions, take action and get this right.
|
|
The negatives of rapidly warming the planet are predicted to far outweigh the positives, wherever viable alternatives exist emitting carbon comes with enormous amounts of risk for effectively no reward.
|
|
The larger the gap between emissions and drawdowns, the quicker climate change gets worse.
|
|
The quicker we reach net zero the better this pans out in terms of the impacts of climate change. Obviously there is a balance to be had, but anything we can do to reasonably increase the pace of transition, the better.
|
Material Type: Opinion Piece (Oli Strong- Founder)
A pre-warning that this isn’t our most uplifting piece of material, but it could be our most important because it’s in our* best interest to face an uncomfortable reality, make informed decisions, take action and get this right... that will almost certainly result in the best outcome.
When it comes to climate change, it can be difficult to know what to believe, but here is what we do know and this is the situation...
Climate change is really simple…
Every year that we* emit more carbon than we drawdown, this crisis gets worse. This is why there is so much talk about getting to net zero (which is just where the amount we’re emitting and the amount being drawn down is balanced). The larger the gap between emissions and drawdowns the quicker the planet heats up and the quicker this crisis gets worse. So how we get to net zero matters (i.e. the quicker we can decarbonise and close that gap the better this pans out).
All of the risk factors associated with climate change (most of which you are probably aware of) will increase until we get to net zero (so the forest fires, coral bleaching, extreme weather, drought, flooding, biodiversity loss, food scarcity etc. will increase, in magnitude and frequency on average, until net zero is reached). Wherever viable alternatives exist, emitting carbon comes with enormous amounts of risk for effectively no reward. Note: the science is clear that the negative impacts of global warming will far outweigh any benefits… i.e. more emissions = more warming = more bad news.
When it comes to climate change, it can be difficult to know what to believe, but here is what we do know and this is the situation...
Climate change is really simple…
Every year that we* emit more carbon than we drawdown, this crisis gets worse. This is why there is so much talk about getting to net zero (which is just where the amount we’re emitting and the amount being drawn down is balanced). The larger the gap between emissions and drawdowns the quicker the planet heats up and the quicker this crisis gets worse. So how we get to net zero matters (i.e. the quicker we can decarbonise and close that gap the better this pans out).
All of the risk factors associated with climate change (most of which you are probably aware of) will increase until we get to net zero (so the forest fires, coral bleaching, extreme weather, drought, flooding, biodiversity loss, food scarcity etc. will increase, in magnitude and frequency on average, until net zero is reached). Wherever viable alternatives exist, emitting carbon comes with enormous amounts of risk for effectively no reward. Note: the science is clear that the negative impacts of global warming will far outweigh any benefits… i.e. more emissions = more warming = more bad news.
At the same time there is a concerning probability that if we cross a certain threshold^ (i.e. warm the planet up, too quickly, beyond a certain point) global temperatures will spiral to a new equilibrium. This is due to positive feedback loops within the climate system and it’s possible we would be unable to stop this additional warming (what we call "uncontrolled climate change"). It’s not clear what the new equilibrium would be but it would likely result in increasing global temperatures throughout our lifetime and could result in 3 or more degrees of warming by the end of this century (we should bear in mind that all the things that are already happening are at around 1.1 degrees of warming).
The scientific consensus is that we still have time realistically to avoid such a situation but we must take more significant action now to be reasonably confident of avoiding what would very likely be the biggest catastrophe in human history. Should we fail to take urgent action, the probability of uncontrolled climate change starts to increase, a risk that would not be sensible to take.
* References to “our '' or “we” generally refers to humanity or the people of this world as a whole.
^ Threshold: this refers to an overarching threshold/ tipping point where global warming becomes out of our control (see “uncontrolled climate change”). In reality this is made up of a complex system of tipping points (including social, political and economic tipping points among others).
The scientific consensus is that we still have time realistically to avoid such a situation but we must take more significant action now to be reasonably confident of avoiding what would very likely be the biggest catastrophe in human history. Should we fail to take urgent action, the probability of uncontrolled climate change starts to increase, a risk that would not be sensible to take.
* References to “our '' or “we” generally refers to humanity or the people of this world as a whole.
^ Threshold: this refers to an overarching threshold/ tipping point where global warming becomes out of our control (see “uncontrolled climate change”). In reality this is made up of a complex system of tipping points (including social, political and economic tipping points among others).