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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: A Guide to Individual and Collective Action
The headlines scream about melting ice caps, raging wildfires, and extreme weather events. Climate change isn't a distant threat; it's a present reality demanding immediate action. Feeling overwhelmed and unsure how to contribute to the solution is understandable. But fear not! This comprehensive guide outlines practical steps – both individually and collectively – that we can take to mitigate the climate crisis and avoid a potential disaster. We'll explore actionable strategies, debunk common myths, and empower you to become an active participant in building a sustainable future.
1. Understanding the Urgency: The Science Behind the Crisis
Before diving into solutions, it's crucial to grasp the scientific consensus. Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, are releasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. These gases trap heat, leading to a global temperature rise and triggering a cascade of detrimental effects. This isn't just about polar bears; it's about impacting global weather patterns, sea levels, food security, and human health. Understanding the science strengthens our resolve to act.
#### The Impact of Greenhouse Gases:
Rising Temperatures: Leading to more frequent and intense heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires.
Sea Level Rise: Threatening coastal communities and ecosystems through inundation and erosion.
Extreme Weather Events: Increased frequency and severity of hurricanes, floods, and storms.
Ocean Acidification: Harmful to marine life and ecosystems.
2. Individual Actions: Making a Difference in Your Daily Life
While systemic change is vital, individual actions are crucial building blocks. Even small changes, when adopted by millions, create a significant collective impact.
#### Reducing Your Carbon Footprint:
Sustainable Transportation: Opt for walking, cycling, public transport, or carpooling whenever possible. Consider an electric or hybrid vehicle.
Energy Efficiency: Switch to LED lighting, unplug electronics when not in use, and improve home insulation to reduce energy consumption. Consider renewable energy sources like solar panels.
Conscious Consumption: Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Buy less, choose products with minimal packaging, and support businesses committed to sustainability. Prioritize durable, repairable goods over disposable ones.
Sustainable Diet: Reduce meat consumption, especially red meat, and opt for locally sourced, seasonal produce to minimize transportation emissions. Reducing food waste is also crucial.
3. Collective Action: Advocating for Systemic Change
Individual actions are essential, but systemic change is necessary to tackle the climate crisis effectively.
#### Advocacy and Political Engagement:
Support Climate-Friendly Policies: Vote for candidates who prioritize climate action and advocate for policies that promote renewable energy, carbon pricing, and environmental protection.
Engage in Political Discourse: Participate in peaceful protests, write to your elected officials, and engage in constructive dialogue about climate change.
Support Environmental Organizations: Donate to or volunteer with organizations working on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
#### Investing in Sustainable Solutions:
Invest Ethically: Choose investments that align with your values and support companies committed to sustainability. Consider divesting from fossil fuel companies.
Support Green Businesses: Patronize businesses that prioritize sustainability and ethical practices.
4. Debunking Myths and Addressing Barriers
Many misconceptions hinder effective climate action. Let's address some common myths:
Myth 1: It's too late to do anything. While the situation is serious, it's not too late to avoid the worst-case scenarios. Every action taken now reduces the severity of future impacts.
Myth 2: Individual actions don't matter. The collective impact of millions of individuals making small changes is significant.
Myth 3: Climate change is too expensive to address. The cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of addressing climate change.
5. Building a Sustainable Future: A Collaborative Effort
Avoiding a climate disaster requires a concerted global effort. It necessitates a paradigm shift in how we produce, consume, and interact with our planet. By combining individual responsibility with collective action, we can create a more sustainable and resilient future for all. It's a journey, not a destination, and every step, no matter how small, contributes to a more sustainable future.
Conclusion:
The task of avoiding a climate disaster is daunting, but not insurmountable. By understanding the urgency, taking individual actions, and advocating for systemic change, we can build a more sustainable future. It requires a collective commitment to innovation, collaboration, and responsible stewardship of our planet. Let's work together to secure a livable planet for future generations.
FAQs:
1. What is the single most impactful thing I can do to fight climate change? There isn't one single answer, but reducing your carbon footprint through transportation choices and energy consumption is a significant starting point.
