can you fix climate change essay

A sunset lights a glacier in New Zealand's Fiordland National Park. Around the world, many glaciers are melting quickly as the planet warms.

• ENVIRONMENT

Are there real ways to fight climate change? Yes.

Humans have the solutions to fight a global environmental crisis. Do we have the will?

The evidence that humans are causing climate change, with drastic consequences for life on the planet, is overwhelming .

Experts began raising the alarm about global warming in 1979 , a change now referred to under the broader term climate change , preferred by scientists to describe the complex shifts now affecting our planet’s weather and climate systems. Climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures but also extreme weather events, shifting wildlife populations and habitats, rising seas , and a range of other impacts.  

Over 200 countries—193 countries plus the 27 members of the European Union—have signed the Paris Climate Agreement , a treaty created in 2015 to fight climate change on a global scale. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which synthesizes the scientific consensus on the issue, has set a goal of keeping warming under 2°C (3.6°F) and pursuing an even lower warming cap of 1.5 °C (2.7° F).

But no country has created policies that will keep the world below 1.5 °C, according to the Climate Action Tracker . Current emissions have the world on track to warm 2.8°C by the end of this century.  

Addressing climate change will require many solutions —there's no magic bullet. Yet nearly all of these solutions exist today. They range from worldwide changes to where we source our electricity to protecting forests from deforestation.  

The promise of new technology

Better technology will help reduce emissions from activities like manufacturing and driving.  

Scientists are working on ways to sustainably produce hydrogen, most of which is currently derived from natural gas, to feed zero-emission fuel cells for transportation and electricity.  

Renewable energy is growing, and in the U.S., a combination of wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable sources provide 20 percen t of the nation’s electricity.  

New technological developments promise to build better batteries to store that renewable energy, engineer a smarter electric grid, and capture carbon dioxide from power plants and store it underground or turn it into valuable products such as gasoline . Some argue that nuclear power—despite concerns over safety, water use, and toxic waste—should also be part of the solution, because nuclear plants don't contribute any direct air pollution while operating.

Should we turn to geoengineering?

While halting new greenhouse gas emissions is critical, scientists say we need to extract existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, effectively sucking it out of the sky.  

Pulling carbon out of the atmosphere is a type of geoengineering , a science that interferes with the Earth’s natural systems, and it’s a controversial approach to fighting climate change.

Other types of geoengineering involve spraying sunlight-reflecting aerosols into the air or blocking the sun with a giant space mirror. Studies suggest we don’t know enough about the potential dangers of geoengineering to deploy it.

Restoring nature to protect the planet  

Planting trees, restoring seagrasses, and boosting the use of agricultural cover crops could help clean up significant amounts of carbon dioxide .  

The Amazon rainforest is an important reservoir of the Earth’s carbon, but a study published in 2021, showed deforestation was transforming this reservoir into a source of pollution.  

Restoring and protecting nature may provide as much as   37 percent of the climate mitigation needed to reach the Paris Agreement’s 203o targets. Protecting these ecosystems can also benefit biodiversity, providing a win-win for nature .

Adapt—or else

Communities around the world are already recognizing that adaptation must also be part of the response to climate change . From flood-prone coastal towns to regions facing increased droughts and fires, a new wave of initiatives focuses on boosting resilience . Those include managing or preventing land erosion, building microgrids and other energy systems built to withstand disruptions, and designing buildings with rising sea levels in mind.

Last year, the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law and was a historic investment in fighting and adapting to climate change.

( Read more about how the bill will dramatically reduce emissions. )

Recent books such as Drawdown and Designing Climate Solutions have proposed bold yet simple plans for reversing our current course. The ideas vary, but the message is consistent: We already have many of the tools needed to address climate change. Some of the concepts are broad ones that governments and businesses must implement, but many other ideas involve changes that anyone can make— eating less   meat , for example, or rethinking your modes of transport .

"We have the technology today to rapidly move to a clean energy system," write the authors of Designing Climate Solutions . "And the price of that future, without counting environmental benefits, is about the same as that of a carbon-intensive future."

Sarah Gibbens contributed reporting to this article.

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How You Can Stop Global Warming

Healing the planet starts in your garage, in your kitchen, and at your dining room table.

Weatherizing doors and windows by sealing drafts can make your home more energy efficient.

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Rising sea levels. Raging storms. Searing heat. Ferocious fires. Severe drought. Punishing floods. The effects of climate change are already threatening our health, our communities, our economy, our security, and our children’s future.

What can you do? A whole lot, as it turns out. Americans, on average, produce 21 tons of carbon a year, about four times the global average. Personal action is, of course, no substitute for meaningful government policies. We still must limit carbon pollution and aggressively move away from dirty fossil fuels toward cleaner power.

But it’s important to remember the equally vital contributions that can be made by private citizens—which is to say, by you. “Change only happens when individuals take action,” says clean energy advocate Aliya Haq. “There’s no other way, if it doesn’t start with people.”

Here are a dozen easy, effective ways each one of us can make a difference.

1. Speak up!

What’s the single biggest way you can make an impact on global climate change? “Talk to your friends and family, and make sure your representatives are making good decisions,” Haq says. By voicing your concerns—via social media or, better yet, directly to your elected officials —you send a message that you care about the warming world. Encourage Congress to enact new laws that limit carbon emissions and require polluters to pay for the emissions they produce. “The main reason elected officials do anything difficult is because their constituents make them,” Haq says. You can help protect public lands, stop offshore drilling, and more here .

2. Power your home with renewable energy.

Choose a utility company that generates at least half its power from wind or solar and has been certified by Green-e Energy , an organization that vets renewable energy options. If that isn’t possible for you, take a look at your electric bill; many utilities now list other ways to support renewable sources on their monthly statements and websites.

3. Weatherize, weatherize, weatherize.

“Building heating and cooling are among the biggest uses of energy,” Haq says. Indeed, heating and air-conditioning account for almost half of home energy use. You can make your space more energy efficient by sealing drafts and ensuring it’s adequately insulated. You can also claim federal tax credits for many energy efficiency home improvements. To help you figure out where to start, you could also get a home energy audit, which some utilities offer free of charge. (Alternatively, you can hire a professional to come to your home and perform one; the Inflation Reduction Act offers a partial tax credit for this.) The EPA’s Home Energy Yardstick gives you a simple assessment of your home’s annual energy use compared with similar homes.

4. Invest in energy-efficient appliances.

Since they were first implemented nationally in 1987, efficiency standards for dozens of appliances and products have kept 2.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the air. That’s about the same amount as the annual carbon pollution coughed up by nearly 440 million cars. “Energy efficiency is the lowest-cost way to reduce emissions,” Haq says. When shopping for refrigerators, washing machines, heat pump water heaters , and other appliances, look for the Energy Star label. It will tell you which are the most efficient. (There may also be rebates to earn from your purchase of Energy Star–certified products.)

And when you’re ready to swap out your old machines, don’t just put them on the curb: Recycling an old refrigerator through the EPA’s Responsible Appliance Disposal Program can prevent an additional 10,000 pounds of carbon pollution because the global-warming pollutants in the refrigerants and foam would be properly captured rather than vented to the air.

5. Reduce water waste.

Saving water reduces carbon pollution, too. That's because it takes a lot of energy to pump, heat, and treat your water. So take shorter showers, turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, and switch to WaterSense -labeled fixtures and appliances. The EPA estimates that if just one out of every 100 American homes were retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, about 100 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year would be saved—avoiding 80,000 tons of global warming pollution .

6. Actually eat the food you buy—and compost what you can’t.

Approximately 10 percent of U.S. energy use goes into growing, processing, packaging, and shipping food—about 40 percent of which winds up in the landfill. “If you’re wasting less food, you’re likely cutting down on energy consumption,” Haq says. As for the scraps you can’t eat or the leftovers you don’t get to, collect them in a compost bin instead of sending them to the landfill where they release methane. Recycling food and other organic waste into compost provides a range of environmental benefits, including improving soil health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, recycling nutrients, and mitigating the impact of droughts.

7. Buy better bulbs.

LED light bulbs use one-sixth the amount of energy to deliver the same amount of light as conventional incandescents and last at least 10 times longer. They’re also cheaper in the long run: A 10-watt LED that replaces your traditional 60-watt bulb will save you $125 over the light bulb’s life. And because the average American home has around 40 to 50 light bulbs, this is a simple swap that will reap huge rewards. If every household in the United States replaced just one incandescent with an Energy Star–labeled LED, we would prevent seven billion pounds of carbon pollution per year. That’s equivalent to the emissions of about 648,000 cars.

8. Pull the plug(s).

Taken together, the outlets in your home are likely powering about 65 devices—an average load for a home in the United States. Audio and video devices, cordless vacuums and power tools, and other electronics use energy even when they're not charging. This "idle load" across all U.S. households adds up to the output of 50 large power plants in the country . So don't leave fully charged devices plugged into your home's outlets, unplug rarely used devices or plug them into power strips and timers, and adjust your computers and monitors to automatically power down to the lowest power mode when not in use.

9. Drive a fuel-efficient vehicle.

Gas-smart cars, such as hybrids and fully electric vehicles, save fuel and money . And once all cars and light trucks meet 2025’s clean car standards, which means averaging 54.5 miles per gallon, they’ll be a mainstay. For good reason: Relative to a national fleet of vehicles that averaged only 28.3 miles per gallon in 2011, Americans will spend $80 billion less at the pump each year and cut their automotive emissions by half. Before you buy a new set of wheels, compare fuel-economy performance here .

10. Maintain your ride.

If all Americans kept their tires properly inflated, we could save 1.2 billion gallons of gas each year. A simple tune-up can boost miles per gallon anywhere from 4 percent to 40 percent, and a new air filter can get you a 10 percent boost. Also, remove unnecessary accessories from your car roof. Roof racks and clamshell storage containers can reduce fuel efficiency by as much as 5 percent.

11. Rethink planes, trains, and automobiles.

Choosing to live in walkable smart-growth cities and towns with quality public transportation leads to less driving, less money spent on fuel, and less pollution in the air . Less frequent flying can make a big difference, too. “Air transport is a major source of climate pollution,” Haq says. “If you can take a train instead, do that.” If you must fly, consider purchasing carbon offsets to counterbalance the hefty carbon pollution associated with flying. But not all carbon offset companies are alike. Do your homework to find the best supplier.

12. Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

In the United States, the average person generates 4.5 pounds of trash every day. Fortunately, not all the items we discard end up in landfills; we recycle or compost more than one-third of our trash. In 2014 this saved carbon emissions equivalent to the yearly output of 38 million passenger cars . But we could be doing so much more. “ Reduce should always be the number-one priority,” says NRDC senior resource specialist Darby Hoover . And to reap the environmental benefits of “recyclable” goods, you must recycle according to the rules of your municipality, since systems vary widely by location . Search your municipality’s sanitation department (or equivalent) webpage to learn exactly what you can place in the recycling bin, as counties and cities often differ in what they accept.

This story was originally published on April 20, 2022 and has been updated with new information and links.

This NRDC.org story is available for online republication by news media outlets or nonprofits under these conditions: The writer(s) must be credited with a byline; you must note prominently that the story was originally published by NRDC.org and link to the original; the story cannot be edited (beyond simple things such as grammar); you can’t resell the story in any form or grant republishing rights to other outlets; you can’t republish our material wholesale or automatically—you need to select stories individually; you can’t republish the photos or graphics on our site without specific permission; you should drop us a note to let us know when you’ve used one of our stories.

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November 26, 2007

10 Solutions for Climate Change

Ten possibilities for staving off catastrophic climate change

By David Biello

Mark Garlick Getty Images

The enormity of global warming can be daunting and dispiriting. What can one person, or even one nation, do on their own to slow and reverse climate change ? But just as ecologist Stephen Pacala and physicist Robert Socolow, both at Princeton University, came up with 15 so-called " wedges " for nations to utilize toward this goal—each of which is challenging but feasible and, in some combination, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions to safer levels —there are personal lifestyle changes that you can make too that, in some combination, can help reduce your carbon impact. Not all are right for everybody. Some you may already be doing or absolutely abhor. But implementing just a few of them could make a difference.

Forego Fossil Fuels —The first challenge is eliminating the burning of coal , oil and, eventually, natural gas. This is perhaps the most daunting challenge as denizens of richer nations literally eat, wear, work, play and even sleep on the products made from such fossilized sunshine. And citizens of developing nations want and arguably deserve the same comforts, which are largely thanks to the energy stored in such fuels.

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Oil is the lubricant of the global economy, hidden inside such ubiquitous items as plastic and corn, and fundamental to the transportation of both consumers and goods. Coal is the substrate, supplying roughly half of the electricity used in the U.S. and nearly that much worldwide—a percentage that is likely to grow, according to the International Energy Agency. There are no perfect solutions for reducing dependence on fossil fuels (for example, carbon neutral biofuels can drive up the price of food and lead to forest destruction, and while nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases, it does produce radioactive waste), but every bit counts.

So try to employ alternatives when possible—plant-derived plastics, biodiesel, wind power—and to invest in the change, be it by divesting from oil stocks or investing in companies practicing carbon capture and storage.

Infrastructure Upgrade —Buildings worldwide contribute around one third of all greenhouse gas emissions (43 percent in the U.S. alone), even though investing in thicker insulation and other cost-effective, temperature-regulating steps can save money in the long run. Electric grids are at capacity or overloaded, but power demands continue to rise. And bad roads can lower the fuel economy of even the most efficient vehicle. Investing in new infrastructure, or radically upgrading existing highways and transmission lines, would help cut greenhouse gas emissions and drive economic growth in developing countries.

Of course, it takes a lot of cement, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, to construct new buildings and roads. The U.S. alone contributed 50.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in 2005 from cement production, which requires heating limestone and other ingredients to 1,450 degrees Celsius (2,642 degrees Fahrenheit). Mining copper and other elements needed for electrical wiring and transmission also causes globe-warming pollution.

But energy-efficient buildings and improved cement-making processes (such as using alternative fuels to fire up the kiln) could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the developed world and prevent them in the developing world.

Move Closer to Work —Transportation is the second leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. (burning a single gallon of gasoline produces 20 pounds of CO 2 ). But it doesn't have to be that way.

One way to dramatically curtail transportation fuel needs is to move closer to work, use mass transit, or switch to walking, cycling or some other mode of transport that does not require anything other than human energy. There is also the option of working from home and telecommuting several days a week.

Cutting down on long-distance travel would also help, most notably airplane flights, which are one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions and a source that arguably releases such emissions in the worst possible spot (higher in the atmosphere). Flights are also one of the few sources of globe-warming pollution for which there isn't already a viable alternative: jets rely on kerosene, because it packs the most energy per pound, allowing them to travel far and fast, yet it takes roughly 10 gallons of oil to make one gallon of JetA fuel. Restricting flying to only critical, long-distance trips—in many parts of the world, trains can replace planes for short- to medium-distance trips—would help curb airplane emissions.

Consume Less —The easiest way to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions is simply to buy less stuff. Whether by forgoing an automobile or employing a reusable grocery sack, cutting back on consumption results in fewer fossil fuels being burned to extract, produce and ship products around the globe.

Think green when making purchases. For instance, if you are in the market for a new car, buy one that will last the longest and have the least impact on the environment. Thus, a used vehicle with a hybrid engine offers superior fuel efficiency over the long haul while saving the environmental impact of new car manufacture.

Paradoxically, when purchasing essentials, such as groceries, buying in bulk can reduce the amount of packaging—plastic wrapping, cardboard boxes and other unnecessary materials. Sometimes buying more means consuming less.

Be Efficient —A potentially simpler and even bigger impact can be made by doing more with less. Citizens of many developed countries are profligate wasters of energy, whether by speeding in a gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicle or leaving the lights on when not in a room.

Good driving—and good car maintenance, such as making sure tires are properly inflated—can limit the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from a vehicle and, perhaps more importantly, lower the frequency of payment at the pump.

Similarly, employing more efficient refrigerators, air conditioners and other appliances, such as those rated highly under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program, can cut electric bills while something as simple as weatherproofing the windows of a home can reduce heating and cooling bills. Such efforts can also be usefully employed at work, whether that means installing more efficient turbines at the power plant or turning the lights off when you leave the office .

Eat Smart, Go Vegetarian? —Corn grown in the U.S. requires barrels of oil for the fertilizer to grow it and the diesel fuel to harvest and transport it. Some grocery stores stock organic produce that do not require such fertilizers, but it is often shipped from halfway across the globe. And meat, whether beef, chicken or pork, requires pounds of feed to produce a pound of protein.

Choosing food items that balance nutrition, taste and ecological impact is no easy task. Foodstuffs often bear some nutritional information, but there is little to reveal how far a head of lettuce, for example, has traveled.

University of Chicago researchers estimate that each meat-eating American produces 1.5 tons more greenhouse gases through their food choice than do their vegetarian peers. It would also take far less land to grow the crops necessary to feed humans than livestock, allowing more room for planting trees.

Stop Cutting Down Trees —Every year, 33 million acres of forests are cut down . Timber harvesting in the tropics alone contributes 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere. That represents 20 percent of human-made greenhouse gas emissions and a source that could be avoided relatively easily.

Improved agricultural practices along with paper recycling and forest management—balancing the amount of wood taken out with the amount of new trees growing—could quickly eliminate this significant chunk of emissions.

And when purchasing wood products, such as furniture or flooring, buy used goods or, failing that, wood certified to have been sustainably harvested. The Amazon and other forests are not just the lungs of the earth, they may also be humanity's best short-term hope for limiting climate change.

Unplug —Believe it or not, U.S. citizens spend more money on electricity to power devices when off than when on. Televisions, stereo equipment, computers, battery chargers and a host of other gadgets and appliances consume more energy when seemingly switched off, so unplug them instead.

Purchasing energy-efficient gadgets can also save both energy and money—and thus prevent more greenhouse gas emissions. To take but one example, efficient battery chargers could save more than one billion kilowatt-hours of electricity—$100 million at today's electricity prices—and thus prevent the release of more than one million metric tons of greenhouse gases.

Swapping old incandescent lightbulbs for more efficient replacements, such as compact fluorescents (warning: these lightbulbs contain mercury and must be properly disposed of at the end of their long life), would save billions of kilowatt-hours. In fact, according to the EPA, replacing just one incandescent lightbulb in every American home would save enough energy to provide electricity to three million American homes.

One Child —There are at least 6.6 billion people living today, a number that is predicted by the United Nations to grow to at least nine billion by mid-century. The U.N. Environmental Program estimates that it requires 54 acres to sustain an average human being today—food, clothing and other resources extracted from the planet. Continuing such population growth seems unsustainable.

