How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

Lesson 1. What is Climate change?

The world is getting hotter every year. The temperature of the earth is steadily rising year after year. This is known as global warming. It is caused due to a phenomenon called "the greenhouse effect." The greenhouse effect is caused due to gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. This works in the same way a greenhouse does, hence the name. These gases let the heat from the sun enter our atmosphere and then trap a percentage of that radiation. This is what keeps the earth warm at night. But, for the last couple of decades, the world has been looking at an abnormal rise in temperature due to the excess amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere. In fact, the human population adds 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere every year. This massive amount of greenhouse additives is the reason our planet is barreling towards a climate disaster. Even what seem like small rises in temperatures, such as 1 or 2 degrees Celsius, cause a lot of trouble. Therefore, to avoid a climate disaster, what we need to aim for, is zero. Zero emissions.

But why zero?

Any drop in emissions short of net-zero will only postpone and not prevent climate catastrophe. Imagine a bathtub with a running tap. The bathtub is nearly full. To stop the water from spilling over, we have to close the tap and not just slow the flow. If the tap is even trickling, then sooner or later, the bathtub will overflow.

Getting to zero will not be an easy road to travel. Fossil fuels are so pervasive and integrated into most aspects of our lives that, more often than not, we don't even realize they are there. From the fertilizers that help our food grow to the steel that makes up most of the modern world's infrastructure, fossil fuels are everywhere. Not just limiting but stopping the use of fossil fuels in order to reach zero will require huge transitions in every walk of life. And looking back at the history of human life, it is not hard to spot that transitions like these take a long time. Time that we currently do not have.  

Finally, the biggest hurdle in our way is the lack of consensus about climate change. There are still groups, vocal groups of people who are not persuaded by science and maintain their beliefs that climate change is not real or that solving it is not urgent or important. This puts hurdles in the path of global or even national cooperation.

Climate change is a