2. How can I get involved in climate activism in my community? Search for local environmental organizations or groups working on climate action in your area.
3. Are electric cars really better for the environment? Compared to gasoline-powered cars, electric cars generally produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, although their overall environmental impact depends on the electricity source.
4. What is carbon offsetting, and is it effective? Carbon offsetting involves investing in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere to compensate for your own emissions. Its effectiveness is debated, and it shouldn't replace reducing your direct emissions.
5. How can I reduce my food waste? Plan meals, store food properly, use leftovers creatively, and compost food scraps.
| how to avoid a climate disaster: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Bill Gates, 2021-02-16 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BESTSELLER In this urgent, singularly authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical--and accessible--plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid an irreversible climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help and guidance of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science and finance, he has focused on exactly what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only gathers together all the information we need to fully grasp how important it is that we work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases but also details exactly what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. He describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions; where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively; where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions--suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but by following the guidelines he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: The New Climate War Michael E. Mann, 2021-01-12 Shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year award A renowned climate scientist shows how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change, and offers a battle plan for how we can save the planet. Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we've been told can slow climate change. But the inordinate emphasis on individual behavior is the result of a marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals. Fossil fuel companies have followed the example of other industries deflecting blame (think guns don't kill people, people kill people) or greenwashing (think of the beverage industry's Crying Indian commercials of the 1970s). Meanwhile, they've blocked efforts to regulate or price carbon emissions, run PR campaigns aimed at discrediting viable alternatives, and have abdicated their responsibility in fixing the problem they've created. The result has been disastrous for our planet. In The New Climate War, Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters-fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petrostates. And he outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change, including: A common-sense, attainable approach to carbon pricing- and a revision of the well-intentioned but flawed currently proposed version of the Green New Deal; Allowing renewable energy to compete fairly against fossil fuels Debunking the false narratives and arguments that have worked their way into the climate debate and driven a wedge between even those who support climate change solutions Combatting climate doomism and despair-mongering With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won't happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward. This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming Per Espen Stoknes, 2015 Today, about 98 percent of scientists affirm that climate change is human made, and about 2 percent still question it. Despite that overwhelming majority, though, about half the population of rich countries, like ours, choose to believe the 2 percent. And, paradoxically, this large camp of deniers grows even larger as more and more alarming proof of climate change has cropped up over the last decades. This disconnect has both climate scientists and activists scratching their heads, growing anxious, and responding, usually, by repeating more facts to 'win' the argument. But, the more climate facts pile up, the greater the resistance to them grows, and the harder it becomes to enact measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare communities for the inevitable change ahead. Is humanity up to the task? It is a catch-22 that starts, says psychologist and climate expert Per Espen Stoknes, from an inadequate understanding of the way most humans think, act, and live in the world around them. With dozens of examples, he shows how to retell the story of climate change and apply communication strategies more fit for the task.--Publisher's description. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Windfall Mckenzie Funk, 2014-01-23 A fascinating investigation into how people around the globe are cashing in on a warming world McKenzie Funk has spent the last six years reporting around the world on how we are preparing for a warmer planet. Funk shows us that the best way to understand the catastrophe of global warming is to see it through the eyes of those who see it most clearly—as a market opportunity. Global warming’s physical impacts can be separated into three broad categories: melt, drought, and deluge. Funk travels to two dozen countries to profile entrepreneurial people who see in each of these forces a potential windfall. The melt is a boon for newly arable, mineral-rich regions of the Arctic, such as Greenland—and for the surprising kings of the manmade snow trade, the Israelis. The process of desalination, vital to Israel’s survival, can produce a snowlike by-product that alpine countries use to prolong their ski season. Drought creates opportunities for private firefighters working for insurance companies in California as well as for fund managers backing south Sudanese warlords who control local farmland. As droughts raise food prices globally, there is no more precious asset. The deluge—the rising seas, surging rivers, and superstorms that will threaten island nations and coastal cities—has been our most distant concern, but after Hurricane Sandy and failure after failure to cut global carbon emissions, it is not so distant. For Dutch architects designing floating cities and American scientists patenting hurricane defenses, the race is on. For low-lying countries like Bangladesh, the coming deluge presents an existential threat. Funk visits the front lines of the melt, the drought, and the deluge to make a human accounting of the booming business of global warming. By letting climate change continue unchecked, we are choosing to adapt to a warming world. Containing the resulting surge will be big business; some will benefit, but much of the planet will suffer. McKenzie Funk has investigated both sides, and what he has found will shock us all. To understand how the world is preparing to warm, Windfall follows the money. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Apocalypse Never (resumo) Michael Shellenberger, 2023-04-28 Este livro é um resumo produzido a partir da obra original. A mudança climática é real, mas não é o fim do mundo. Não é sequer nosso maior problema ambiental. Michael Shellenberger tem lutado por um planeta mais verde por décadas. Ajudou a salvar as últimas sequoias ameaçadas do mundo, co-criou o que seria o predecessor do atual Novo Acordo Verde (Green New Deal), além de, juntamente com cientistas climáticos e ativistas, liderar uma ação bem sucedida para manter as usinas nucleares funcionando, assim evitando os famosos picos de emissão. Porém, em 2019, enquanto se alegava que bilhões de pessoas iriam morrer, o que contribuiu para uma ampla crise de ansiedade ― inclusive entre adolescentes ―, como ativista ambiental há anos, afamado especialista em energia e pai de uma adolescente, Shellenberger resolveu que deveria falar mais a respeito a fim de separar a ficção da ciência. Mesmo após anos da atenção dada pela grande mídia, muitos continuam ignorantes quanto aos fatos mais básicos sobre clima. Em boa parte das nações mais desenvolvidas, os picos das emissões de carbono vêm caindo há mais de uma década. O mesmo ocorre quanto aos números de mortes causadas por condições climáticas extremas, que tiveram uma queda de 80% nos últimos quarenta anos, inclusive em nações mais pobres. Além disso, o risco de um superaquecimento da Terra tem se tornado mais improvável graças ao baixo crescimento populacional e a abundância de gás natural. Curiosamente, aqueles que são mais alarmistas quanto aos problemas climáticos também são os que tendem a se opor às soluções mais óbvias. O que está realmente por detrás de todo esse levante apocalítico ambientalista? Estão poderosos interesses financeiros. Há desejo por status e poder. E há, sobretudo, um desejo de transcendência de pessoas supostamente seculares. O impulso espiritual pode ser natural e saudável, porém ao pregar medo sem amor e culpa sem redenção, a nova religião não está satisfazendo nossas mais profundas necessidades psicológicas e existenciais. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: The Uninhabitable Earth David Wallace-Wells, 2019-02-19 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon.”—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Economist • The Paris Review • Toronto Star • GQ • The Times Literary Supplement • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible—food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation. An “epoch-defining book” (The Guardian) and “this generation’s Silent Spring” (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it—the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress. The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD “The Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a meticulously documented, white-knuckled tour through the cascading catastrophes that will soon engulf our warming planet.”—Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times “Riveting. . . . Some readers will find Mr. Wallace-Wells’s outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too.”—The Economist “Potent and evocative. . . . Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change. . . . He avoids the ‘eerily banal language of climatology’ in favor of lush, rolling prose.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times “The book has potential to be this generation’s Silent Spring.”—The Washington Post “The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear. . . . I encourage people to read this book.”—Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: The Fight for Climate After COVID-19 Alice C. Hill, 2021 The Fight for Climate after COVID-19 draws on the troubled and uneven COVID-19 experience to illustrate the critical need to ramp up resilience rapidly and effectively on a global scale. After years of working alongside public health and resilience experts crafting policy to build both pandemic and climate change preparedness, Alice C. Hill exposes parallels between the underutilized measures that governments should have taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 -- such as early action, cross-border planning, and bolstering emergency preparation -- and the steps leaders can take now to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Through practical analyses of current policy and thoughtful guidance for successful climate adaptation, The Fight for Climate after COVID-19 reveals that, just as our society has transformed itself to meet the challenge of coronavirus, so too will we need to adapt our thinking and our policies to combat the ever-increasing threat of climate change. -- |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: What If We Stopped Pretending? Jonathan Franzen, 2021-01-21 The climate change is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Summary of How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Alexander Cooper, 2021-04-05 Summary of How to Avoid a Climate Disaster There are two numbers you need to know when it comes to understanding climate change. The first is fifty billion-the number of greenhouse gasses we release into the atmosphere. The second is zero—the number of greenhouse gasses we need to release in the atmosphere to avoid catastrophic climate change problems. By working together, Gates thinks we can reach these lofty goals. Gates began by looking at per-capita income as it related to energy uses and found that the higher the per capita income of a country, the higher the amount of energy that country used. Since energy consumption equaled about 27% of the greenhouse gasses emitting, this would be an important part of the puzzle-but it wouldn’t be the only part. Gates developed three beliefs about energy consumption and climate change. First, to avoid a climate disaster we have to get down to zero greenhouse gasses. Second, we need to employ the tools we have (like wind and solar energy) smarter and faster. Third, we need to find new technology that can take us the rest of the way. To solve the energy crisis, we have to start by investing in clean energy and getting money out of the fuel, oil, and coal industries. Money speaks, and if we can make it so that it’s financially beneficial to switch to clean energy, then we may see those greenhouse gases eliminated. For a long time, people have said that we need to fly and drive less to decrease the number of greenhouse gases that enter our atmosphere. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit globally, we found people doing just that, but our rates of carbon emissions only went down about 5%. This would be a significant amount of it was sustainable and each year saw similar decreases, however, it is not significant enough to prevent climate disasters. This book will not only tell you how to best use the energy you have and how to create clean energy in your homes, but it will also tell you what plans to follow to help prevent disastrous climate change and some of the newest technological ideas that are primed to help make a huge difference. Here is a Preview of What You Will Get: ⁃ A Full Book Summary ⁃ An Analysis ⁃ Fun quizzes ⁃ Quiz Answers ⁃ Etc. Get a copy of this summary and learn about the book. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Superpower Ross Garnaut, 2019-11-06 The fog of Australian politics on climate change has obscured a fateful reality: Australia has the potential to be an economic superpower of the future post-carbon world. We have unparalleled renewable energy resources. We also have the necessary scientific skills. Australia could be the natural home for an increasing proportion of global industry. But how do we make this happen? In this crisp, compelling book, Australia’s leading thinker about climate and energy policy offers a road map for progress, covering energy, transport, agriculture, the international scene and more. Rich in ideas and practical optimism, Superpower is a crucial, timely contribution to this country’s future. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: The Great Displacement Jake Bittle, 2023-02-21 The untold story of climate migration--the personal stories of those experiencing displacement, the portraits of communities being torn apart by disaster, and the implications for all of us as we confront a changing future. When the subject of migration that will be caused by global climate change comes up in the media or in conversation, we often think of international refugees--those from foreign countries who will emigrate to the United States to escape disasters like rising shorelines and famine. What many people don't realize though, is that climate migration is happening now--and within the borders of the United States. A human-centered narrative with national scope, The Great Displacement is the first book to report on climate migration in the US. From half-drowned Louisiana to fire-scorched California, from the dried-up cotton fields of Arizona to the soaked watersheds of inland North Carolina, people are moving. In the last decade alone, the federal government has sponsored the relocation of tens of thousands of families away from flood zones, and tens of thousands more have moved of their own accord in the