Falling birth rates in some developed and developing countries (a significant portion of which are due to government-imposed limits on the number of children a couple can have) have begun to reduce or reverse the population explosion. It remains unclear how many people the planet can comfortably sustain, but it is clear that per capita energy consumption must go down if climate change is to be controlled.

Ultimately, a one child per couple rule is not sustainable either and there is no perfect number for human population. But it is clear that more humans means more greenhouse gas emissions.

Future Fuels —Replacing fossil fuels may prove the great challenge of the 21st century. Many contenders exist, ranging from ethanol derived from crops to hydrogen electrolyzed out of water, but all of them have some drawbacks, too, and none are immediately available at the scale needed.

Biofuels can have a host of negative impacts, from driving up food prices to sucking up more energy than they produce. Hydrogen must be created, requiring either reforming natural gas or electricity to crack water molecules. Biodiesel hybrid electric vehicles (that can plug into the grid overnight) may offer the best transportation solution in the short term, given the energy density of diesel and the carbon neutral ramifications of fuel from plants as well as the emissions of electric engines. A recent study found that the present amount of electricity generation in the U.S. could provide enough energy for the country's entire fleet of automobiles to switch to plug-in hybrids , reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

But plug-in hybrids would still rely on electricity, now predominantly generated by burning dirty coal. Massive investment in low-emission energy generation, whether solar-thermal power or nuclear fission , would be required to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And even more speculative energy sources—hyperefficient photovoltaic cells, solar energy stations in orbit or even fusion—may ultimately be required.

The solutions above offer the outline of a plan to personally avoid contributing to global warming. But should such individual and national efforts fail, there is another, potentially desperate solution:

Experiment Earth —Climate change represents humanity's first planetwide experiment. But, if all else fails, it may not be the last. So-called geoengineering , radical interventions to either block sunlight or reduce greenhouse gases, is a potential last resort for addressing the challenge of climate change.

Among the ideas: releasing sulfate particles in the air to mimic the cooling effects of a massive volcanic eruption; placing millions of small mirrors or lenses in space to deflect sunlight; covering portions of the planet with reflective films to bounce sunlight back into space; fertilizing the oceans with iron or other nutrients to enable plankton to absorb more carbon; and increasing cloud cover or the reflectivity of clouds that already form.

All may have unintended consequences, making the solution worse than the original problem. But it is clear that at least some form of geoengineering will likely be required: capturing carbon dioxide before it is released and storing it in some fashion, either deep beneath the earth, at the bottom of the ocean or in carbonate minerals. Such carbon capture and storage is critical to any serious effort to combat climate change.

Additional reporting by Larry Greenemeier and Nikhil Swaminathan .

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Essay on Climate Change: Check Samples in 100, 250 Words

• Updated on  
• Sep 21, 2023

Writing an essay on climate change is crucial to raise awareness and advocate for action. The world is facing environmental challenges, so in a situation like this such essay topics can serve as s platform to discuss the causes, effects, and solutions to this pressing issue. They offer an opportunity to engage readers in understanding the urgency of mitigating climate change for the sake of our planet’s future.

Must Read: Essay On Environment  

This Blog Includes:

What is climate change, what are the causes of climate change, what are the effects of climate change, how to fight climate change, essay on climate change in 100 words, climate change sample essay 250 words.

Climate change is the significant variation of average weather conditions becoming, for example, warmer, wetter, or drier—over several decades or longer. It may be natural or anthropogenic. However, in recent times, it’s been in the top headlines due to escalations caused by human interference.

Obama at the First Session of COP21 rightly quoted “We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, and the last generation that can do something about it.”.Identifying the causes of climate change is the first step to take in our fight against climate change. Below stated are some of the causes of climate change:

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Mainly from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) for energy and transportation.
• Deforestation: The cutting down of trees reduces the planet’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide.
• Industrial Processes: Certain manufacturing activities release potent greenhouse gases.
• Agriculture: Livestock and rice cultivation emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Climate change poses a huge risk to almost all life forms on Earth. The effects of climate change are listed below:

• Global Warming: Increased temperatures due to trapped heat from greenhouse gases.
• Melting Ice and Rising Sea Levels: Ice caps and glaciers melt, causing oceans to rise.
• Extreme Weather Events: More frequent and severe hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires.
• Ocean Acidification: Oceans absorb excess CO2, leading to more acidic waters harming marine life.
• Disrupted Ecosystems: Shifting climate patterns disrupt habitats and threaten biodiversity.
• Food and Water Scarcity: Altered weather affects crop yields and strains water resources.
• Human Health Risks: Heat-related illnesses and the spread of diseases.
• Economic Impact: Damage to infrastructure and increased disaster-related costs.
• Migration and Conflict: Climate-induced displacement and resource competition.

‘Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority,’ says Bill Gates. The below points highlight key actions to combat climate change effectively.

• Energy Efficiency: Improve energy efficiency in all sectors.
• Protect Forests: Stop deforestation and promote reforestation.
• Sustainable Agriculture: Adopt eco-friendly farming practices.
• Advocacy: Raise awareness and advocate for climate-friendly policies.
• Innovation: Invest in green technologies and research.
• Government Policies: Enforce climate-friendly regulations and targets.
• Corporate Responsibility: Encourage sustainable business practices.
• Individual Action: Reduce personal carbon footprint and inspire others.

Climate change refers to long-term alterations in Earth’s climate patterns, primarily driven by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation, which release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These gases trap heat, leading to global warming. The consequences of climate change are widespread and devastating. Rising temperatures cause polar ice caps to melt, contributing to sea level rise and threatening coastal communities. Extreme weather events, like hurricanes and wildfires, become more frequent and severe, endangering lives and livelihoods. Additionally, shifts in weather patterns can disrupt agriculture, leading to food shortages. To combat climate change, global cooperation, renewable energy adoption, and sustainable practices are crucial for a more sustainable future.

Must Read: Essay On Global Warming

Climate change represents a pressing global challenge that demands immediate attention and concerted efforts. Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, have significantly increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This results in a greenhouse effect, trapping heat and leading to a rise in global temperatures, commonly referred to as global warming.

The consequences of climate change are far-reaching and profound. Rising sea levels threaten coastal communities, displacing millions and endangering vital infrastructure. Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires, have become more frequent and severe, causing devastating economic and human losses. Disrupted ecosystems affect biodiversity and the availability of vital resources, from clean water to agricultural yields.

Moreover, climate change has serious implications for food and water security. Changing weather patterns disrupt traditional farming practices and strain freshwater resources, potentially leading to conflicts over access to essential commodities.

Addressing climate change necessitates a multifaceted approach. First, countries must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through the transition to renewable energy sources, increased energy efficiency, and reforestation efforts. International cooperation is crucial to set emission reduction targets and hold nations accountable for meeting them.

In conclusion, climate change is a global crisis with profound and immediate consequences. Urgent action is needed to mitigate its impacts and secure a sustainable future for our planet. By reducing emissions and implementing adaptation strategies, we can protect vulnerable communities, preserve ecosystems, and ensure a livable planet for future generations. The time to act is now.

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in Earth’s climate patterns, primarily driven by human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation.

Five key causes of climate change include excessive greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, notably burning fossil fuels and deforestation. 

We hope this blog gave you an idea about how to write and present an essay on climate change that puts forth your opinions. The skill of writing an essay comes in handy when appearing for standardized language tests. Thinking of taking one soon? Leverage Edu provides the best online test prep for the same via Leverage Live . Register today to know more!

Amisha Khushara

With a heart full of passion for writing, I pour my emotions into every piece I create. I strive to connect with readers on a personal level, infusing my work with authenticity and relatability. Writing isn't just a skill; it's my heartfelt expression to touch hearts and minds.

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Our Future Is Now - A Climate Change Essay by Francesca Minicozzi, '21

Francesca Minicozzi (class of 2021) is a Writing/Biology major who plans to study medicine after graduation. She wrote this essay on climate change for WR 355/Travel Writing, which she took while studying abroad in Newcastle in spring 2020. Although the coronavirus pandemic curtailed Francesca’s time abroad, her months in Newcastle prompted her to learn more about climate change. Terre Ryan Associate Professor, Writing Department

Our Future Is Now

By Francesca Minicozzi, '21 Writing and Biology Major

 “If you don’t mind me asking, how is the United States preparing for climate change?” my flat mate, Zac, asked me back in March, when we were both still in Newcastle. He and I were accustomed to asking each other about the differences between our home countries; he came from Cambridge, while I originated in Long Island, New York. This was one of our numerous conversations about issues that impact our generation, which we usually discussed while cooking dinner in our communal kitchen. In the moment of our conversation, I did not have as strong an answer for him as I would have liked. Instead, I informed him of the few changes I had witnessed within my home state of New York.

Zac’s response was consistent with his normal, diplomatic self. “I have been following the BBC news in terms of the climate crisis for the past few years. The U.K. has been working hard to transition to renewable energy sources. Similar to the United States, here in the United Kingdom we have converted over to solar panels too. My home does not have solar panels, but a lot of our neighbors have switched to solar energy in the past few years.”

“Our two countries are similar, yet so different,” I thought. Our conversation continued as we prepared our meals, with topics ranging from climate change to the upcoming presidential election to Britain’s exit from the European Union. However, I could not shake the fact that I knew so little about a topic so crucial to my generation.

After I abruptly returned home from the United Kingdom because of the global pandemic, my conversation with my flat mate lingered in my mind. Before the coronavirus surpassed climate change headlines, I had seen the number of internet postings regarding protests to protect the planet dramatically increase. Yet the idea of our planet becoming barren and unlivable in a not-so-distant future had previously upset me to the point where a part of me refused to deal with it. After I returned from studying abroad, I decided to educate myself on the climate crisis.

My quest for climate change knowledge required a thorough understanding of the difference between “climate change” and “global warming.” Climate change is defined as “a pattern of change affecting global or regional climate,” based on “average temperature and rainfall measurements” as well as the frequency of extreme weather events. 1   These varied temperature and weather events link back to both natural incidents and human activity. 2   Likewise, the term global warming was coined “to describe climate change caused by humans.” 3   Not only that, but global warming is most recently attributed to an increase in “global average temperature,” mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions produced by humans. 4

I next questioned why the term “climate change” seemed to take over the term “global warming” in the United States. According to Frank Luntz, a leading Republican consultant, the term “global warming” functions as a rather intimidating phrase. During George W. Bush’s first presidential term, Luntz argued in favor of using the less daunting phrase “climate change” in an attempt to overcome the environmental battle amongst Democrats and Republicans. 5   Since President Bush’s term, Luntz remains just one political consultant out of many politicians who has recognized the need to address climate change. In an article from 2019, Luntz proclaimed that political parties aside, the climate crisis affects everyone. Luntz argued that politicians should steer clear of trying to communicate “the complicated science of climate change,” and instead engage voters by explaining how climate change personally impacts citizens with natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires. 6   He even suggested that a shift away from words like “sustainability” would gear Americans towards what they really want: a “cleaner, safer, healthier” environment. 7

The idea of a cleaner and heathier environment remains easier said than done. The Paris Climate Agreement, introduced in 2015, began the United Nations’ “effort to combat global climate change.” 8   This agreement marked a global initiative to “limit global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels,” while simultaneously “pursuing means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.” 9    Every country on earth has joined together in this agreement for the common purpose of saving our planet. 10   So, what could go wrong here? As much as this sounds like a compelling step in the right direction for climate change, President Donald Trump thought otherwise. In June 2017, President Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement with his proclamation of climate change as a “’hoax’ perpetrated by China.” 11   President Trump continued to question the scientific facts behind climate change, remaining an advocate for the expansion of domestic fossil fuel production. 12   He reversed environmental policies implemented by former President Barack Obama to reduce fossil fuel use. 13

Trump’s actions against the Paris Agreement, however, fail to represent the beliefs of Americans as a whole. The majority of American citizens feel passionate about the fight against climate change. To demonstrate their support, some have gone as far as creating initiatives including America’s Pledge and We Are Still In. 14   Although the United States officially exited the Paris Agreement on November 4, 2020, this withdrawal may not survive permanently. 15   According to experts, our new president “could rejoin in as short as a month’s time.” 16   This offers a glimmer of hope.

The Paris Agreement declares that the United States will reduce greenhouse gas emission levels by 26 to 28 percent by the year 2025. 17   As a leader in greenhouse gas emissions, the United States needs to accept the climate crisis for the serious challenge that it presents and work together with other nations. The concept of working coherently with all nations remains rather tricky; however, I remain optimistic. I think we can learn from how other countries have adapted to the increased heating of our planet. During my recent study abroad experience in the United Kingdom, I was struck by Great Britain’s commitment to combating climate change.

Since the United Kingdom joined the Paris Agreement, the country targets a “net-zero” greenhouse gas emission for 2050. 18   This substantial alteration would mark an 80% reduction of greenhouse gases from 1990, if “clear, stable, and well-designed policies are implemented without interruption.” 19   In order to stay on top of reducing emissions, the United Kingdom tracks electricity and car emissions, “size of onshore and offshore wind farms,” amount of homes and “walls insulated, and boilers upgraded,” as well as the development of government policies, including grants for electric vehicles. 20   A strong grip on this data allows the United Kingdom to target necessary modifications that keep the country on track for 2050. In my brief semester in Newcastle, I took note of these significant changes. The city of Newcastle is small enough that many students and faculty are able to walk or bike to campus and nearby essential shops. However, when driving is unavoidable, the majority of the vehicles used are electric, and many British citizens place a strong emphasis on carpooling to further reduce emissions. The United Kingdom’s determination to severely reduce greenhouse emissions is ambitious and particularly admirable, especially as the United States struggles to shy away from its dependence on fossil fuels.

So how can we, as Americans, stand together to combat global climate change? Here are five adjustments Americans can make to their homes and daily routines that can dramatically make a difference:

• Stay cautious of food waste. Studies demonstrate that “Americans throw away up to 40 percent of the food they buy.” 21   By being more mindful of the foods we purchase, opting for leftovers, composting wastes, and donating surplus food to those in need, we can make an individual difference that impacts the greater good. 22   
• Insulate your home. Insulation functions as a “cost-effective and accessible” method to combat climate change. 23   Homes with modern insulation reduce energy required to heat them, leading to a reduction of emissions and an overall savings; in comparison, older homes can “lose up to 35 percent of heat through their walls.” 24   
• Switch to LED Lighting. LED stands for “light-emitting diodes,” which use “90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and half as much as compact fluorescents.” 25   LED lights create light without producing heat, and therefore do not waste energy. Additionally, these lights have a longer duration than other bulbs, which means they offer a continuing savings. 26  
• Choose transportation wisely. Choose to walk or bike whenever the option presents itself. If walking or biking is not an option, use an electric or hybrid vehicle which emits less harmful gases. Furthermore, reduce the number of car trips taken, and carpool with others when applicable. 
• Finally, make your voice heard. The future of our planet remains in our hands, so we might as well use our voices to our advantage. Social media serves as a great platform for this. Moreover, using social media to share helpful hints to combat climate change within your community or to promote an upcoming protest proves beneficial in the long run. If we collectively put our voices to good use, together we can advocate for change.

As many of us are stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these suggestions are slightly easier to put into place. With numerous “stay-at-home” orders in effect, Americans have the opportunity to make significant achievements for climate change. Personally, I have taken more precautions towards the amount of food consumed within my household during this pandemic. I have been more aware of food waste, opting for leftovers when too much food remains. Additionally, I have realized how powerful my voice is as a young college student. Now is the opportunity for Americans to share how they feel about climate change. During this unprecedented time, our voice is needed now more than ever in order to make a difference.

However, on a much larger scale, the coronavirus outbreak has shed light on reducing global energy consumption. Reductions in travel, both on the roads and in the air, have triggered a drop in emission rates. In fact, the International Energy Agency predicts a 6 percent decrease in energy consumption around the globe for this year alone. 27   This drop is “equivalent to losing the entire energy demand of India.” 28   Complete lockdowns have lowered the global demand for electricity and slashed CO2 emissions. However, in New York City, the shutdown has only decreased carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent. 29   This proves that a shift in personal behavior is simply not enough to “fix the carbon emission problem.” 30   Climate policies aimed to reduce fossil fuel production and promote clean technology will be crucial steppingstones to ameliorating climate change effects. Our current reduction of greenhouse gas emissions serves as “the sort of reduction we need every year until net-zero emissions are reached around 2050.” 31   From the start of the coronavirus pandemic, politicians came together for the common good of protecting humanity; this demonstrates that when necessary, global leaders are capable of putting humankind above the economy. 32

After researching statistics comparing the coronavirus to climate change, I thought back to the moment the virus reached pandemic status. I knew that a greater reason underlay all of this global turmoil. Our globe is in dire need of help, and the coronavirus reminds the world of what it means to work together. This pandemic marks a turning point in global efforts to slow down climate change. The methods we enact towards not only stopping the spread of the virus, but slowing down climate change, will ultimately depict how humanity will arise once this pandemic is suppressed. The future of our home planet lies in how we treat it right now. 

• “Climate Change: What Do All the Terms Mean?,” BBC News (BBC, May 1, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48057733 )
• Ibid. 
• Kate Yoder, “Frank Luntz, the GOP's Message Master, Calls for Climate Action,” Grist (Grist, July 26, 2019), https://grist.org/article/the-gops-most-famous-messaging-strategist-calls-for-climate-action
• Melissa Denchak, “Paris Climate Agreement: Everything You Need to Know,” NRDC, April 29, 2020, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/paris-climate-agreement-everything-you-need-know)
• “Donald J. Trump's Foreign Policy Positions,” Council on Foreign Relations (Council on Foreign Relations), accessed May 7, 2020, https://www.cfr.org/election2020/candidate-tracker/donald-j.-trump?gclid=CjwKCAjw4871BRAjEiwAbxXi21cneTRft_doA5if60euC6QCL7sr-Jwwv76IkgWaUTuyJNx9EzZzRBoCdjsQAvD_BwE#climate and energy )
• David Doniger, “Paris Climate Agreement Explained: Does Congress Need to Sign Off?,” NRDC, December 15, 2016, https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-doniger/paris-climate-agreement-explained-does-congress-need-sign )
• “How the UK Is Progressing,” Committee on Climate Change, March 9, 2020, https://www.theccc.org.uk/what-is-climate-change/reducing-carbon-emissions/how-the-uk-is-progressing/)
• Ibid.  
• “Top 10 Ways You Can Fight Climate Change,” Green America, accessed May 7, 2020, https://www.greenamerica.org/your-green-life/10-ways-you-can-fight-climate-change )
• Matt McGrath, “Climate Change and Coronavirus: Five Charts about the Biggest Carbon Crash,” BBC News (BBC, May 5, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/science-environment-52485712 )
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Home / For Educators: Grades 6-12 / Climate Explained: Introductory Essays About Climate Change Topics

Climate Explained: Introductory Essays About Climate Change Topics

Filed under: backgrounders for educators ,.