aftermath of natural disasters. Insurance and mortgage markets are already shifting to reflect mounting climate risk, pushing more people away from their homes. Rising seas have already begun to sink eastern coastal cities, while extreme heat, unprecedented drought, and unstoppable wildfires plague the west. Over the next fifty years, millions of Americans will be caught up in this churn of displacement created by climate change, forced inland and northward in what will be the largest national migration we've yet to experience. The Great Displacement compassionately tells the stories of those who are already experiencing life on the move, while detailing just how radically climate change will transform our lives--forcing us out of the country's hardest-hit areas, uprooting countless communities, and prompting a massive migration that will fundamentally reshape the United States. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Numbers Don't Lie Vaclav Smil, 2021-05-04 Vaclav Smil is my favorite author… Numbers Don't Lie takes everything that makes his writing great and boils it down into an easy-to-read format. I unabashedly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning.--Bill Gates, GatesNotes From the author of How the World Really Works, an essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world--exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production. Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment--your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy? From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world--and how all of this affects the planet itself--in Numbers Don't Lie, Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge conventional thinking. Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Don't Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit--all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics--Numbers Don't Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action Radhika Iyengar, Christina T. Kwauk, 2021 Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action offers researchers, practitioners, donors, and decisionmakers insights into entry points for education systems change needed to reorient human society's relationship with our planetary systems. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Unbreakable Stephane Hallegatte, Adrien Vogt-Schilb, Mook Bangalore, Julie Rozenberg, 2016-11-24 'Economic losses from natural disasters totaled $92 billion in 2015.' Such statements, all too commonplace, assess the severity of disasters by no other measure than the damage inflicted on buildings, infrastructure, and agricultural production. But $1 in losses does not mean the same thing to a rich person that it does to a poor person; the gravity of a $92 billion loss depends on who experiences it. By focusing on aggregate losses—the traditional approach to disaster risk—we restrict our consideration to how disasters affect those wealthy enough to have assets to lose in the first place, and largely ignore the plight of poor people. This report moves beyond asset and production losses and shifts its attention to how natural disasters affect people’s well-being. Disasters are far greater threats to well-being than traditional estimates suggest. This approach provides a more nuanced view of natural disasters than usual reporting, and a perspective that takes fuller account of poor people’s vulnerabilities. Poor people suffer only a fraction of economic losses caused by disasters, but they bear the brunt of their consequences. Understanding the disproportionate vulnerability of poor people also makes the case for setting new intervention priorities to lessen the impact of natural disasters on the world’s poor, such as expanding financial inclusion, disaster risk and health insurance, social protection and adaptive safety nets, contingent finance and reserve funds, and universal access to early warning systems. Efforts to reduce disaster risk and poverty go hand in hand. Because disasters impoverish so many, disaster risk management is inseparable from poverty reduction policy, and vice versa. As climate change magnifies natural hazards, and because protection infrastructure alone cannot eliminate risk, a more resilient population has never been more critical to breaking the cycle of disaster-induced poverty. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Canada’s Top Climate Change Risks The Expert Panel on Climate Change Risks and Adaptation Potential, 2019-07-04 Canada’s Top Climate Change Risks identifies the top risk areas based on the extent and likelihood of the potential damage, and rates the risk areas according to society’s ability to adapt and reduce negative outcomes. These 12 major areas of risk are: agriculture and food, coastal communities, ecosystems, fisheries, forestry, geopolitical dynamics, governance and capacity, human health and wellness, Indigenous ways of life, northern communities, physical infrastructure, and water. The report describes an approach to inform federal risk prioritization and adaptation responses. The Panel outlines a multi-layered method of prioritizing adaptation measures based on an understanding of the risk, adaptation potential, and federal roles and responsibilities. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: The Future Earth Eric Holthaus, 2020-06-30 The first hopeful book about climate change, The Future Earth shows readers how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades. The basics of climate science are easy. We know it is entirely human-caused. Which means its solutions will be similarly human-led. In The Future Earth, leading climate change advocate and weather-related journalist Eric Holthaus (“the Rebel Nerd of Meteorology”—Rolling Stone) offers a radical vision of our future, specifically how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades. Anchored by world-class reporting, interviews with futurists, climatologists, biologists, economists, and climate change activists, it shows what the world could look like if we implemented radical solutions on the scale of the crises we face. What could happen if we reduced carbon emissions by 50 percent in the next decade? What could living in a city look like in 2030? How could the world operate in 2040, if the proposed Green New Deal created a 100 percent net carbon-free economy in the United States? This is the book for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the current state of our environment. Hopeful and prophetic, The Future Earth invites us to imagine how we can reverse the effects of climate change in our own lifetime and encourages us to enter a deeper relationship with the earth as conscientious stewards and to re-affirm our commitment to one another in our shared humanity. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: How to Prevent the Next Pandemic Bill Gates, 2022-05-03 The COVID-19 pandemic isn't over, but even as governments around the world strive to put it behind us, they're also starting to talk about what happens next. How can we prevent a new pandemic from killing millions of people and devastating the global economy? Can we even hope to accomplish this? Bill Gates believes the answer is yes, and in this book he lays out clearly and convincingly what the world should have learned from COVID-19 and what all of us can do to ward off another disaster like it. Relying on the shared knowledge of the world's foremost experts and on his own experience of combating fatal diseases through the Gates Foundation, he first makes us understand the science of corona diseases. Then he helps us understand how the nations of the world, working in conjunction with one another and with the private sector, can not only ward off another COVID-like catastrophe but also go far to eliminate all respiratory diseases, including the flu. Here is a clarion call - strong, comprehensive, and of the gravest importance - from one of our greatest and most effective thinkers and activists. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change Dieter Helm, 2020-09-03 What can we really do about the climate emergency? The inconvenient truth is that we are causing the climate crisis with our carbon intensive lifestyles and that fixing – or even just slowing – it will affect all of us. But it can be done. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: The Climate Change Playbook Dennis Meadows, Linda Booth Sweeney, Gillian Martin Mehers, 2016 The simple, interactive exercises in The Climate Change Playbook can help citizens better understand climate change, diagnose its causes, anticipate its future consequences, and effect constructive change. Adapted from The Systems Thinking Playbook, the twenty-two games are now specifically relevant to climate-change communications and crafted for use by experts, advocates, and educators. Illustrated guidelines walk leaders through setting each game up, facilitating it, and debriefing participants. Users will find games that are suitable for a variety of audiences--whether large and seated, as in a conference room, or smaller and mobile, as in a workshop, seminar, or meeting. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: How To Save Our Planet Mark A. Maslin, 2021-05-06 'Punchy and to the point. No beating around the bush. This brilliant book contains all the information we need to have in our back pocket in order to move forward' Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary UN Climate Change Convention 'Amazing book' Chris Evans, Virgin Radio Breakfast Show 'Everyone should have this book' Rick Edwards, BBC Radio 5 Live 'A timely and important book, not only laying out the facts...but suggesting real solutions to the challenges facing us' Professor Alice Roberts, Anatomist, Professor of Public Engagement in Science, University of Birmingham _________________________ How can we save our planet and survive the 21st century? How can you argue with deniers? How can we create positive change in the midst of the climate crisis? Professor Mark Maslin has the key facts that we need to protect our future. Global awareness of climate change is growing rapidly. Science has proven that our planet and species are facing a massive environmental crisis. How to Save Our Planet is a call to action, guaranteed to equip everyone with the knowledge needed to make change. Be under no illusion the challenges of the twenty-first century are immense. We need to deal with: climate change, environmental destruction, global poverty and ensure everyone's security. We have the technology. We have the resources. We have the money. We have the scientists, the entrepreneurs and the innovators. We lack the politics and policies to make your vision of a better world happen. So we need a plan to save our planet... How to Save Our Planet is your handbook of how we together can save our precious planet. From the history of our planet and species, to the potential of individuals and our power to create