Climate Explained, a part of Yale Climate Connections, is an essay collection that addresses an array of climate change questions and topics, including why it’s cold outside if global warming is real, how we know that humans are responsible for global warming, and the relationship between climate change and national security.

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Climate Change Basics: Five Facts, Ten Words

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What are the solutions to climate change?

Climate change is already an urgent threat to millions of lives – but there are solutions. From changing how we get our energy to limiting deforestation, here are some of the key solutions to climate change.

Climate change is happening now, and it’s the most serious threat to life on our planet. Luckily, there are plenty of solutions to climate change and they are well-understood.

In 2015, world leaders signed a major treaty called the Paris agreement  to put these solutions into practice.

Core to all climate change solutions is reducing greenhouse gas emissions , which must get to zero as soon as possible.

Because both forests and oceans play vitally important roles in regulating our climate, increasing the natural ability of forests and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide can also help stop global warming.

The main ways to stop climate change are to pressure government and business to:

• Keep fossil fuels in the ground . Fossil fuels include coal, oil and gas – and the more that are extracted and burned, the worse climate change will get. All countries need to move their economies away from fossil fuels as soon as possible.
• Invest in renewable energy . Changing our main energy sources to clean and renewable energy is the best way to stop using fossil fuels. These include technologies like solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal power.
• Switch to sustainable transport . Petrol and diesel vehicles, planes and ships use fossil fuels. Reducing car use, switching to electric vehicles and minimising plane travel will not only help stop climate change, it will reduce air pollution too.
• Help us keep our homes cosy . Homes shouldn’t be draughty and cold – it’s a waste of money, and miserable in the winter. The government can help households heat our homes in a green way – such as by insulating walls and roofs and switching away from oil or gas boilers to heat pumps .
• Improve farming and encourage vegan diets . One of the best ways for individuals to help stop climate change is by reducing their meat and dairy consumption, or by going fully vegan. Businesses and food retailers can improve farming practices and provide more plant-based products to help people make the shift.
• Restore nature to absorb more carbon . The natural world is very good at cleaning up our emissions, but we need to look after it. Planting trees in the right places or giving land back to nature through ‘rewilding’ schemes is a good place to start. This is because photosynthesising plants draw down carbon dioxide as they grow, locking it away in soils.
• Protect forests like the Amazon . Forests are crucial in the fight against climate change, and protecting them is an important climate solution. Cutting down forests on an industrial scale destroys giant trees which could be sucking up huge amounts of carbon. Yet companies destroy forests to make way for animal farming, soya or palm oil plantations. Governments can stop them by making better laws.
• Protect the oceans . Oceans also absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which helps to keep our climate stable. But many are overfished , used for oil and gas drilling or threatened by deep sea mining. Protecting oceans and the life in them is ultimately a way to protect ourselves from climate change.
• Reduce how much people consume . Our transport, fashion, food and other lifestyle choices all have different impacts on the climate. This is often by design – fashion and technology companies, for example, will release far more products than are realistically needed. But while reducing consumption of these products might be hard, it’s most certainly worth it. Reducing overall consumption in more wealthy countries can help put less strain on the planet.
• Reduce plastic . Plastic is made from oil, and the process of extracting, refining and turning oil into plastic (or even polyester, for clothing) is surprisingly carbon-intense . It doesn’t break down quickly in nature so a lot of plastic is burned, which contributes to emissions. Demand for plastic is rising so quickly that creating and disposing of plastics will account for 17% of the global carbon budget by 2050 (this is the emissions count we need to stay within according to the Paris agreement ).

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, and to feel that climate change is too big to solve. But we already have the answers, now it’s a question of making them happen. To work, all of these solutions need strong international cooperation between governments and businesses, including the most polluting sectors.

Individuals can also play a part by making better choices about where they get their energy, how they travel, and what food they eat. But the best way for anyone to help stop climate change is to take collective action. This means pressuring governments and corporations to change their policies and business practices.

Governments want to be re-elected. And businesses can’t survive without customers. Demanding action from them is a powerful way to make change happen.

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The fossil fuel industry is blocking climate change action

Major oil and gas companies including BP, Exxon and Shell have spent hundreds of millions of pounds trying to delay or stop government policies that would have helped tackle the climate crisis.

Despite the effects of climate change becoming more and more obvious, big polluting corporations – the ones responsible for the majority of carbon emissions – continue to carry on drilling for and burning fossil fuels.

Industries including banks, car and energy companies also make profits from fossil fuels. These industries are knowingly putting money over the future of our planet and the safety of its people.

What are world leaders doing to stop climate change?

With such a huge crisis facing the entire planet, the international response should be swift and decisive. Yet progress by world governments has been achingly slow. Many commitments to reduce carbon emissions have been set, but few are binding and targets are often missed.

In Paris in 2015, world leaders from 197 countries pledged to put people first and reduce their countries’ greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris agreement has the aim of limiting global warming to well below 2ºC and ideally to 1.5°C.

If governments act swiftly on the promises they made in the Paris climate agreement, and implement the solutions now, there’s still hope of avoiding the worst consequences of climate change .

World leaders and climate negotiators meet at annual COPs – which stands for Conference of the Parties (the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC).

At COPs and other climate talks, nations take stock of their ability to meet their commitments to reduce emissions.

Recently, talks have focused on climate finance – money to help poorer countries adapt to climate change and reduce emissions. Rich countries have pledged $100 billion in annual funding to help developing countries reduce emissions and manage the impacts of climate change. This is yet to materialise, and much more money is needed.

As the impacts of climate change are increasing, important talks have also started on “loss and damage” funding. This is money needed by worst-impacted countries to deal with extreme weather and other climate change impacts.

Global climate change activism

Around the world, millions of us are taking steps to defend our climate. People of all ages and from all walks of life are desperately demanding solutions to the climate emergency.

Over the years, Greenpeace has challenged oil companies chasing new fossil fuels to extract and burn. We’ve also called out the governments for their failure to act fast enough on the climate emergency. Greenpeace activists are ordinary people taking extraordinary action, to push the solutions to climate change.

Indigenous Peoples are most severely affected by both the causes and effects of climate change . They are often on the front lines, facing down deforestation or kicking out fossil fuel industries polluting their water supplies.

Communities in the Pacific Islands are facing sea level rises and more extreme weather. But they are using their strength and resilience to demand world leaders take quicker climate action.

For many of these communities, the fight against climate change is a fight for life itself.

Even in the UK, climate change is impacting people more severely. As a country with the wealth and power to really tackle climate change, it’s never been more important to demand action.

Keep exploring

What can I do to stop climate change?

Individuals can make changes to their lives to reduce their personal carbon footprint. But it’s more important to persuade decision-makers in governments and businesses to drive emissions reductions on a much larger scale. This is the best way to stop climate change getting worse.

What is the UK doing about climate change?

All countries need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. So how’s the UK doing?

Renewable energy: a beginner's guide

Clean renewable energy is a vital tool for tackling climate change. Discover how it works and understand the advantages of wind, solar and water power.

Environmental justice, explained

The environmental crisis doesn't affect everyone equally. Often the worst impacts fall on those who are already most exploited by people in power. The fight for environmental justice is about addressing this unfairness, and making sure green solutions don't add to the problem.

New to Climate Change?

What can be done about climate change.

It is not too late to take action on climate change.

The Science

Given what we know about the threats that climate change poses to humans, we must take swift action. As a global community, we need to soon level off—and then decrease—the amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The faster we do this, the less damage we will cause to our world and our way of life.

Stopping the Rise in CO2

The fastest way to address the buildup of CO 2 in the atmosphere is to stop adding more. Many vital parts of our economy emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases: the way we generate electricity and heat for our buildings and industry; the oil we burn to power our cars, trucks and planes; the refrigerants we use to preserve our food and cool our buildings; and the intensive manufacturing processes for making concrete and steel .

And yet there are many ways to reduce the CO 2 from these sectors. We can replace high-emitting fuels like coal, oil and gas with nearly “carbon-free” alternatives, such as solar power , wind power , or nuclear power . We can capture the CO 2 from fossil fuel power and manufacturing plants and store it underground. We can also update our buildings and infrastructure, so that it takes less energy to build and use them.

We can add to these efforts by trying to remove some of the CO 2 that is already in the atmosphere: for instance, by reforesting the Earth, by changing our farming practices to store more carbon in the soil , or through “direct air capture” technology. However, these methods will likely not be able to remove CO 2 quicker than we are now adding it to the atmosphere. We must begin with stopping our runaway greenhouse gas emissions.

Adapting to Change

Because human activity has already added such a large amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, the world is now experiencing the early effects of climate change. We need to prepare for and adapt to these changes, so that we can protect human health, water and food supplies, our cities and towns , and natural habitats. A new field of work has emerged to reinforce coastlines to shield them from rising oceans , grow new crops to match regions’ changing climates, protect our infrastructure from wildfires and hurricanes , and plan for shifting supplies of water and food.

Today, these tasks are still manageable. If we get ahead of the regional changes we know are coming, and if we put the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable first, very few parts of the world will be irreparably damaged by the climate change we have already caused.

But unless we also actively cut our greenhouse gas emissions, unchecked climate change could eventually put safe and just adaptation beyond our reach. This possibility has led some scientists to study more extreme and controversial options, like geoengineering; for example, there are proposals that would try to artificially cool the Earth to counter some of the effects of climate change. Urgent action is needed to avoid the need for these riskier options.

Driving Solutions

Great progress can and must be achieved with the low-carbon technologies we have today. And all of us can help speed the pace at which these technologies take root and spread. Individuals can change their behavior and advocate for ambitious new policies. Corporations can drive change across whole industries. Governments can enact laws to make it easier and cheaper to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and to help communities prepare for new challenges. And intergovernmental agreements such as the Paris Agreement have already created a strong framework for international cooperation and aggressive action, if governments around the world step up their commitments .

At the same time, the world does not have a true alternative to fossil fuels that can meet all our current energy needs, let alone meet an increased demand in the future. We severely lack the suite of solutions to address climate change at an economic and social cost that we can agree to bear.

A tremendous amount of work is taking place at MIT and other scientific and engineering institutions around the world to develop these options, in collaboration with the industries and communities that can deploy and scale them. But to quicken the pace of technological breakthroughs, policymakers need to set the stage now for game-changing advances in multiple fields of science, technology, and policy. To take on the hardest challenges in reducing our emissions, in removing CO 2 from the atmosphere, and in adapting to a changing climate, we urgently need new tools.

Seizing the Opportunity

The MIT community fundamentally agrees that climate change presents grave risks that demand society’s urgent attention. The challenge requires an aggressive and pragmatic plan to achieve a net zero carbon global energy system, the sooner the better, for all of humankind.

If academia, business, government, and citizens act together toward this common goal, we can create a pollution-free energy system; form a prosperous, adaptable and resilient society; keep human, animal, and plant life flourishing; and create a better world for ourselves and generations to come.

You may notice that we, the writers on this site, use the word “we” to collectively refer to those who have benefitted in various ways from burning fossil fuels, those who will face the impacts of climate change, and those whose responsibility it is to act. We did this intentionally to create a sense of community in addressing this challenge. However, we acknowledge that people and groups across the globe have not equally benefitted from the use of fossil fuels, and many – including young people and future generations – will disproportionately endure the consequences. We, those who are affiliated with MIT and those who live in developed countries, are often among those whose activities have historically had a disproportionate impact on climate change. Therefore, we see that we have a greater responsibility – as professionals, citizens, community members, and consumers – to act to reverse its course.

Beef up your knowledge on specific climate change impacts and solutions with our quick explanations about clean energy, climate models, and much more, written by MIT experts.

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Essay on Climate Change

Climate Change Essay - The globe is growing increasingly sensitive to climate change. It is currently a serious worldwide concern. The term "Climate Change" describes changes to the earth's climate. It explains the atmospheric changes that have occurred across time, spanning from decades to millions of years. Here are some sample essays on climate change.

100 Words Essay on Climate Change

200 words essay on climate change, 500 words essay on climate change.

The climatic conditions on Earth are changing due to climate change. Several internal and external variables, such as solar radiation, variations in the Earth's orbit, volcanic eruptions, plate tectonics, etc., are to blame for this.

There are strategies for climate change reduction. If not implemented, the weather might get worse, there might be water scarcity, there could be lower agricultural output, and it might affect people's ability to make a living. In order to breathe clean air and drink pure water, you must concentrate on limiting human activity. These are the simple measures that may be taken to safeguard the environment and its resources.

The climate of the Earth has changed significantly over time. While some of these changes were brought on by natural events like volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires, etc., many of the changes were brought on by human activity. The burning of fossil fuels, domesticating livestock, and other human activities produce a significant quantity of greenhouse gases. This results in an increase of greenhouse effect and global warming which are the major causes for climate change.

Reasons of Climate Change

Some of the reasons of climate change are:

Deforestation

Excessive use of fossil fuels

Water and soil pollution

Plastic and other non biodegradable waste

Wildlife and nature extinction

Consequences of Climate Change

All kinds of life on earth will be affected by climate change if it continues to change at the same pace. The earth's temperature will increase, the monsoon patterns will shift, the sea level will rise, and there will be more frequent storms, volcano eruptions, and other natural calamities. The earth's biological and ecological equilibrium will be disturbed. Humans won't be able to access clean water or air to breathe when the environment becomes contaminated. The end of life on this earth is imminent. To reduce the issue of climate change, we need to bring social awareness along with strict measures to protect and preserve the natural environment.

A shift in the world's climatic pattern is referred to as climate change. Over the centuries, the climate pattern of our planet has undergone modifications. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has significantly grown.

When Did Climate Change Begin

It is possible to see signs of climate change as early as the beginning of the industrial revolution. The pace at which the manufacturers produced things on a large scale required a significant amount of raw materials. Since the raw materials being transformed into finished products now have such huge potential for profit, these business models have spread quickly over the world. Hazardous substances and chemicals build up in the environment as a result of company emissions and waste disposal.

Although climate change is a natural occurrence, it is evident that human activity is turning into the primary cause of the current climate change situation. The major cause is the growing population. Natural resources are utilised more and more as a result of the population's fast growth placing a heavy burden on the available resources. Over time, as more and more products and services are created, pollution will eventually increase.

Causes of Climate Change

There are a number of factors that have contributed towards weather change in the past and continue to do so. Let us look at a few:

Solar Radiation |The climate of earth is determined by how quickly the sun's energy is absorbed and distributed throughout space. This energy is transmitted throughout the world by the winds, ocean currents etc which affects the climatic conditions of the world. Changes in solar intensity have an effect on the world's climate.

Deforestation | The atmosphere's carbon dioxide is stored by trees. As a result of their destruction, carbon dioxide builds up more quickly since there are no trees to absorb it. Additionally, trees release the carbon they stored when we burn them.

Agriculture | Many kinds of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere by growing crops and raising livestock. Animals, for instance, create methane, a greenhouse gas that is 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The nitrous oxide used in fertilisers is roughly 300 times more strong than carbon dioxide.

How to Prevent Climate Change

We need to look out for drastic steps to stop climate change since it is affecting the resources and life on our planet. We can stop climate change if the right solutions are put in place. Here are some strategies for reducing climate change:

Raising public awareness of climate change

Prohibiting tree-cutting and deforestation.

Ensure the surroundings are clean.

Refrain from using chemical fertilisers.

Water and other natural resource waste should be reduced.

Protect the animals and plants.

Purchase energy-efficient goods and equipment.

Increase the number of trees in the neighbourhood and its surroundings.

Follow the law and safeguard the environment's resources.

Reduce the amount of energy you use.

During the last few decades especially, climate change has grown to be of concern. Global concern has been raised over changes in the Earth's climatic pattern. The causes of climate change are numerous, as well as the effects of it and it is our responsibility as inhabitants of this planet to look after its well being and leave it in a better condition for future generations.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

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Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Geotechnical engineer

The role of geotechnical engineer starts with reviewing the projects needed to define the required material properties. The work responsibilities are followed by a site investigation of rock, soil, fault distribution and bedrock properties on and below an area of interest. The investigation is aimed to improve the ground engineering design and determine their engineering properties that include how they will interact with, on or in a proposed construction. 

The role of geotechnical engineer in mining includes designing and determining the type of foundations, earthworks, and or pavement subgrades required for the intended man-made structures to be made. Geotechnical engineering jobs are involved in earthen and concrete dam construction projects, working under a range of normal and extreme loading conditions. 

Cartographer

How fascinating it is to represent the whole world on just a piece of paper or a sphere. With the help of maps, we are able to represent the real world on a much smaller scale. Individuals who opt for a career as a cartographer are those who make maps. But, cartography is not just limited to maps, it is about a mixture of art , science , and technology. As a cartographer, not only you will create maps but use various geodetic surveys and remote sensing systems to measure, analyse, and create different maps for political, cultural or educational purposes.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Product Manager

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Operations manager.

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Bank Probationary Officer (PO)

Investment director.

An investment director is a person who helps corporations and individuals manage their finances. They can help them develop a strategy to achieve their goals, including paying off debts and investing in the future. In addition, he or she can help individuals make informed decisions.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

An expert in plumbing is aware of building regulations and safety standards and works to make sure these standards are upheld. Testing pipes for leakage using air pressure and other gauges, and also the ability to construct new pipe systems by cutting, fitting, measuring and threading pipes are some of the other more involved aspects of plumbing. Individuals in the plumber career path are self-employed or work for a small business employing less than ten people, though some might find working for larger entities or the government more desirable.

Construction Manager

Individuals who opt for a career as construction managers have a senior-level management role offered in construction firms. Responsibilities in the construction management career path are assigning tasks to workers, inspecting their work, and coordinating with other professionals including architects, subcontractors, and building services engineers.

Urban Planner

Urban Planning careers revolve around the idea of developing a plan to use the land optimally, without affecting the environment. Urban planning jobs are offered to those candidates who are skilled in making the right use of land to distribute the growing population, to create various communities. 

Urban planning careers come with the opportunity to make changes to the existing cities and towns. They identify various community needs and make short and long-term plans accordingly.

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Naval Architect

A Naval Architect is a professional who designs, produces and repairs safe and sea-worthy surfaces or underwater structures. A Naval Architect stays involved in creating and designing ships, ferries, submarines and yachts with implementation of various principles such as gravity, ideal hull form, buoyancy and stability. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Veterinary Doctor

Pathologist.

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Speech Therapist

Gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

Hospital Administrator

The hospital Administrator is in charge of organising and supervising the daily operations of medical services and facilities. This organising includes managing of organisation’s staff and its members in service, budgets, service reports, departmental reporting and taking reminders of patient care and services.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Videographer

Multimedia specialist.

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Linguistic meaning is related to language or Linguistics which is the study of languages. A career as a linguistic meaning, a profession that is based on the scientific study of language, and it's a very broad field with many specialities. Famous linguists work in academia, researching and teaching different areas of language, such as phonetics (sounds), syntax (word order) and semantics (meaning). 

Other researchers focus on specialities like computational linguistics, which seeks to better match human and computer language capacities, or applied linguistics, which is concerned with improving language education. Still, others work as language experts for the government, advertising companies, dictionary publishers and various other private enterprises. Some might work from home as freelance linguists. Philologist, phonologist, and dialectician are some of Linguist synonym. Linguists can study French , German , Italian . 

Public Relation Executive

Travel journalist.

The career of a travel journalist is full of passion, excitement and responsibility. Journalism as a career could be challenging at times, but if you're someone who has been genuinely enthusiastic about all this, then it is the best decision for you. Travel journalism jobs are all about insightful, artfully written, informative narratives designed to cover the travel industry. Travel Journalist is someone who explores, gathers and presents information as a news article.

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

Merchandiser.

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Metallurgical Engineer

A metallurgical engineer is a professional who studies and produces materials that bring power to our world. He or she extracts metals from ores and rocks and transforms them into alloys, high-purity metals and other materials used in developing infrastructure, transportation and healthcare equipment. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

ITSM Manager

Information security manager.

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

Business Intelligence Developer

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Climate Change Essay

500+ words essay on climate change.

Climate change is a major global challenge today, and the world is becoming more vulnerable to this change. Climate change refers to the changes in Earth’s climate condition. It describes the changes in the atmosphere which have taken place over a period ranging from decades to millions of years. A recent report from the United Nations predicted that the average global temperature could increase by 6˚ Celsius at the end of the century. Climate change has an adverse effect on the environment and ecosystem. With the help of this essay, students will get to know the causes and effects of climate change and possible solutions. Also, they will be able to write essays on similar topics and can boost their writing skills.

What Causes Climate Change?

The Earth’s climate has always changed and evolved. Some of these changes have been due to natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires etc., but quite a few of them are due to human activities. Human activities such as deforestation, burning fossil fuels, farming livestock etc., generate an enormous amount of greenhouse gases. This results in the greenhouse effect and global warming which are the major causes of climate change.

Effects of Climate Change

If the current situation of climate change continues in a similar manner, then it will impact all forms of life on the earth. The earth’s temperature will rise, the monsoon patterns will change, sea levels will rise, and storms, volcanic eruptions and natural disasters will occur frequently. The biological and ecological balance of the earth will get disturbed. The environment will get polluted and humans will not be able to get fresh air to breathe and fresh water to drink. Life on earth will come to an end.

Steps to be Taken to Reduce Climate Change

The Government of India has taken many measures to improve the dire situation of Climate Change. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is the nodal agency for climate change issues in India. It has initiated several climate-friendly measures, particularly in the area of renewable energy. India took several steps and policy initiatives to create awareness about climate change and help capacity building for adaptation measures. It has initiated a “Green India” programme under which various trees are planted to make the forest land more green and fertile.

We need to follow the path of sustainable development to effectively address the concerns of climate change. We need to minimise the use of fossil fuels, which is the major cause of global warming. We must adopt alternative sources of energy, such as hydropower, solar and wind energy to make a progressive transition to clean energy. Mahatma Gandhi said that “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not any man’s greed”. With this view, we must remodel our outlook and achieve the goal of sustainable development. By adopting clean technologies, equitable distribution of resources and addressing the issues of equity and justice, we can make our developmental process more harmonious with nature.

We hope students liked this essay on Climate Change and gathered useful information on this topic so that they can write essays in their own words. To get more study material related to the CBSE, ICSE, State Board and Competitive exams, keep visiting the BYJU’S website.

Frequently Asked Questions on climate change Essay

What are the reasons for climate change.

1. Deforestation 2. Excessive usage of fossil fuels 3. Water, Soil pollution 4. Plastic and other non-biodegradable waste 5. Wildlife and nature extinction

How can we save this climate change situation?

1. Avoid over usage of natural resources 2. Do not use or buy items made from animals 3. Avoid plastic usage and pollution

Are there any natural causes for climate change?

Yes, some of the natural causes for climate change are: 1. Solar variations 2. Volcanic eruption and tsunamis 3. Earth’s orbital changes

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Counselling

How to Fix Climate Change (A Sneaky Policy Guide)

Climate change is a planetary emergency. We have to do something now — but what? Saul Griffith, an inventor and renewable electricity advocate (and a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant), has a plan. In his book “ Electrify, ” Griffith lays out a detailed blueprint for fighting climate change while creating millions of new jobs and a healthier environment. Griffith’s plan can be summed up simply: Electrify everything. He explains exactly what it would take to transform our infrastructure, update our grid, and adapt our households to make this possible. Billionaires may contemplate escaping our worn-out planet on a private rocket ship to Mars, but the rest of us, Griffith says, will stay and fight for the future.

“I want readers to be able to understand the main arguments of this book without getting stuck in too many details,” he writes in one of the book’s appendices, excerpted below. “Here, I will try to offer you dinner party-ready talking points for the main questions that people will inevitably have for the main argument of the book. Each topic is worthy of a book in itself. If I dispose of a favorite baby of yours too quickly here, or you think I have it all ass-backward, then we should grab a beer sometime.” —The Editors

Yes, and . . . What about Carbon Sequestration?

Carbon sequestration would be a great technology to support, if only it were a good idea. It is attractive because it gives us the illusion we can just keep on burning fossil fuels if we can figure out how to suck the emissions back out of the air.

This idea derives from the natural processes that have kept our planet in balance for millions of years. Trees, plants, and microbes evolved to turn atmospheric CO₂ into a useful product — biomass or wood. They do so using cascades of elegant chemical reactions and enzymes. Plants create a large surface area in their leaves and branches, which allows them to do a great job of absorbing CO₂ from the atmosphere. All of the planet’s trees and grasses and other biological machines pull a grand total of about 2 gigatons (GT) of carbon a year. To put that in context, our fossil burning is emitting 40 GT a year. Imagining that we can build machines that work 20 times better than all of biology is a fantasy created by the fossil-fuel industry so they can keep on burning.

When considering carbon sequestration, we should first remind you just how staggering that 40 GT of CO₂ is. If you had a giant set of scales and put all the things humans make or move on one side, and all of the CO₂ we produce on the other, the CO₂ would weigh more.

The worst version of carbon sequestration is the most seductive one: capturing CO₂ from thin air. This is energetically difficult, and by that I mean as difficult as juggling babies, bowling balls, electric chainsaws, and flaming tiki torches. You have to sort through a million molecules to find the 400 that are carbon, then convince those 400 to become something they don’t naturally want to be: a liquid or, better yet, a solid. That sorting and conversion costs energy — a lot of it. Even if we could make it work reasonably, we’d have to install zero-carbon energy to run it, which is like using zero-carbon energy to supply our energy needs anyway, except it’s more complicated and expensive to add the carbon-sequestration step. The government should fund sequestration research, within reason and with some skepticism, understanding that it’s a miracle technology that we’d like to have but don’t technically need, and probably can’t afford.

The challenge of air capture is like a treasure hunt looking for CO₂ needles in the atmospheric haystack. You have to look at 2,500 molecules before you find 1 CO₂ molecule. For context, it is far easier to find Waldo, who in his various books appears at concentrations of around 1,200 to 4,500 PPM (or more accurately WPP, Waldos Per People).

More seriously, the paper on the topic that I think is the most informative is that by Kurt Zenz House and his colleagues. House analyzes carbon capture from chemistry-first principles and places a very high bar on anyone claiming to be able to sequester carbon dioxide from ambient air in a cost-effective manner. They project it would likely cost $1,000 per ton of CO₂; the most optimistic estimate is $300 per ton. Using the likely overly optimistic number, that would be the equivalent to adding 30¢/kWh to the cost of coal-fired electricity, or 15¢/kWh to the cost of natural gas. We should invest our time and money in things that are going to work instead.

A slightly better idea is capturing the highly concentrated CO₂ gas in a smokestack and somehow burying it. It is a little bit easier than the troubled idea of atmospheric CO₂ separations, because for some fossil fuels you can start with a concentrated flow of CO₂ in the smokestack, instead of a dilute gas that must be filtered from the atmosphere.

Sounds promising. But when we burn fossil fuels, we mix them with oxygen (that’s what combustion is), and in so doing the burned fuels become much larger (and also a gas which makes them larger still). The idea behind carbon sequestration of fossil fuels is basically to stuff the carbon back in the hole in the ground from whence it came. But even if you squeeze carbon dioxide back down into liquid form, which costs you yet more energy and money, the volume is much larger (around five times greater) than the volume that you originally took from the ground. That’s because when it came up it was mostly carbon, and when it goes back it is carbon with lots of oxygen. People propose putting carbon in other underground reservoirs, or at the bottom of the sea where the pressure of the water could contain it. But if you spring a leak, you lose all that hard work.

The economic argument against sequestration is that renewables are already competitive with coal and natural gas in most energy markets, and the added expense of carbon sequestration is not going to help fossil fuels compete. It is not unreasonable to say that the expense of carbon sequestration would be the death knell of fossil fuels.

Natural gas is an unsafe, collapsing bridge to nowhere. We burned that bridge . . . with natural gas.

Even though smokestack sequestration is a bad idea, the fossil-fuel industry is happy to have the American public confuse that bad idea with the worse idea of capturing the more diffuse emissions from cars, furnaces, or kitchen stoves. Those emissions are extremely distributed — they are generated at the furnace and stovetop ends of the 4.4 million miles of the U.S. natural-gas pipeline distribution network and our 260 million tailpipes. It is nearly unimaginably difficult to collect the CO₂ from those sources and render it into a form that doesn’t end up in the atmosphere.

In addition to the obvious business-as-usual reasons for the fossil industry to champion fossil fuels with carbon sequestration, the self-interest goes further. By injecting this CO₂ into the ground, the industry can force more fossil fuels back up; in fact, most of the CO₂ that humans have sequestered so far has been used to help with “enhanced” oil and fossil fuel recovery — further perpetuating our reliance on fossil fuel. This is an expensive, multi-layered cake of bad ideas topped with cynical frosting.

Frack ’em all.

Yes, and . . . What about Natural Gas?

Natural gas sounds benign, like the energy version of organic kale. But despite the “natural” label, it’s largely methane, mixed with ethane, propane, butanes, and pentanes. When natural gas burns, like other fossil fuels, it emits carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other carbon, nitrogen, and sulfurous compounds into the atmosphere, contributing to the global greenhouse-gas effect and local air pollution. Don’t be fooled by those who will profit from confusion by promoting ideas like natural gas as a “bridge fuel” to the clean-energy future. Coal gets more air-time as a dirtier fuel, but natural gas is just as filthy if you account for the fugitive emissions. Natural gas is an unsafe, collapsing bridge to nowhere. We burned that bridge . . . with natural gas.

Yes, and . . . What about Fracking?

Fracking — or hydraulic fracturing — is the process of pumping pressurized liquid into well holes to fracture the surrounding rock, which enables gas and other hydrocarbons to be more readily extracted. This technology, and the accompanying revolution of horizontal drilling, gave the U.S. cheap natural gas at exactly the wrong moment in history.

Fracking spews methane directly from the mining sites, which offsets the nominal win from burning natural gas instead of coal. It also leaks from its network of distribution pipes. There are many other underlying problems with mining natural gas, such as water-table pollution and the creation of seismic instabilities. What’s more, it’s a huge distraction from the things that we know to be zero-carbon, like solar, wind, nuclear, pumped hydro, electric vehicles, and heat pumps.

Yes, and . . . What about Geoengineering?

We already are geoengineering, we are just doing it badly — we’re heating the earth and destroying the planet’s lungs. Burning fossil fuels is geoengineering that gives us climate change. The question is, can we geoengineer for good instead?

Geoengineering is not a decarbonization strategy. It is a hope to control the temperature of the earth while giving up on CO₂ strategy. Many of the early arguments for studying geoengineering were that we should know how to do it, just in case the world turns out to be apathetic about climate change. We now know of multiple paths to geoengineering to mitigate climate change: most of them amount to managing the incoming flux of energy from the sun. You have probably heard of these ideas — giant space mirrors, scattering reflective particles in the atmosphere, or artificially generated clouds. In an ecosystem as complex as that of earth, all of these ideas will produce unintended effects.

Geoengineering is a bit like using liposuction as the solution to obesity when you’re just going to keep eating cheeseburgers.

Embracing geoengineering would also make us forever dependent on future geoengineering solutions. It’s a bit like using liposuction as the solution to obesity when you’re just going to keep eating cheeseburgers. Even if it works, we can’t afford to lose sight of the better, cleaner solutions proposed in the rest of this book.

The problems of trying to control the climate are many. Who sets the temperature? Low-lying islanders and people who love coral or northern Europeans who might benefit from a bit more climate change? We don’t really know all of the unintended consequences — environmental, social, or political — that would arise from geoengineering.

It is a good idea to study geoengineering schemes, and it does help us understand earth systems better, but this is not a realistic or permanent solution. It could also draw large amounts of resources away from technologies we already know can solve the problem.

Yes, and . . . What about Hydrogen?

Many people believe hydrogen will provide a pathway to decarbonization. But hydrogen is not a source of energy. You don’t discover hydrogen; it is a battery in the form of a gaseous fuel. The fossil-fuel industry is happy to promote the hydrogen fiction because the majority of hydrogen sold today is actually a byproduct of the natural-gas industry. Only a tiny amount of gaseous hydrogen exists naturally on earth. To make and store carbon-free hydrogen, we would first have to create electricity to power a chemical process called electrolysis, which is not highly efficient. Then we’d have to capture the hydrogen gas and compress it, which consumes about 10–15 percent more energy. Then we’d have to decompress the gas and burn it or put it through a fuel cell. We lose more energy at every step of this process.

As a battery, hydrogen is pretty ordinary; for the one unit of electricity you put in at the beginning, you probably get less than 50 percent out at the other side. This is called “round-trip efficiency.” To run the world off hydrogen, we’d have to produce twice the amount of electricity that we currently produce, which would itself be a monumental challenge. Remember, chemical batteries typically have 95 percent or so round-trip efficiency.

Germany and Japan invested heavily in hydrogen because they don’t have domestic natural gas and they wanted something with the energy density of gasoline. In theory, hydrogen has about three times more energy per kilogram than gasoline (123 MJ/kg as compared to 44). But you have to compress it and store it in a tank made of exotic materials. The tank weighs much more than the hydrogen gas itself. If you include the tank in your calculations, hydrogen ends up being about a quarter of the energy density of gasoline and only a little more energy dense than batteries.

I started a company called Volute that built better compressed natural gas and hydrogen tanks. This technology is now licensed into both of those industries, so even as someone who would profit greatly from a hydrogen economy, I’m pretty confident it will only end up being a niche player. We can argue about the size of the niche. For example, hydrogen can serve as the high-temperature gas for industrial processes such as steelmaking and can solve some transportation problems.

Hydrogen will be useful, but it is not the answer.

Yes, and . . . What about a Carbon Tax?

A carbon tax isn’t a solution. A carbon tax is a market fix meant to make all of the other solutions more competitive. It’s designed to slowly increase the price of carbon dioxide, making fossil fuels uncompetitive. The idea is that a high enough carbon tax would make all of the fossil fuels more expensive than at least some of the other solutions, and then a perfectly rational market would use those cheaper clean-energy solutions.

Carbon taxes might have been sufficient if we’d started with them in the 1990s, but for the taxes to achieve the 100 percent adoption rates we need now, they would have to ramp up very quickly. They would also be difficult to implement, as well as regressive, hitting lower-income people hardest.

A carbon tax isn’t a solution. A carbon tax is a market fix meant to make all of the other solutions more competitive.

It would probably be just as effective to eliminate fossil-fuel subsidies, which in many markets would tip the scales in favor of alternatives anyway. And by the time we have the political will to implement a carbon tax, renewables with batteries will be cheaper than fossil fuels.

A carbon tax is useful in decarbonizing the hard-to-reach end points of the material and industrial economy, but unlikely to be rapid enough to transition home heating to heat pumps, and vehicles from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles at the rate required.

Yes, and . . . What about Technological Miracles?

“Miracle” technologies include fusion, next-generation nuclear fission, direct solar rectification, airborne wind energy, high-efficiency thermoelectric materials, ultra-high-density batteries, and other technological breakthroughs we can’t yet imagine. All of these miracle technologies would, in fact, help with various components of decarbonization, and the U.S. should invest in them as research topics. With good management, some of them might come to fruition. However, it would be unwise to bet our future on miracles, as our timeline for climate-change solutions is too short. Any ambitious technology like these would take decades to develop and scale up. We don’t have decades.

The real miracles are that solar and wind are now the cheapest energy sources, electric cars are better than vehicles with internal combustion engines, electric radiant heating is cozier than our existing heating systems, and the internet was a practice run and blueprint for the electricity network of the future.

Yes, and . . . What about the Existing Utilities?

There is no way we win this war without the utilities. We need them to deliver three to four times the amount of electricity they do today. They are perfectly poised to be a giant participant in our clean-energy future.

Utilities should be the natural leaders in this project, as they already have five valuable characteristics (thanks to Hal Harvey for pointing this out): 100 percent market penetration, 100 percent billing efficacy, 100 percent knowledge of how we use electricity today (if they want to know it), access to low-cost capital, and an incredible local workforce in every zip code.

Beware the utility that prioritizes its natural gas business over its electricity business. If you really want to make a difference, get yourself elected to the board of your state’s utility commission and steer it in the right direction.

Yes, and . . . What about Emissions That Are Not Energy-Related?

“Electrify” principally concerns itself with the approximately 85 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions related to the U.S. energy system. They are the overwhelming majority of our emissions. The other emissions come from the agricultural sector, land use and forestry, and from industrial non-energy-use emissions. If we undertook the mobilization to address climate change as suggested in this book, this would also address much of the industrial non-energy emissions and a little of the other two, as well. Decarbonizing our energy supply is 85 percent of what we need to do. For the other 15 percent, people are successfully making and selling synthetic meats, creating pathways to cooling without terrible refrigerant emissions, and working on steel production with hydrogen and aluminum without CO₂. I have to believe that if we commit to the 85 percent, the smart and passionate people working on the other 15 percent will do their part, too.

Yes, and . . . What about Agriculture?

The moonshot to ignite the heartland’s creativity is replacing a harmful monoculture system with an agriculture that sequesters carbon and heals our soils while also preventing the pesticide and fertilizer run-off that is polluting our rivers, estuaries, and oceans. Our world-class system of land-grant universities should be able to knock this out of the park.

Yes, and . . . What about Meat?

There are a number of problems with meat, as any vegan will tell you. One is the amount of land required to grow the animal feed. Another is that ruminants such as cows and sheep belch methane, which is far worse as a greenhouse gas than CO₂. Eating less meat remains one of the easiest consumer decisions to reduce climate impact, but it alone cannot solve our climate problem. On an infrastructure scale, better land management and new low-carbon farming alternatives will lower the impact of occasional meat consumption. My old friend David MacKay used to quip that the best way to harness solar energy in Scotland was to grow and eat sheep. Meat-eating doesn’t have to go away completely, but Americans do need to become more conscious about their diets.

Yes, and . . . What about Zero-Energy Buildings?

Building standards for extremely efficient homes that need no net-energy input, such as the energy-efficient German “passivhaus,” are a good idea. Exactly what constitutes “no net-energy input” is up for debate because of the complexities of tracing material and energy flows. Some will argue that with a sufficiently good passivhaus you do not need heat-pump heating; that may be true, but we have to solve this problem for the houses that are already built as well as the houses we build tomorrow — in the U.S. only 1 percent of our housing stock is built new each year.

These houses, no matter how they are built, will be rare birds. Remember, too, that only about 2 percent of houses are built by an architect; the majority are built from common plans by a contractor. I think of passivhaus and other similar architectural plans as a wonderful library of very good ideas for building efficient houses, and even some retrofits, and we all, especially architects and builders, should embrace these ideas and create even more.

What would perhaps have more impact in this area are the cultural shifts that make living in smaller, simpler houses more desirable. Mobile homes have gotten a bad cultural rap, but they have a smaller carbon footprint than conventional houses and could offer one of the fastest pathways for adopting modern decarbonized domestic infrastructure.

Yes, and . . . What about the Rest of the World?

America is only responsible for about 20 percent of current annual global emissions (though historically, it has produced a larger share). People say this is why it’s not worth bothering with decarbonizing the U.S. China will emit more, and if not them, it will be the Saudis, or India, or Africa. If we all adopt that defeatist attitude, we are done. If America leads, however, it is likely that other countries will follow once they see the economic advantages of doing so. The early movers will own the lion’s share of these critical 21st-century industries.

Yes, and . . . Can We Make Enough Batteries?

No two ways about it, we will need a lot of batteries. This is not impossible, though, given America’s current manufacturing capacity. To replace our 250 million personal gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles in the next 20 years, we will need over a trillion batteries, or around 60 billion 18650 batteries every year (18650’s are 18 millimeters in diameter and 65 millimeters long — slightly larger than your flashlight’s AA batteries). That is similar to the 90 billion bullets manufactured globally today. We need batteries, not bullets.

Yes, and . . . What about Flying?

Flying is energy-intensive per minute, but not per mile. Per passenger-mile traveled, it requires approximately the same energy as driving in a car with a passenger. That said, reducing the number of flights taken is one of the most effective ways for individuals to reduce their energy footprints.

In the electrified future, short-haul flights (under 500 miles) will be electric, enabled by increases in the power density of motors and batteries. Long-haul flights will use biofuels to get enough range. Passenger and freight flights in the U.S. require a total of 2 quads, and military aviation is another 0.5 quads. The U.S. can produce about 10 quads of biofuel energy, easily covering the tab for flying, in addition to other hard-to-electrify things like construction and mining equipment (which together add another 1–2 quads).

I have several friends who have electric aircraft companies; they are very bullish on flying cars. I have another colleague who accurately states that at about 80 mph it starts to take more energy to keep the car on the ground than just flying it — keeping the car’s tires on the ground costs you a lot in energy! It is even possible to convince yourself that small electric aircraft will have energy efficiencies per passenger mile similar to electric cars. This is true if you fly naked, but not if you pack a lot of luggage. Also, if we could all fly everywhere quickly, we’d do it more, and lose the gains in extra miles traveled. As a result, I predict this will remain the domain of billionaires.

Yes, and . . . What about Autonomous Cars?

Like flying cars, autonomous cars have captured the public’s imagination (not to mention the self-interested parties trying to profit from them). Supposedly, they will reduce traffic and lower emissions. This is almost certainly not true. When groups of people were given a chauffeur as a stand-in for an autonomous vehicle, they drove many more trips , and would occasionally send the “autonomous” car across town to buy them their favorite sandwich. Autonomous cars will almost certainly induce more miles traveled.

Even if we all are driven around to the same places, we’ll increase miles driven by 40 percent. Honestly, this is yet more Silicon Valley snake oil.

In the taxi industry, there is something known as “carriage-miles.” This is the ratio of miles driven without a passenger to miles driven with one. For taxis, this ratio is about 1.7, meaning the car has to drive 1.7 miles to move a passenger 1 mile. In disrupting the taxi industry, Uber and Lyft were able to get this number down to about 1.4. This is probably a good proxy for what will happen with wide deployment of autonomous vehicles. Even if we all are driven around to the same places, we’ll increase miles driven by 40 percent. Honestly, this is yet more Silicon Valley snake oil.

Yes, and . . . What about the Dangers of Nuclear Power?

America has led the world in nuclear power. The U.S. Navy operates the largest fleet of small reactors in the world, and it boasts an impeccable safety record. Nuclear is a form of electrification, and it fits squarely with the plan to fight global heating. Nuclear power currently delivers around 100 gigawatts of very reliable electricity to America’s grid. Maintaining or even ambitiously increasing this amount would no doubt make the climate solution easier. Today’s best estimates have nuclear energy at approximately double the cost of wind and solar. Without a doubt, those costs could be trimmed enormously given advances in engineering, since most of these plants were designed 50 years ago.

The health effects of nuclear power have been well studied. It is established that nuclear is not as dangerous as we tend to think. But like shark attacks, it’s the prospect of a low-probability event that could release radiation that drives our fears. We can lower that probability further by building dedicated infrastructure like the facility at Yucca Mountain, but the fact remains that for 40 years, policymakers haven’t been sufficiently able to convince people to invest in this kind of infrastructure. Nuclear power will remain a very difficult political topic unless we have a breakthrough in waste management.

Yes, and . . . What about Growing Trees?

Yes, we should — at least a trillion. Grab a shovel!

The best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is today.

Go plant a tree for your grandkids to climb on. Even better, go plant 30,000.

Saul Griffith , inventor, entrepreneur, and engineer, is founder of Rewiring America , a nonprofit dedicated to decarbonizing America by electrifying everything, and founder and chief scientist at Otherlab. He was a recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” in 2007. He is the author of “ Electrify ,” from which this article is excerpted.

What can we do to slow or stop global warming?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to stopping or slowing global warming, and each individual, business, municipal, state, tribal, and federal entity must weigh their options in light of their own unique set of circumstances.  Experts say  it is likely many strategies working together will be needed. Generally speaking, here are some examples of mitigation strategies we can use to slow or stop the human-caused global warming ( learn more ):

• Where possible, we can switch to renewable sources of energy (such as solar and wind energy) to power our homes and buildings, thus emitting far less heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.
• Where feasible, we can drive electric vehicles instead of those that burn fossil fuels; or we can use mass transit instead of driving our own cars.
• Where affordable, we can conserve energy by better insulating our homes and buildings, and by replacing old, failing appliances with more energy-efficient models.
• Where practicable, we can counterbalance our annual carbon dioxide emissions by investing in commercial services that draw down an equal amount of carbon out of the atmosphere, such as through planting trees or  carbon capture and storage  techniques.
• Where practical, we can support more local businesses that use and promote sustainable, climate-smart practices such as those listed above.
• We can consider placing an upper limit on the amount of carbon dioxide we will allow ourselves to emit into the atmosphere within a given timeframe.

Note that NOAA doesn’t advocate for or against particular climate policies. Instead, NOAA’s role is to provide data and scientific information about climate, including how it has changed and is likely to change in the future depending on different climate policies or actions society may or may not take. More guidance on courses of action can be found in the National Academy of Sciences' 2010 report, titled  Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change . Also learn more  here,   here,  and  here .

Thanks to low friction between train wheels and tracks, and level train tracks with gradual turns, trains have high energy efficiency. Photo from National Park Service Amtrak Trails and Rails .

Stabilizing global temperature near its current level requires eliminating all emissions of heat-trapping gases or, equivalently, achieving a carbon-neutral society in which people remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as they emit. Achieving this goal will require substantial societal changes in energy technologies and infrastructure that go beyond the collective actions of individuals and households to reduce emissions.

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The importance of storytelling in fighting climate change

In a webinar on April 19, we'll explore how climate organizations are currently using storytelling in their work, the impacts of these stories, and lessons learned from other movements.

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Yale Climate Connections

Can the economy afford NOT to fight climate change?

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Those opposing a fast transition to renewable energy and other aggressive action to fight catastrophic climate change often argue that the economic costs would be too great.  Now, with the proliferation of extreme hurricanes, droughts, floods, wildfires, and other disasters linked to a changing climate, it has grown more apparent that the status quo also carries a cost – defined as the “social cost” of carbon.  But recent research indicates existing economic models may have low-balled those potential social costs by trillions of dollars.

Papers accounting for the value of nature and heat-related mortality conclude that the social cost of carbon is in the hundreds of dollars per ton of carbon dioxide pollution.  A new study published in Environmental Research Letters (ERL) also finds that the cost of doing nothing could be 15 times greater yet. The trillion-dollar question for climate economists is: will climate damages have persistent effects that result in slower economic growth?

“Climate change makes detrimental events like the recent heat wave in North America and the floods in Europe much more likely,” noted the new study’s co-author Chris Brierley of the University College London. “If we stop assuming that economies recover from such events within months, the costs of warming look much higher than usually stated. We still need a better understanding of how climate alters economic growth, but even in the presence of small long-term effects, cutting emissions becomes much more urgent.”

That insight has important repercussions for federal climate rules. In adopting new regulations, federal agencies are required to weigh the resulting costs and benefits to American taxpayers. Experts estimate how much a ton of carbon dioxide pollution costs society as a result of the climate change damages it causes. This “social cost” of carbon is notoriously difficult to pin down. Wild cards include uncertainties about the magnitude of climate damages and about the resulting economic costs, and subjective judgments about how much governments value or discount the wellbeing of future generations.

From Obama’s $50 per ton, to Trump’s near-zero, to Biden’s TBD – to be determined

The Obama administration pegged the social cost of carbon at about $50 per ton, but the Trump administration reduced the federal social cost of carbon estimate to near zero by heavily discounting the value of future generations and entirely disregarding the wellbeing of humans beyond U.S. borders. The Biden administration reversed those changes by restoring the Obama administration estimate and now is in the process of incorporating the latest research to further update the value.

In a separate but relevant new report , the World Meteorological Organization has found that over the past five decades, the number of extreme weather disasters has increased fivefold globally and associated costs have increased sevenfold. More than half of those costs have been borne by the United States, largely because of damages resulting from extreme Atlantic hurricanes like Katrina in 2005, Harvey, Maria, and Irma in 2017, Sandy in 2012, and Andrew in 1992. Damages from these storms totaled almost $500 billion (nearly $1.2 trillion when adjusted for inflation). This year’s Hurricane Ida is expected to add $95 billion to that total. And as the latest IPCC report concluded, hotter global temperatures and ocean waters will cause a greater proportion of tropical cyclones to rapidly intensify and become dangerous Category 4 and 5 hurricanes.

Slower growth means compounded costs

Many climate-economics models have assumed the global economy will keep growing at a steady rate no matter how much the climate changes. Over the past decade, more and more climate economists have questioned this assumption, noting that economies will increasingly struggle to fully recover from persistent and worsening climate damages.

UC Davis climate economist Frances Moore, who was not involved in the new ERL study, said the novel part of its approach involves figuring in the possibility of “partial persistence” of damages from climate change.  “This is probably a more realistic representation of what is really going on” as opposed to previous studies that either chalked up damages as permanent “or not persistent at all.”

The ERL study concluded that if just 10% of economic damages from climate change were to persist and reduce economic growth, the social cost of carbon would increase by a factor of 15, into the thousands of dollars per ton. Moreover, the authors found that these adverse economic impacts would be heavily borne by countries in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America: developing countries that have contributed the least to the climate crisis, but which are the most vulnerable to its impacts as a result of  their already hot climates and lack of resources available for adaptation efforts.

The study authors also investigated the possibility that countries could reinforce their resilience to persistent climate damages through adaptation measures. They concluded that keeping the social cost of carbon below $600 per ton “would require lowering the persistence of temperature-related economic impacts by half within less than 25 years.” Such an approach would require immense investments in climate adaptation that would be especially difficult for poorer countries to afford.

Efforts to quantify the economic costs of climate change often overlook its human toll. For example, in just the summer of 2021 alone, Hurricane Ida claimed at least 82 lives , 242 died in the European floods , and likely over 1,000 were killed in the Pacific Northwest heat wave. The economic benefits of policies to curb climate change usually will outweigh the associated costs , especially if persistent climate damages slow economic growth. But the non-economic benefits stemming from avoided deaths and the improved well being of future generations make the climate policy cost-benefit analysis more compelling yet.

On a more positive note, deaths caused by extreme weather events have declined since the 1970s thanks largely to improved hurricane and weather emergency early warning systems. However, more than 90% of the deaths related to weather disasters have occurred in developing countries, once again highlighting the inequity in climate change impacts. For example, droughts in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Mozambique accounted for the most such deaths, at over 650,000 in total.

The results of this new research strengthen the case for ambitious climate policies. “The risk of costs being even higher than previously assumed reaffirms the urgency for fast and strong mitigation,” said ERL study co-author Paul Waidelich of ETH Zürich. “It shows that choosing to not reduce greenhouse gas emissions is an extremely risky economic strategy.”

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Dana Nuccitelli, research coordinator for the nonprofit Citizens' Climate Lobby, is an environmental scientist, writer, and author of 'Climatology versus Pseudoscience,' published in 2015. He has published... More by Dana Nuccitelli

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Climate Change Essay

500+ words essay on climate change.

Climate change is the shift of weather patterns and conditions. We are experiencing rapid change in the climate due to various factors. Needless to say, our earth is experiencing rising global temperatures. Do you think it is a matter of concern? Well yes, you might have heard about the melting glaciers which is resulting in rising sea levels. There has been a drastic change in the climate due to hazardous factors such as pollution, burning coals, industrial waste disposal in the air, etc. All this will result in affecting the environment and its resources. To overcome the issue of climate change, you need to bring social awareness along with stringent measures to protect and preserve the environment. In this climate change essay, we are going to discuss the factors and how to prevent climate change. 

What is Climate Change? 

Climate change is the change in the average weather conditions. We can say that climate change is responsible for change in the normal climatic conditions. These changes result in heavy storms, heat waves, floods, melting glaciers, etc. Our earth is going through a lot of changes with respect to climate, which is impacting the livelihood of people and other living things. Global warming is one aspect of climate change. Due to these factors, carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases are released in the atmosphere. Check out the following causes of climate change given below. 

Climate Change Factors Essay 

Nowadays, we experience extreme weather conditions whether it is cold, heat or rain. Some of the forces or factors that contribute to climate change are greenhouse gas emission, burning of coal, deforestation, air pollution, industrial gas, etc. These factors lead to major climatic change in the earth. Did you know that climate change leads to disastrous events? Yes, it affects the livelihood, health and the resources. It also impacts the water, air and the land we live in. It leads to extreme weather conditions such as droughts, heavy rain, floods, storms, heat waves, forest fires, etc. Moreover, it reduces the quality of drinking water, damages property, pollutes the air and also leads to loss of life. Additionally, it is impacting the life of flora and fauna around us. We need to take extreme measures to prevent climate change. 

Also explore: Learn more about the environment and climate change with Environment essay and Global warming Essay .

How To Prevent Climate Change Essay 

As climate change is hampering the lives and resources of our earth, we need to look out for extreme measures to prevent climate change. Now, what can we do to prevent this? Is it possible for all of us to join and preserve nature? Yes, we can if appropriate strategies are implemented to combat climate change. The different ways to reduce climate change are mentioned below:

• Make policies and agreements on climate change.
• Implement projects on clean energy.
• Create social awareness on climate change. 
• Prohibit deforestation and cutting down trees.
• Conduct capacity building programs on climate change. 
• Keep the surroundings clean. 
• Avoid use of chemical fertilizers.
• Reduce wastage of water and other natural resources. 
• Protect the flora and fauna. 
• Buy energy efficient products and appliances. 
• Plant more trees in the neighbourhood and surrounding areas. 
• Respect the environment and protect its resources. 
• Reduce the consumption of energy.

These are the ways to reduce climate change. If not implemented, you might see an increase in the weather conditions, shortage of drinking water, agricultural yields, and impact on livelihood. Therefore, you must focus on reducing anthropogenic activities so that you can breathe fresh air and drink clean water. These are the small steps to protect the environment and its resources.

We hope this climate change essay was useful to you. Check Osmo’s essays for kids to explore more essays on a wide variety of topics. 

Frequently Asked Questions On Climate Change Essay

What is a climate change essay.

The climate change essay is information on changing weather conditions and its impact on the environment.

How to start a climate change essay?

You can start a climate change essay with an introduction, factors, and the ways to prevent climate change.

What are the main causes of climate change?

The main causes of climate change are deforestation, burning oils, chemical fertilizers, pollution and release of industrial waste in the air, etc.

To find more information, explore related articles such as technology essay and essay on internet . 

Climate Change Essay: Example and Tips

The following example of climate change essay should be used as a source of information and inspiration. We do not advise direct copy and paste of the parts of the text or the whole paper, because of plagiarism detection. For the ease of use, the paper is divided into logical parts.

• 1.1 Introduction to climate change essay example
• 1.2 Body of climate change essay example
• 1.3.1 Natural disasters
• 1.3.2 Unsuitable territories for living
• 1.3.3 The impact on biological diversity
• 1.3.4 Lack of drinking water, hunger and epidemics
• 1.3.5 Increasing the level of the world ocean
• 1.4.1 Adapting the life of society to new conditions
• 1.4.2 Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• 1.5 Conclusion to the climate change essay example

Example of climate change essay

Introduction to climate change essay example.

In recent years, the climate on Earth has changed markedly: some countries suffer from anomalous heat, others from too harsh and snowy winters unusual for these places.

Environmentalists talk about global climate change including an increase in the average annual temperature causing melting of glaciers and an increase in the level of the world’s oceans. In addition to warming, there is also an unbalance of all natural systems, which leads to a change in the regime of precipitation, temperature anomalies and an increase in the frequency of extreme events such as hurricanes, floods and droughts.

According to scientists, for ten months of 2015 the average temperature of the planet was 1.02° C higher than that recorded in the XIX century (when the observation of changes in global temperature began). The threshold of one degree was exceeded for the first time in modern history. Scientists agree that the cause lies in human activity – burning of oil, gas and coal – that leads to greenhouse effect that causes an increase in average temperature. Experts note that between 2000 and 2010, the most powerful increase in greenhouse gas emissions over the past 30 years has been observed. According to the World Meteorological Organization, in 2014, their concentration in the atmosphere reached a record high level.

Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud said: “We do not see CO2. This is not a visible threat, but quite real. This means an increase in global temperatures, an increase in the number of extreme weather events, such as floods, melting ice, rising sea level and increasing the acidity of the oceans.”

Body of climate change essay example

If countries do not begin to seriously deal with the problem of environmental protection, by 2100 the temperature on the planet can rise by 3.7-4.8° C. Climatologists warn: irreversible consequences for the ecology will come even with a warming of more than 2° C.

In order to draw maximum attention to climate problems, the UN has attracted not only politicians and scientists, but also celebrities, to the debate. Hollywood actor Robert Redford in his statement warned that for the international community “the time of half measures and the denial of the problem of climate change has ended.”

“We see the effects of this phenomenon (climate change) everywhere – from drought and hunger in Africa and the drying up heat in South Asia to wildfires in North America, devastating hurricanes and floods in New York. We must act together because climate change affects every country” – actor Robert Redford.

What are the consequences for the planet, if the temperature rise can not be stopped?

Natural disasters.

The climatic zones will shift, the weather changes will become more severe (severe frosts, followed by sudden thaws in winter, an increase in the number of abnormally hot days in summer). The frequency and strength of abnormal phenomena such as droughts and floods will increase.

The connection between climate change and the emergence of natural disasters was proved by American scientists who discovered traces of warming in the study of tropical cyclones in the Pacific, unusually high summer temperatures in Europe, China, South Korea and Argentina, and forest fires in the US state of California. Climate change has also catalyzed drought in Africa and the Middle East, snowstorms in Nepal and torrential downpours that have caused floods in Canada and New Zealand.

Unsuitable territories for living

Some countries due to increased humidity and high average temperature by 2100 may become unsuitable for life. According to a study by American scientists, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and other countries of the Middle East are at risk.

According to the calculations of climatologists, at the current rate of growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2070 the average air temperature in the countries of the Persian Gulf can reach 74-77° C. This will make the territories unsuitable for people. An exception may be large megacities with a developed air conditioning system. But people will be able to leave the house only at night.

The impact on biological diversity

According to some scientists, we are in the middle of the sixth in the history of the Earth mass extinction of species. And this time this process is caused by human actions. If climate warming does not stop, many ecosystems, species of living beings that they contain, will become less diverse, less saturated.

There are forecasts of extinction of up to 30-40% of plant and animal species, as their habitat will change faster than they can adapt to these changes.

Lack of drinking water, hunger and epidemics

UN experts warn that warming will negatively affect yields, especially in the underdeveloped countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, which will lead to food problems. According to scientists, by 2080 the number of people facing the threat of hunger can increase by 600 million people.

Another important consequence of climate change may be a shortage of drinking water. In regions with arid climate (Central Asia, the Mediterranean, South Africa, Australia, etc.), the situation will be further exacerbated by the reduction in rainfall.

Hunger, water scarcity, and insect migration can lead to an increase in epidemics and the spread of tropical diseases such as malaria in the northern regions.

Climate change can affect not only people’s health, but also increase the risk of political disagreements and conflicts for access to water and food resources.

Increasing the level of the world ocean

One of the most tangible consequences of climate warming is likely to be the melting of glaciers and an increase in the level of the World Ocean. Millions of people on the coast will die from frequent floods or will be forced to relocate, UN analysts predict.

According to the expert community, sea level rise in the 21st century will be up to 1 m (in the 20th century – 0.1-0.2 m). In this case, the most vulnerable are the lowlands, coastal areas and small islands.

The first to enter the risk zone are the Netherlands, Bangladesh and small island states, such as the Bahamas, the Maldives.

Significant territories can be flooded in countries such as Russia, the United States, Britain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Iraq, Thailand and Vietnam. Serious damage threatens China, where about 140 million people can lose their homes, and Japan, where it can flood more than 30 million people – a quarter of the country’s population.

Facts about climate change and its consequences for different countries

• The rise in the level of the World Ocean threatens many cities with flooding. One of the first to go under the water is Venice. The Italian city is located on several islands, the maximum height of which does not exceed 2 meters above sea level;
• Even now in Venice, there are regular floods. In 2008, in some areas of the city the water rose by 156 centimeters, and on the San Marco square by 70-80 centimeters;
• A rise in sea level of more than 2 meters will lead to the flooding of Amsterdam. The fourth part of the Netherlands is located below sea level. While the country is being protected from floods by protective dams;
• Hamburg also uses dams to protect against floods, which occur regularly in Germany’s second largest city. Hamburg can go underwater if the sea level rises by 2.5 meters.
• The level of 2.5 meters is critical for St. Petersburg, Russia as well;
• Los Angeles will be at risk of flooding if the level of the ocean rises by 3 meters;
• The same 3 meters, according to climatologists, can completely flood the New York area of ​​Lower Manhattan;
• The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which caused floods and severe destruction in America, forced the New York authorities to adopt a plan to protect the city from storms and the effects of warming, which would cost almost $ 20 billion;
• Most of New Orleans is below sea level. The city is protected by dams, but they could not help residents when in 2005 they were hit by a hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of thousands of people who left after New Orleans, can be considered the first in the US climate refugees. In the future, due to rising sea level, the situation can only worsen;
• Most of London, especially in the south and east, is located on the swamp. Therefore, even a slight increase in sea level increases the risk of serious flooding in the Thames delta;
• Now in London there is the so-called “Thames Barrier”, which protects the city from tides. A new problem may be the rising water level in the upper Thames, which affects the entire suburb of London;
• The average height of Shanghai above sea level is 6.5 meters. However, part of the city is located in the lowlands, where about 5.5 million people live, which will suffer in case of rising water levels. The authorities only recently began to think about protecting the city from floods. Shanghai is not the only city of China, which is threatened by flooding. The vast territories of cities such as Guangzhou and Hong Kong are located below sea level.

What can we do to stop or slow down climate change?

According to scientists, it is unlikely to completely stop the climate change to mankind. However, the international community is able to contain the temperature increase in order to avoid irreversible environmental consequences. To do this, it is necessary to limit greenhouse gas emissions, develop alternative energy and develop a strategy to reduce risks due to warming.

What can an ordinary person do to slow down climate change?

Adapting the life of society to new conditions

Plans to minimize damage from climate change should cover all areas of human activities, including health, agriculture and infrastructure.

In cold areas, for example, you need to change the storm sewage system, prepare for storm winds (recalculate the strength of structures), change the fire-fighting system – droughts increase the fire hazard.

However, different states have different opportunities to level out the impact of climate change. For example, Holland and Bangladesh experience the same problems: there are more storms, the ocean level has risen. But in Holland there is already a plan of action, they know how they will strengthen the dams, where they will take the funds. And in Bangladesh, there is nothing of this. Thus, most of the measures needed for adaptation are simple and straightforward, but they require tools and effective planning.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions

According to climatologists, in order to keep the temperature rise up to 2° C, countries need to halve global emissions by 2050 in relation to the level of 1990 by 2050, and to the end of the 21st century – to zero.

According to PwC analysts, since 2000, on average, Britain has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 3% per year, France by 2.7%, the USA by 2.3%. The average annual reduction in carbon emissions over the past 15 years was 1.3%.

However, these efforts are not enough. To prevent irreversible climate change, the annual reduction of carbon dioxide emissions up to 2100 should be at least 6.3%.

This means, on the one hand, it is necessary to introduce energy-saving technologies, on the other – to switch to alternative energy sources.

Conclusion to the climate change essay example

To sum up the information given above, let’s repeat the main threats related to warming:

• Increase in the frequency, intensity and duration of droughts in some regions, extreme precipitation, floods, cases of unsafe soil for agriculture – in others;
• Increase of fire danger in forests and peat bogs;
• violation of the habitual way of life of indigenous northern peoples;
• degradation of permafrost with damage to buildings and communications;
• violation of ecological balance, displacement of some biological species by others;
• increase in electricity consumption for air conditioning in the summer season for a large country.

Even in the worst situation, there are some positive changes:

• warming in the Arctic will increase the duration of navigation along the Northern Sea Route and facilitate the development of oil and gas deposits on the shelf;
• the heating season will decrease, and, accordingly, the energy consumption will decrease;
• the northern boundary of agriculture will shift to the north, due to which the area of ​​agricultural land will grow, especially in Western Siberia and the Urals.

How imperfect environmentalists can drive action on climate change 

Imperfect environmentalists can drive change through even the smallest of actions. Image:  Getty Images/iStockphoto

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Sheila M Morovati

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Climate Change is affecting economies, industries and global issues

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}} Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:, climate action.

• Climate anxiety is growing, with a survey showing that 59% of people aged 16-25 are very or extremely worried about the state of the planet.
• However, there are many effective ways for individuals to inspire change and protect the planet by taking action, no matter how big or small.
• Here's how being an 'imperfect environmentalist' can drive climate action through changing habits and leveraging the power of consumerism.

This is the year to become an 'imperfect environmentalist’. Climate anxiety is growing and it is a very real issue that many people are facing.

The American Psychology Association (APA) describes climate anxiety , often called eco-anxiety, as “the chronic fear of environmental cataclysm that comes from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change and the associated concern for one's future and that of next generations”.

A recent study on climate anxiety surveyed young people aged 16-25 to gauge their feelings about climate change and their governments' responses. Participants were found to be overwhelmingly worried about climate change, with 84% reporting moderate worry, and 59% saying they were very or extremely worried.

Have you read?

Climate anxiety is real. why talking about it matters, how to help gen z turn climate anxiety into action, how to cope with climate anxiety: stanford expert shares techniques that help.

The research also revealed a variety of emotional responses including sadness, anxiety, anger, powerlessness, helplessness and guilt in 50% of respondents, with 45% reporting that these emotions negatively impacted their daily life and functioning.

Three-quarters (75%) of those surveyed find the future frightening, and 83% think that we have failed to take care of the planet. We owe younger generations a future – yet many of us feel too overwhelmed to even know where to start in the face of the immensity of the climate crisis.

Imperfect environmentalism as a catalyst for change

Studies show that easing climate anxiety is done by taking action. Imperfect environmentalists are people who may not identify as full-fledged environmentalists, but are willing to help by living more sustainably “most” of the time. This helps individuals shift their mindset from “I’m only one person” to “I can start the ripple effect for change”.

Imperfect environmentalism is a movement rooted in social science and human behaviour research, that seeks to fight climate change and rising climate anxiety through influencing micro and macro actions and values.

What's the World Economic Forum doing about the ocean?

Our ocean covers 70% of the world’s surface and accounts for 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. We can't have a healthy future without a healthy ocean - but it's more vulnerable than ever because of climate change and pollution.

Tackling the grave threats to our ocean means working with leaders across sectors, from business to government to academia.

The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, convenes the Friends of Ocean Action , a coalition of leaders working together to protect the seas. From a programme with the Indonesian government to cut plastic waste entering the sea to a global plan to track illegal fishing, the Friends are pushing for new solutions.

Climate change is an inextricable part of the threat to our oceans, with rising temperatures and acidification disrupting fragile ecosystems. The Forum runs a number of initiatives to support the shift to a low-carbon economy , including hosting the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, who have cut emissions in their companies by 9%.

Is your organization interested in working with the World Economic Forum? Find out more here .

This means that we want to see grassroots actions and a collective shift in the behaviour of the masses to reduce waste and have better habits, while simultaneously putting pressure on large corporations and legislators to create lasting change.

I have personally spearheaded several global movements that have changed the way we look at our wastefulness via both my environmental non-profit organizations Habits of Waste and Crayon Collection .

There are effective ways for individuals to make the change and protect our planet by creating new systems and by inspiring people to take action, no matter how big or small. This movement offers the guilt-free opportunity for the masses to begin where they can instead of striving for perfection, which tends to paralyse people into inaction.

We often hear that we need billions of people to help in the reversal of climate change instead of a small handful of people doing it perfectly and imperfect environmentalism is the catalyst to bring about this uprising.

Yale researchers highlight the benefit of social support systems for our mental well-being, especially as it relates to climate worry. By lowering the barrier of entry for climate action by embracing imperfection, we make it easier for individuals to join this collective and create positive associations with climate action.

We need a different approach to individual climate action – one that more closely ties personal choices to systemic change and fights anxiety and apathy. By lowering the barrier of entry to environmental action, we can create an incredible collective effort to fight the climate crisis.

How Habits of Waste encouraged consumers to influence change

At Habits of Waste, for example, we created a bridge between everyday individuals and these larger entities such as Amazon, Walmart, Uber Eats, Hollywood Studios and local and state legislators in the US.

Several thousand people sent pre-written emails to these corporations and government entities demanding change to make it easier for millions of users to “do better”. These emails took less than two minutes for individuals to send, giving consumers incredible power to influence change.

There are countless other opportunities like this for activism within Habits of Waste, from requesting sustainable packaging from the biggest online retailers to calling for sustainable swaps in film and television.

It is no longer an “all or nothing” mindset. For example, studies show that the single most important action individuals can take is to eat more plant-based meals. Since many people are unable to adopt a fully vegan diet, it is worth highlighting broadly that an “imperfect” vegan diet still has a great impact.

Researchers from Oxford University and University of Michigan both confirm that if western cultures cut their consumption of animal products by around 40%-50% we create enough of a carbon offset to actually combat climate change.

To make this finding more approachable for the public we deduced that a 40% reduction of animal products results in eight plant-based meals a week. If we each swapped just eight meals a week to plant-based meals, we could reduce a significant amount of methane gas emissions and offer individuals an attainable commitment that averts failure.

This is the basis of Habits of Waste’s #8meals campaign , and inspiration for what imperfect and accessible environmental action looks like in pursuit of a more sustainable lifestyle.

No action is too small when it comes to tackling climate change

Imperfect environmentalism posits the idea that solving the climate crisis will require action across a spectrum of sizes, with no action too small to count.

We create a “snowball effect” for change by using our voices. The normalization of sustainable action will underpin a societal shift towards a deeper value system towards sustainability, where our widely accepted habits and practices become those that protect the planet.

Structural causes of climate change such as global economic dependence on fossil fuels and industrial and manufacturing waste remain a critical focus. One accessible solution for this issue is shifting default settings.

For example, Habits of Waste’s #CutOutCutlery campaign convinced all major food delivery services to globally change their default settings so that single-use plastic cutlery is made available upon request only.

By changing the default to an environmentally friendly option, we can help people take environmental action even if they do not identify as environmentalists. Chinese researchers corroborate the efficacy of this work. In a study on a major food delivery app in China, the green nudge of changing default settings reduced the number of orders including plastic cutlery by 648%.

Many companies can also more easily reach their environment, social and governance goals by choosing eco-friendly default settings in products like Google Maps and Nest, as users will automatically default to a sustainable choice that was made for them.

Individuals hold the power for incredible change with effective action. Think of the community you live in, or your circle of friends.

How is the World Economic Forum fighting the climate crisis?

The Global Risks Report 2023 ranked failure to mitigate climate change as one of the most severe threats in the next two years, while climate- and nature- related risks lead the rankings by severity over the long term.

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Nature and Climate is a multistakeholder platform that seeks to safeguard our global commons and drive systems transformation. It is accelerating action on climate change towards a net-zero, nature-positive future.

Learn more about our impact:

• Scaling up green technologies: Through a partnership with the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, and over 65 global businesses, the First Movers Coalition has committed $12 billion in purchase commitments for green technologies to decarbonize the cement and concrete industry.
• 1 trillion trees: Over 90 global companies have committed to conserve, restore and grow more than 8 billion trees in 65 countries through the 1t.org initiative – which aims to achieve 1 trillion trees by 2030.
• Sustainable food production: Our Food Action Alliance is engaging 40 partners who are working on 29 flagship initiatives to provide healthy, nutritious, and safe foods in ways that safeguard our planet. In Vietnam, it supported the upskilling of 2.2 million farmers and aims to provide 20 million farmers with the skills to learn and adapt to new agricultural standards.
• Eliminating plastic pollution: Our Global Plastic Action Partnership is bringing together governments, businesses and civil society to shape a more sustainable world through the eradication of plastic pollution. In Ghana, more than 2,000 waste pickers are making an impact cleaning up beaches, drains and other sites.
• Protecting the ocean: Our 2030 Water Resources Group has facilitated almost $1 billion to finance water-related programmes , growing into a network of more than 1,000 partners and operating in 14 countries/states.
• Circular economy: Our SCALE 360 initiative is reducing the environmental impacts of value chains within the fashion, food, plastics and electronics industries, positively impacting over 100,000 people in 60 circular economy interventions globally.

Want to know more about our centre’s impact or get involved? Contact us .

Could your family eat plant-based eight times a week? Could you find a group of people at your school or workplace to cycle or take public transit together?

Can you and a few friends convince your local officials to require restaurants to offer straws with drinks only when requested as Habits of Waste did with Los Angeles, California? Or perhaps even spearhead a ban on plastic straws and cutlery like Habits of Waste did in Malibu, California, which happened to be the first one in history.

Just because action starts small doesn't mean it can’t make a difference. Let’s create a change, together.

To learn more about “imperfect environmentalism” and the work of Habits of Waste, read Sheila Morovati’s book Imperfect Environmentalist , which is released on 16 April, 2024.

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License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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News you can trust — By Montanans, for Montanans

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Climate fix or pollution pipeline?

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Ridge resident Dan Dinstel remembers his introduction to the Snowy River project, a proposal to inject 150 million tons of carbon dioxide thousands of feet below southeastern Montana’s sagebrush steppe.

It came in the form of an announcement in the local newspaper, the Ekalaka Eagle , that the Bureau of Land Management would be hosting a public meeting to discuss a pitch to combat climate change by “safely injecting carbon dioxide — the most common greenhouse gas — deep underground, permanently preventing it from entering the atmosphere.”

The announcement caught Dinstel and others in the area by surprise, given that there had been little if any outreach to Carter County residents in the two-year period between the time oil and gas company Denbury Inc. began working with the BLM and the “public scoping” meeting last October.

Dinstel, who grew up in Carter County and then returned after retiring from an engineering career in Alaska, set about researching the geological, political and energy landscapes of the Snowy River project. He told Montana Free Press this month that he’s troubled by what his efforts unearthed, as well as by details that have been excluded from the 228-page environmental assessment — a project application, essentially — that Denbury submitted to the BLM in February.

Dinstel knows the project is located near a large Denbury-owned carbon dioxide pipeline and that the company is seeking the BLM’s approval to drill 15 wells and inject them over a 20-year period with enough carbon dioxide to match the annual emissions of 1.6 million cars.

Dinstel also knows that Denbury became a wholly owned subsidiary of oil behemoth ExxonMobil following a $5 billion acquisition last year that ExxonMobil pursued to access Denbury’s extensive CO2 pipeline network, expand its own carbon reuse and sequestration expertise, and help “meet the decarbonization needs of industrial customers while also reducing emissions in our own operations.”

What Dinstel doesn’t know is how high-ranking federal officials are thinking about the first geologic carbon sequestration project to be proposed in Montana. But he said he suspects that Snowy River is garnering a close look, despite the chilly reception it has received in Carter County due to concerns Dinstel and others have raised about the efficacy of the sequestration technology and potential impacts to wildlife, grazing resources and water supplies.

“The decisions are being made somewhere other than the Miles City Field Office,” Dinstel said. “We just feel like it’s getting run down our throats whether we like it or not.”

Dinstel, to be clear, doesn’t like it. 

Neither ExxonMobil nor Denbury responded to multiple requests for comment, so the project’s timeline and price tag remain unclear, as does the amount the BLM stands to receive by leasing federal land and subsurface “pore space” to the project. 

To environmental advocacy organizations, the environmental assessment’s most glaring omission is the source of the carbon dioxide that would be injected into the project’s wells, 12 of which would be located on BLM land, and three on state land.

Snowy River opponents zero in on the project’s CO2 source because they suspect the project offers no net climate benefit and will only facilitate the further extraction of carbon-releasing fossil fuels as companies like Denbury and ExxonMobil capitalize on well-intentioned but poorly implemented tax incentives.

The BLM told a project opponent in a Feb. 20  email reviewed by MTFP that the project’s CO2 source “is unknown at this time,” but at least one environmental group says it has an idea about the CO2’s source based on comments a Denbury representative made during a March 6 meeting and the project’s proximity to the company’s existing CO2 pipeline network. The Montana Environmental Information Center wrote in comments on the project that most of the CO2 is likely to come from Shute Creek, a 38-year-old natural gas-processing facility in southwest Wyoming that became one of the world’s largest CO2 capture operations after ExxonMobil retooled the plant in 2008 .

According to a 2022 report prepared by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis , most of the CO2 captured at Shute Creek has been used for enhanced oil recovery, i.e., the injection of CO2 into existing oil wells ( including some in eastern Montana ) to increase the amount of oil that can be extracted from them. About half of the CO2 that has arrived at Shute Creek from the nearby LaBarge gas field, roughly 120 million tons, has been vented into the atmosphere. That vented CO2 — which, for scale, is about three times the amount of CO2 Finland generated in 2021 — contributes to the climate change that plays a role in Montana’s shrinking snowpacks, intensifying wildfires and dwindling summertime streamflows .

Project planners insist Snowy River would generate “net-negative” emissions, but opponents argue it will incentivize the extraction of CO2-rich natural gas in Wyoming without the integral benefits that other carbon capture projects promise, such as power generation, ethanol production or cement manufacturing.

“Rather than capturing CO2 from industrial processes such as the combustion of fossil fuels, the project will simply move naturally occurring CO2 from one geologic formation to another, losing some amount to the atmosphere in the process while using an additional amount for Enhanced Oil Recovery that results in further anthropogenic carbon emissions,” MEIC wrote in its comments. “This project will not help to mitigate climate change.”

Wade Sikorski, a Willard resident and longtime member of both MEIC and the Northern Plains Resource Council, told MTFP he believes the amount of energy required to capture, pressurize, transport and inject the CO2 is the project’s “Achilles’ heel.” 

He said he doesn’t doubt the project will be profitable for ExxonMobil, but “they’re not going to be doing anything useful.”

Part of the reason Montana doesn’t yet have a project like Snowy River despite years of conversation surrounding carbon sequestration is that such projects are expensive. According to a 2023 report by the Congressional Budget Office , carbon capture and sequestration projects have been limited nationwide because “the cost to implement CCS [carbon capture and storage] technology exceeds its value in most potential settings.”

But energy observers say federal policy changes in recent years could be changing that calculation , for better or worse.

Dinstel said he suspects that a federal tax incentive known as 45Q plays a substantial role in Denbury’s interest in the Snowy River project and in ExxonMobil’s acquisition of Denbury .

Congress established 45Q in 2008 to encourage investment in greenhouse gas reduction technologies, but it wasn’t widely claimed . Congressional bills including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act increased the credit’s value fivefold and loosened the requirements to claim 45Q, which allows companies to shave $85 off their tax bill for every ton of carbon dioxide they store in secure below-ground repositories. 

“They’re proposing to inject 150 million tons of carbon dioxide over the life of this project, and currently the price tag is $85 a ton,” Dinstel said. “You punch that into your calculator and you better not be having a Walmart calculator. You’re going to have a lot of zeros — it’s going to be nearly $13 billion dollars.” 

Montana Petroleum Association Executive Director Alan Olson attributes burgeoning interest in carbon sequestration projects like Snowy River to President Joe Biden’s broader climate agenda and 45Q revisions.

“If the economics aren’t there, it won’t happen. But if there’s an incentive to capture greenhouse gasses, let’s take it,” Olson said. “It’s not any different than giving incentives to wind and solar.”

“I think we need to explore every technology and every option that we have at our fingertips to meet the energy and climate challenge. We want to see this country get to ‘yes.’” Patrice Lahlum, vice president of carbon management, Great Plains Institute

Congress’ expansion of 45Q is consistent with the White House’s current strategy on climate change : Avoiding emissions remains the “first priority,” but carbon capture and sequestration “are likely needed to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.”

The friction inherent in the Biden administration’s approach is also playing out in corporate and nonprofit boardrooms across the country as policymakers and stakeholders contemplate the role that legacy greenhouse gas emitters and “carbon management” technologies should play in America’s energy future. Organizations like MEIC advocate a rapid and decisive transition away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner energy sources and battery storage. Others, like the Great Plains Institute, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit working to “accelerate the transition to net zero carbon emissions to the benefit of people, the economy and the environment,” see carbon sequestration as one of many technologies that will be required to adapt to climate change. 

“I think we need to explore every technology and every option that we have at our fingertips to meet the energy and climate challenge,” Patrice Lahlum, GPI’s vice president of carbon management, told MTFP. “We want to see this country get to ‘yes.’”

Lahlum added that she thinks the carbon management field is now positioned, in terms of market adoption, similarly to renewable energy 20 years ago. Familiarity with carbon sequestration projects will go a long way toward building support for them, she said. 

It would be nice, she added, if such projects are one day seen as no more remarkable than currently common energy infrastructure like electricity substations: “You drive past [them] every day and you don’t even notice it.”

Like most people interviewed for this story, Lahlum said the federal government’s process for reviewing geologic carbon sequestration projects isn’t particularly fast, despite rising interest in their development. It takes time to ensure that proposals to inject CO2 thousands of feet into the earth will be protective of underground sources of drinking water, Lahlum said. 

“It’s a lengthy process, it’s an arduous process and a rigorous process — as it should be,” Lahlum said of governmental review of Class VI injection well applications.

While the BLM is handling the land-use piece of the Snowy River application, examining potential impacts to drinking water and seismic activity falls to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Region 8 EPA spokesperson Marisa Lubeck said Denbury has not yet submitted an application for the Snowy River project to the EPA. That means that groundbreaking on the project’s wells and 40 miles of pipeline, if it occurs at all, is still several years out.  

With the exception of Wyoming, which assumed oversight of Class VI well permitting for projects inside its own borders in 2020, there are no long-term CO2 sequestration wells currently operating west of North Dakota. As of late March, permits for four wells in California were under EPA review. Wyoming, which has made carbon capture and sequestration a centerpiece of its energy policy in a bid to sustain the Cowboy State’s continued combustion of fossil fuels, anticipates it will receive 30 Class VI applications for review in 2024, on top of the three it approved last year . 

Although much of the scrutiny focused on Snowy River pertains to its effects on the atmosphere and subterranean rocks and water, there are also a host of potential impacts related to surface disturbance that stakeholders have flagged in comments to the BLM.

During the scoping period for the project, commenters expressed concerns about impacts to the county’s roads, law enforcement requirements, BLM grazing leases and wildlife. The project is located in prime habitat for mule deer and sage grouse — both energy development-shy animals that are in the throes of regional population declines. 

Additionally, Carter County Museum curator Nathan Carroll said he’s concerned the project could disturb the area’s paleontological sites, which are largely intact and have yet to be rigorously studied. The project area isn’t exactly speckled with dinosaur bones the way sites to the north are, but it holds a wealth of fossilized marine life that congregated near methane seeps on the ocean floor some 75 million years ago, he said.

Carroll said he’s tried to educate himself on various aspects of the project to fill in information gaps left by Denbury and the BLM, but he seems to only unearth more questions.

“Every day I see if I can’t answer this one question a little bit, and it turns out that I just have five more questions,” he said.

“If there’s an incentive to capture greenhouse gasses, let’s take it. It’s not any different than giving incentives to wind and solar.” Alan Olson, executive director, Montana Petroleum Institute

He wonders, for example, what Denbury’s plan to safeguard public health would be if a CO2 pipeline were to rupture. Carroll said a Denbury-hosted training on the company’s emergency response plan wasn’t especially confidence-inspiring, and his concerns only compounded when he learned about the 2020 rupture of a Denbury-operated pipeline in Mississippi that so rapidly depleted oxygen levels in the area that dozens of people were hospitalized. 

Carroll is also wary of Denbury’s claim that injected carbon dioxide will remain underground, rather than drifting up to the surface through fissures and improperly sealed natural gas wells.

“For a project that’s proposing to be a geological reservoir of CO2, we have yet to have a geologist from the BLM or somewhere else explain what the capture mechanisms are here,” he said. 

Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who describes himself as one of the state’s biggest clean energy boosters, also zeroed in on this component of the project. 

Drawing on his earth science background, Schweitzer argued in an interview with MTFP that developing carbon sequestration technology is a “noble goal” that could help America — and other countries without the United States’ financial and research resources — get a handle on greenhouse gas emissions. But he also said his support of this particular project hinges on its ability to hold on to the CO2 injected 5,200 to 8,400 feet below ground.

“It’s not asking too much to ask a trained geologist if this is going to remain in the earth for millions of years,” he said. “If the answer is yes, then the planet is better off.”

The financial calculations that stakeholders are weighing aren’t limited to the federal tax incentives and construction costs associated with Snowy River’s build-out. The project is located in a region of Montana with limited economic development, even by rural Montana standards. Denbury’s environmental assessment estimates that the project would generate tangible, if modest, economic benefits for the largely agricultural economies of two of Montana’s least populated counties: Carter (population 1,382) and Fallon (population 3,011).

Denbury estimates the project would generate between 4 and 35 construction-related jobs during the staggered construction timeframe, with about a quarter of those jobs going to locals. The company’s environmental analysis also estimates that seven permanent employees would be hired to maintain operations over the project’s 20-year timeline. 

Changes to county tax collections are murkier because the vast majority of the project is situated on federal land. Details regarding the amount BLM would be paid for leasing well pads and road and pipeline rights-of-way aren’t yet available. It’s also not known what, if anything, Denbury would pay the BLM for access to 100,000 subsurface acres of “pore space” the CO2 would be injected into. ( Guidance issued by the BLM in 2022 suggests only that the agency will work with Interior Department appraisers to “determine an appropriate charge” for “use and occupancy of the pore space.”)

Carter County benefits considerably from the oil, gas and CO2 pipelines that run through it, but no major expansions to existing pipelines are anticipated, meaning the project’s ability to bolster local tax collections would be modest. 

And despite the existing pipelines criss-crossing Carter County, the project area remains a place that Sikorski describes as “the prettiest part of Montana nobody knows anything about.” 

“It’s such an expansive chunk of BLM [land] that hasn’t been developed by energy yet, to the point where it isn’t as accessible as an oil field is, either,” Carroll said. “There’s a kind of beauty to that, too. You can go out when Montana says you can,” Carroll said, referencing the state’s capricious weather and muddy soils.

The BLM’s Miles City Field Office is accepting public comment on the project until April 17, 2024, at its e-planning website .

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Amanda Eggert studied print journalism at the University of Montana. Prior to becoming a full-time journalist, Amanda spent four years working with the Forest Service as a wildland firefighter. After leaving the Forest Service in 2014, Amanda worked for Outside magazine as an editorial fellow before joining Outlaw Partners’ staff to lead coverage for Explore Big Sky newspaper and contribute writing and editing to Explore Yellowstone and Mountain Outlaw magazines. Prior to joining Montana Free Press’ staff in 2021 Amanda was a freelance writer, researcher and interviewer. In addition to writing... More by Amanda Eggert

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Can We Engineer Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?

Mammoth, a giant machine in Iceland that will pull planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air. Credit... Francesca Jones for The New York Times

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By David Gelles

David Gelles reported from Reykjavik, Iceland, and Midland, Texas.

• Published March 31, 2024 Updated April 4, 2024

On a windswept Icelandic plateau, an international team of engineers and executives is powering up an innovative machine designed to alter the very composition of Earth’s atmosphere.

If all goes as planned, the enormous vacuum will soon be sucking up vast quantities of air, stripping out carbon dioxide and then locking away those greenhouse gases deep underground in ancient stone — greenhouse gases that would otherwise continue heating up the globe.

Just a few years ago, technologies like these, that attempt to re-engineer the natural environment, were on the scientific fringe. They were too expensive, too impractical, too sci-fi. But with the dangers from climate change worsening, and the world failing to meet its goals of slashing greenhouse gas emissions, they are quickly moving to the mainstream among both scientists and investors, despite questions about their effectiveness and safety.

Researchers are studying ways to block some of the sun’s radiation. They are testing whether adding iron to the ocean could carry carbon dioxide to the sea floor. They are hatching plans to build giant parasols in space . And with massive facilities like the one in Iceland, they are seeking to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air.

As the scale and urgency of the climate crisis has crystallized, “people have woken up and are looking to see if there’s any miraculous deus ex machina that can help,” said Al Gore, the former vice president.

Since the dawn of the industrial age, humans have pumped huge volumes of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere in pursuit of industry and advancement. It amounted to a remaking of the planet’s delicately balanced atmosphere that today has transformed the world, intensifying heat, worsening droughts and storms and threatening human progress.

As the risks became clearer, political and corporate leaders pledged to keep global average temperatures to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than before the Industrial Revolution . But for several months last year, the world briefly passed that symbolic threshold, sooner than many scientists expected.

Global temperatures are now expected to rise as much as 4 degrees Celsius, or more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit, by the end of the century. That has given new weight to what some people call geoengineering, though that term has become so contentious its proponents now prefer the term “climate interventions.” The hope is that taking steps like these might buy some time at a moment when energy consumption is on the rise, and the world isn’t quitting fossil fuels fast enough.

Many of the projects are controversial. A plant similar to the one in Iceland, but far larger, is being built in Texas by Occidental Petroleum, the giant oil company. Occidental intends to use some of the carbon dioxide it captures to extract even more oil, the burning of which is one of the main causes of the climate crisis in the first place.

Some critics say that other types of interventions could open up a Pandora’s box of new problems by scrambling weather patterns or amplifying human suffering through unintended consequences. In effect they are asking: Should humans be experimenting with the environment in this way? Do we know enough to understand the risks?

“We need more information so we can make these decisions in the future,” said Alan Robock, a professor of atmospheric science at Rutgers University. “Which is riskier: to do it, or not to do it?”

Others argue that fanciful or costly technologies will simply waste resources and time, or lull people with the false idea that it will be possible to slow global warming without phasing out fossil fuels.

There is also the risk of rogue actors barreling ahead with their own efforts to change the climate. Already, Mexico has banned what’s known as solar radiation modification after a start-up from California released sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere without permission.

And then there is the fact that, because these technologies are so new, there is relatively little regulation governing them.

“There are these much bigger questions around who decides how is this is all coordinated over time,” said Marion Hourdequin, a professor of environmental philosophy at Colorado College. “We don’t have a great track record of sustained global cooperation.”

With a subzero wind whipping down from the fjords, Edda Aradottir trudged through fresh snow to inspect the direct air capture plant in Iceland.

Ms. Aradottir is the chief executive of Carbfix, an Icelandic company that is working with the Swiss start-up that built the plant, Climeworks. Known as Mammoth, the project is a technological accomplishment, powered by clean geothermal energy and capable of capturing up to 36,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and pumping it down into the bedrock.

That is just one one-millionth of annual global emissions. But unlike trees, which can be cut down or catch fire, Climeworks promises to store that carbon dioxide forever.

Inside a series of bunkerlike buildings, dozens of huge fans suck air into bins that contain chemical pellets that absorb carbon dioxide, then release the gas when they are heated up. The carbon dioxide is then mixed with water and pumped more than a mile below the surface, where extreme pressure turns it into a solid in a matter of years, a process known as “mineralization.” In effect, the gas becomes part of the rock.

“Over 99 percent of the carbon on Earth is already stored in rocks in the form of minerals,” Ms. Aradottir said. “Naturally, it happens over geologic time scales. We’re speeding it up.”

When Mammoth is turned on in the coming weeks, it will be the largest such facility in the world, even though the amount of carbon it can absorb is still just a drop in the bucket. Global carbon dioxide emissions hit an all-time high of 36 billion metric tons last year.

The Occidental plant, being built near Odessa, Texas, and known as Stratos, will be more than 10 times more powerful than Mammoth, powered by solar energy, and have the potential to capture and sequester 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.

It uses a different process to extract carbon dioxide from the air, though the goal is the same: Most of it will be locked away deep underground. But at least some of the carbon dioxide, Occidental says, will also be used to extract more oil.

In that process, carbon dioxide is pumped into the ground to force out oil that might otherwise be too difficult to reach. Techniques like this have made Occidental a company worth more than $50 billion and helped send American crude production to a new high in recent years.

Of course, it is the world’s reliance on the burning of oil and other fossil fuels that has so dangerously sent carbon dioxide levels soaring. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide acts as a blanket, trapping the sun’s heat and warming the world.

Today, Occidental says it is trying to become a “carbon management” company as well as an oil producer. Last year, it paid $1.1 billion for a start-up called Carbon Engineering that had developed a way to soak up carbon dioxide from the air, and began building the Stratos project. Today, what was a barren plot of dirt less than 12 months ago is a bustling construction site.

“It’s like the Apollo missions at NASA,” said Richard Jackson, who oversees carbon management and domestic oil operations at Occidental. “We’re trying to move as quickly as we can.”

In coming years, Occidental said it planned to build 100 facilities, each capable of capturing 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. It has struck up a financial partnership with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and made a deal to develop direct air capture plants with Adnoc, the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company.

In South Texas, it is planning to build 30 of the plants on the King Ranch, funded in part by $1.2 billion the Biden administration last year awarded to direct air capture projects .

Climeworks also has aggressive expansion plans. It secured a portion of the White House funds for a direct air capture plant in Louisiana, is working with a group of Kenyan entrepreneurs to build a large facility outside Nairobi and has plans to construct plants in Canada and other countries in Europe.

Driving the construction boom is the desire of many corporations to reduce their effect on global warming. Over the past decade, hundreds of multinational corporations have pledged to become carbon neutral by 2040. Rather than phasing out fossil fuels to meet those goals, most companies are finding that they have to pay for carbon credits, which can be acquired by preserving forests, supporting renewable energy projects or paying for carbon sequestration.

Microsoft, JPMorgan and UBS are some of the big companies that have signed long term agreements to buy credits from Climeworks. Amazon, AT&T and the Houston Astros are among those signed up with Occidental.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, said last year that he was the largest individual customer of Climeworks, paying the company $10 million each year to offset his sizable carbon footprint.

Yet the grand plans envisioned by direct air capture companies, with hundreds of plants built in the years ahead, are predicated on a market that does not yet exist. Only a handful of big companies have so far proved willing to voluntarily spend millions of dollars on direct air capture credits, and there is no guarantee that the rest of the corporate world will follow suit anytime soon.

Even if more companies do decide to start offsetting their emissions, there are cheaper ways to do so, including by preserving forests and paying for renewable energy. For example, it currently costs between $500 and $1,000 to capture a metric ton of carbon dioxide with direct air capture, compared with just $10 to $30 per ton for most carbon credits today .

“ It’s very expensive,” said Mr. Robock. “And so it’s not going to be a solution in the short term or the long term.”

Still, the business world is bullish. Boston Consulting Group expects more companies to begin buying credits to pay for carbon dioxide removal, and more governments to encourage that buying. In the United States and Europe, governments have started subsidizing the construction of the plants. By 2040, BCG expects the market for carbon dioxide removal technologies could grow from less than $10 billion today to as much as $135 billion.

“Companies will face a rising price on carbon and regulatory pressures that will make them feel compelled to do this,” said Rich Lesser, the global chair of BCG.

Although the direct air capture market is still in its infancy, it already has vociferous detractors in academia, activist circles and beyond.

Some say it is little more than a ploy by oil and gas companies to prolong the very industries that are responsible for creating global warming. They point to the extensive evidence that fossil fuel interests for years worked to play down public awareness of climate change, and the fact that some of the captured carbon will be used for additional oil production.

Those concerns were magnified when Vicki Hollub, Occidental’s chief executive, last year said direct air capture could “preserve our industry.” She added, “This gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.”

Scientists say an urgent transition away from fossil fuels is necessary to avoid extreme global temperature increases. Last year, nearly 200 countries agreed to begin phasing out oil, coal and gas.

“This is a new wave of denial, deception and delay,” said Lili Fuhr, director of the fossil economy program at the Center for International Environmental Law. “You have the fossil fuel industry trying to say we can engineer our way out of this without any major changes to business as usual.”

A related line of reasoning holds that the enormous amounts of clean energy needed to power direct air capture plants would be better used powering homes and businesses, thereby displacing fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal that still provide much of the world’s electricity.

Ms. Fuhr added that the costs remained high in spite of a growing raft of government support, including a tax credit in the United States worth $180 for every metric ton of carbon dioxide that is captured and stored, a subsidy that is likely to significantly lower Occidental’s tax bill in the years ahead. “The industry has been successful in capturing subsidies, just not carbon,” she said.

And then there is the fact that even if Occidental and Climeworks make good on their ambitions to build hundreds of new plants in the coming years, they would still not come close to capturing even 1 percent of current annual global emissions.

Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, said climate interventions in general, and carbon capture in particular, were dangerous distractions from the more urgent work of rapidly reducing the use of fossil fuels.

“There are many solutions that are just not helpful at all, that do not help an iota for climate and don’t help an iota for air pollution,” he said. “Among these are direct air capture.”

Proponents of the technology say that with fossil fuel emissions continuing to rise, the world is fast approaching the moment when any and all solutions to abate global warming should be on the table.

At the least, direct air capture has a role to play, they say, because there might always be at least some greenhouse gases being produced in the future, even if the vast majority of emissions are successfully eliminated. Sucking that carbon dioxide out of the air will be valuable, the argument goes.

But in the longer term, many scientists believe it will be necessary to go further and actually try to remove some of the excess carbon dioxide that has dangerously accumulated over the centuries. Proponents of direct air capture say their technology is suited for such a herculean task.

“No one is arguing you could solve all our carbon emissions with this,” Mr. Lesser said. “But it could be a meaningful part of solving a huge problem.”

The past year’s record temperatures, warming oceans and megafires are all evidence of a deeply uncomfortable reality: We’ve already been manipulating the planet for the past couple hundred years. In less time than it takes a redwood tree to reach its full height, humans have added enough carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to scramble weather patterns, melt glaciers and wipe out coral reefs.

Viewed this way, today’s attempts to slow down or even reverse the warming can be seen as efforts to undo the changes that have already taken place. Whether or not humans can succeed in this most ambitious feat is unclear. It is among the most consequential problems our species has faced.

Yet as people begin to deliberately tinker with the climate in new ways, there are profound questions that are only beginning to be contemplated. If the current extreme weather and temperature rise came about inadvertently, as the unintentional consequence of human development, what might happen when we begin actively trying to control the planet’s atmosphere?

“It’s true that we have been altering the climate through greenhouse gas emissions for centuries now,” said Ms. Hourdequin of Colorado College. “But trying to intentionally manage the climate through geoengineering would be a distinctive endeavor, quite different than the kind of haphazard interference that we’ve engaged in thus far.”

David Gelles reports on climate change and leads The Times’s Climate Forward newsletter and events series . More about David Gelles

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Gloom and doom warnings about climate change do not work

If we want people to act to curb climate change, we have to find a way to motivate them.

If you want to spread a message about climate change and global warming, you need to adapt the message according to your intended audience and what you want to achieve.

Researchers have now developed an app to help people who want to spread their message on climate issues to ensure they generate the most support possible -- be they researchers, politicians, various decision makers or legislators.

Huge survey involving 63 countries

59,000 people participated in surveys as part of the work on creating the app, and Norway was among the 63 countries involved. (You can read about what works best in Norway later in the article)

"The research team created this app that can help raise climate awareness and climate action globally. It is important to highlight messages that research shows are effective," says Isabel Richter, Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU's) Department of Psychology.

In total, nearly 250 researchers were involved in the work of testing out different climate messages and tactics. Richter was part of the research team along with colleagues Senior Researcher Stepan Vesely and Professor Christian Klöckner, also from NTNU's Department of Psychology.

Previous studies have concentrated on checking attitudes towards individual measures. These might include recycling, use of public transport and energy-saving measures in the home. However, this study looked at a number of different variations. It also received answers from people all around the world, and not only Western, industrialised countries.

The researchers collected data between July 2022 and May 2023, so the figures are very recent. Both the app and the method behind it have now been presented in the Science Advances journal.

Multiple variations

The researchers exposed people to different variations of climate messages and tasks related to climate change. They then investigated their attitudes towards the different climate measures and other types of responses.

To measure how effective the methods were, they checked how willing the participants were to support different points of view and measures regarding climate change. For example, participants were asked whether they saw climate change as a serious threat, whether they supported a carbon tax on fossil energy, or whether they would plant trees themselves as part of the solution.

The researchers also tested whether participants were willing to share messages on social media, such as eating less meat in order to mitigate climate change.

Here are some of the results:

• INTIMIDATION: "Climate change poses a serious threat to humanity."

All tactics increased the likelihood of people sharing the climate message on social media, and this doom and gloom messaging style was most effective, at least globally. However, sharing requires little effort from the person doing it. In some countries, scare tactics reduce support for reforestation, a real measure that requires more effort but may work. Scare tactics also reinforced the negative attitudes of people who are already climate sceptics.

• KNOWLEDGE: "99% of climate experts believe the planet is getting warmer and that climate change is primarily due to human activity."

Some messages produce different results in different countries. This message, which appeals to the recipient's sense of knowledge, increased support for climate measures in Romania by 9 per cent. In Canada, however, it reduced support by 5 per cent.

• EMOTIONS: Writing a letter to a child who is close to you about the climate measures we are taking today to make the planet a liveable place in 2055.

This tactic increased support for climate measures in Nigeria, Russia, Ghana, Brazil and the United States by between 5 and 10 per cent. However, in countries such as India, Serbia and the United Arab Emirates, it had little effect, or even reduced support slightly.

Other variations the researchers tested included presenting climate measures that have already been successfully implemented in the past, or portraying climate measures as patriotic or popular choices. Participants were also asked to imagine writing a letter to their future self telling them what type of climate measures they should have taken.

86 per cent believe climate change is a threat

Attitudes varied widely from country to country and depended on both demographics and beliefs. The researchers also divided people into groups according to their nationality, political ideology, age, gender, education, and income.

The results showed that 86 per cent of the participants believed that climate change poses a threat.

More than 70 per cent were supporters of systematic and collective measures to address climate change.

No point in using scare tactics in Norway

Gloom and doom messages about climate change do not work in Norway.

"Writing a letter to future generations is most effective in increasing political support for climate measures, and in increasing the belief that climate change is a problem. The second most effective measure is to say that almost all climate experts agree," Klöckner said.

Dire warnings and writing a letter to your future self were the least effective measures in Norway.

"All the alternatives made people in Norway less inclined to share a climate message on social media," adds Richter. In other words, in complete contrast to the results seen globally.

However, people in Norway are quite eager to do something themselves, like planting trees. Here, it is most effective to focus on moral responsibility, the fact that many people acknowledge that climate change is a problem, and also that there is consensus among climate experts.

"The way that I choose to interpret it is that people in Norway like to do something concrete instead of just sharing things on social media," says Associate Professor Richter.

Researchers from New York University and the University of Vienna led the study, but NTNU's contribution was also significant.

"We were involved from the very beginning, developing possible interventions. We assessed intervention proposals from other partners, improved them in collaboration with the group and helped determine which interventions should actually be implemented," says Vesely.

Vesely and Klöckner led and funded the collection of data in Norway.

Richter has good contacts in a number of African countries, the involvement of which is not always that easy to get in these types of studies. Among other things, she co-funded and participated in the collection of data from Kenya in particular.

Approximately 50 per cent of the Norwegian funding came from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). NHH also organised data collection through Ipsos.

Messages need to be adapted

Some activists believe that scare tactics are precisely what is needed in order for people to take action themselves. Others are of the opinion that it is depressing, demoralising and counterproductive. The study supports both of these hypotheses, but it depends on what you want to achieve.

Scare tactics work if your main focus is on getting people to post about their support on social media, but the venting of anger and frustration on Facebook, TikTok or X doesn't necessarily help the environment. If you want to gather support for things that may actually work, you need to use other means.

It is quite easy to get people to do things that do not require much effort, such as sharing a message on social media.

"Sharing something on social media can in itself feel like taking action. People may feel like 'Now that I have done something, I can get on with my life'. This is behaviour with a very low threshold," says Associate Professor Richter.

However, based on the results from around the world, none of the methods made people more willing to plant more trees for the sake of the environment -- a measure that means people have to put an effort in themselves.

"The findings show that spreading a climate message depends on people's attitudes towards climate change in the first place. Legislators and campaigners must adapt their messaging to the public," says Madalina Vlasceanu, Assistant Professor at New York University and one of the people who led the research project.

• Social Psychology
• Racial Issues
• Environmental Awareness
• Environmental Policy
• Environmental Policies
• World Development
• Ocean Policy
• Kyoto Protocol
• Scientific opinion on climate change
• Climate change mitigation
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
• Climate engineering
• Global warming controversy
• Decade Volcanoes
• Paleoclimatology

Story Source:

Materials provided by Norwegian University of Science and Technology . Original written by Steinar Brandslet. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Madalina Vlasceanu, Kimberly C. Doell, Joseph B. Bak-Coleman, Boryana Todorova, Michael M. Berkebile-Weinberg, Samantha J. Grayson, Yash Patel, Danielle Goldwert, Yifei Pei, Alek Chakroff, Ekaterina Pronizius, Karlijn L. van den Broek, Denisa Vlasceanu, Sara Constantino, Michael J. Morais, Philipp Schumann, Steve Rathje, Ke Fang, Salvatore Maria Aglioti, Mark Alfano, Andy J. Alvarado-Yepez, Angélica Andersen, Frederik Anseel, Matthew A. J. Apps, Chillar Asadli, Fonda Jane Awuor, Flavio Azevedo, Piero Basaglia, Jocelyn J. Bélanger, Sebastian Berger, Paul Bertin, Michał Białek, Olga Bialobrzeska, Michelle Blaya-Burgo, Daniëlle N. M. Bleize, Simen Bø, Lea Boecker, Paulo S. Boggio, Sylvie Borau, Björn Bos, Ayoub Bouguettaya, Markus Brauer, Cameron Brick, Tymofii Brik, Roman Briker, Tobias Brosch, Ondrej Buchel, Daniel Buonauro, Radhika Butalia, Héctor Carvacho, Sarah A. E. Chamberlain, Hang-Yee Chan, Dawn Chow, Dongil Chung, Luca Cian, Noa Cohen-Eick, Luis Sebastian Contreras-Huerta, Davide Contu, Vladimir Cristea, Jo Cutler, Silvana D'Ottone, Jonas De Keersmaecker, Sarah Delcourt, Sylvain Delouvée, Kathi Diel, Benjamin D. Douglas, Moritz A. Drupp, Shreya Dubey, Jānis Ekmanis, Christian T. Elbaek, Mahmoud Elsherif, Iris M. Engelhard, Yannik A. Escher, Tom W. Etienne, Laura Farage, Ana Rita Farias, Stefan Feuerriegel, Andrej Findor, Lucia Freira, Malte Friese, Neil Philip Gains, Albina Gallyamova, Sandra J. Geiger, Oliver Genschow, Biljana Gjoneska, Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Beth Goldberg, Amit Goldenberg, Sarah Gradidge, Simone Grassini, Kurt Gray, Sonja Grelle, Siobhán M. Griffin, Lusine Grigoryan, Ani Grigoryan, Dmitry Grigoryev, June Gruber, Johnrev Guilaran, Britt Hadar, Ulf J.J. Hahnel, Eran Halperin, Annelie J. Harvey, Christian A. P. Haugestad, Aleksandra M. Herman, Hal E. Hershfield, Toshiyuki Himichi, Donald W. Hine, Wilhelm Hofmann, Lauren Howe, Enma T. Huaman-Chulluncuy, Guanxiong Huang, Tatsunori Ishii, Ayahito Ito, Fanli Jia, John T. Jost, Veljko Jovanović, Dominika Jurgiel, Ondřej Kácha, Reeta Kankaanpää, Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, Keren Kaplan Mintz, Ilker Kaya, Ozgur Kaya, Narine Khachatryan, Anna Klas, Colin Klein, Christian A. Klöckner, Lina Koppel, Alexandra I. Kosachenko, Emily J. Kothe, Ruth Krebs, Amy R. Krosch, Andre P.M. Krouwel, Yara Kyrychenko, Maria Lagomarsino, Claus Lamm, Florian Lange, Julia Lee Cunningham, Jeffrey Lees, Tak Yan Leung, Neil Levy, Patricia L. Lockwood, Chiara Longoni, Alberto López Ortega, David D. Loschelder, Jackson G. Lu, Yu Luo, Joseph Luomba, Annika E. Lutz, Johann M. Majer, Ezra Markowitz, Abigail A. Marsh, Karen Louise Mascarenhas, Bwambale Mbilingi, Winfred Mbungu, Cillian McHugh, Marijn H.C. Meijers, Hugo Mercier, Fenant Laurent Mhagama, Katerina Michalakis, Nace Mikus, Sarah Milliron, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Fredy S. Monge-Rodríguez, Youri L. Mora, David Moreau, Kosuke Motoki, Manuel Moyano, Mathilde Mus, Joaquin Navajas, Tam Luong Nguyen, Dung Minh Nguyen, Trieu Nguyen, Laura Niemi, Sari R. R. Nijssen, Gustav Nilsonne, Jonas P. Nitschke, Laila Nockur, Ritah Okura, Sezin Öner, Asil Ali Özdoğru, Helena Palumbo, Costas Panagopoulos, Maria Serena Panasiti, Philip Pärnamets, Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, Yuri G. Pavlov, César Payán-Gómez, Adam R. Pearson, Leonor Pereira da Costa, Hannes M. Petrowsky, Stefan Pfattheicher, Nhat Tan Pham, Vladimir Ponizovskiy, Clara Pretus, Gabriel G. Rêgo, Ritsaart Reimann, Shawn A. Rhoads, Julian Riano-Moreno, Isabell Richter, Jan Philipp Röer, Jahred Rosa-Sullivan, Robert M. Ross, Anandita Sabherwal, Toshiki Saito, Oriane Sarrasin, Nicolas Say, Katharina Schmid, Michael T. Schmitt, Philipp Schoenegger, Christin Scholz, Mariah G. Schug, Stefan Schulreich, Ganga Shreedhar, Eric Shuman, Smadar Sivan, Hallgeir Sjåstad, Meikel Soliman, Katia Soud, Tobia Spampatti, Gregg Sparkman, Ognen Spasovski, Samantha K. Stanley, Jessica A. Stern, Noel Strahm, Yasushi Suko, Sunhae Sul, Stylianos Syropoulos, Neil C. Taylor, Elisa Tedaldi, Gustav Tinghög, Luu Duc Toan Huynh, Giovanni Antonio Travaglino, Manos Tsakiris, İlayda Tüter, Michael Tyrala, Özden Melis Uluğ, Arkadiusz Urbanek, Danila Valko, Sander van der Linden, Kevin van Schie, Aart van Stekelenburg, Edmunds Vanags, Daniel Västfjäll, Stepan Vesely, Jáchym Vintr, Marek Vranka, Patrick Otuo Wanguche, Robb Willer, Adrian Dominik Wojcik, Rachel Xu, Anjali Yadav, Magdalena Zawisza, Xian Zhao, Jiaying Zhao, Dawid Żuk, Jay J. Van Bavel. Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries . Science Advances , 2024; 10 (6) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

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