a better future, Maslin inspires optimism in these bleak times. We stand at the precipice. The future of our planet is in our hands. It's time to face the facts and save our planet from, and for, ourselves. _________________________ 'A handbook of clearly established, authoritative facts and figures about the terrible toll we as humans have taken of our planet, plus ways in which we can lessen the impact. For laypeople like me, who can see what is happening but haven't always got the precise statistics to hand, it's hugely valuable' John Simpson CBE, BBC World Affairs Editor, Broadcaster, Author & Columnist 'Saving the world is no small thing, but picking up this book's a good start' Paris Lees, Contributing Editor at British Vogue, campaigner 'I love it. My kids love it' Chris Evans, Virgin Radio Breakfast Show 'A no-nonsense crib sheet on the state of the world and how to help it' The I Newspaper |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Unsettled (Updated and Expanded Edition) Steven E. Koonin, 2024-06-11 In this updated and expanded edition of climate scientist Steven Koonin’s groundbreaking book, go behind the headlines to discover the latest eye-opening data about climate change—with unbiased facts and realistic steps for the future. Greenland’s ice loss is accelerating. Extreme temperatures are causing more fatalities. Rapid 'climate action' is essential to avoid a future climate disaster. You've heard all this presented as fact. But according to science, all of these statements are profoundly misleading. With the new edition of Unsettled, Steven Koonin draws on decades of experience—including as a top science advisor to the Obama administration—to clear away the fog and explain what science really says (and doesn't say). With a new introduction, this edition now features reflections on an additional three years of eye-opening data, alternatives to unrealistic “net zero” solutions, global energy inequalities, and the energy crisis arising from the war in Ukraine. When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that “the science is settled.” In reality, the climate is changing, but the why and how aren’t as clear as you’ve probably been led to believe. Koonin takes readers behind the headlines, dispels popular myths, and unveils little-known truths: Despite rising greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures decreased from 1940 to 1970 Models currently used to predict the future do not accurately describe the climate of the past, and modelers themselves strongly doubt their regional predictions There is no compelling evidence that hurricanes are becoming more frequent—or that predictions of rapid sea level rise have any validity Unsettled is a reality check buoyed by hope, offering the truth about climate science—what we know, what we don’t, and what it all means for our future. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Solved David Miller, 2020-10 David Miller presents a compelling case that significant progress can be made at the local level by duplicating the actions of nine leading cities around the world. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: The Ministry for the Future Kim Stanley Robinson, 2020-10-06 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR “The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future. —Ezra Klein (Vox) The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis. One hopes that this book is read widely—that Robinson’s audience, already large, grows by an order of magnitude. Because the point of his books is to fire the imagination.―New York Review of Books If there’s any book that hit me hard this year, it was Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future, a sweeping epic about climate change and humanity’s efforts to try and turn the tide before it’s too late. ―Polygon (Best of the Year) Masterly. —New Yorker [The Ministry for the Future] struck like a mallet hitting a gong, reverberating through the year ... it’s terrifying, unrelenting, but ultimately hopeful. Robinson is the SF writer of my lifetime, and this stands as some of his best work. It’s my book of the year. —Locus Science-fiction visionary Kim Stanley Robinson makes the case for quantitative easing our way out of planetary doom. ―Bloomberg Green |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Short Circuiting Policy Leah Cardamore Stokes, 2020-03-18 In 1999, Texas passed a landmark clean energy law, beginning a groundswell of new policies that promised to make the US a world leader in renewable energy. As Leah Stokes shows in Short Circuiting Policy, however, that policy did not lead to momentum in Texas, which failed to implement its solar laws or clean up its electricity system. Examining clean energy laws in Texas, Kansas, Arizona, and Ohio over a thirty-year time frame, Stokes argues that organized combat between advocate and opponent interest groups is central to explaining why states are not on track to address the climate crisis. She tells the political history of our energy institutions, explaining how fossil fuel companies and electric utilities have promoted climate denial and delay. Stokes further explains the limits of policy feedback theory, showing the ways that interest groups drive retrenchment through lobbying, public opinion, political parties and the courts. More than a history of renewable energy policy in modern America, Short Circuiting Policy offers a bold new argument about how the policy process works, and why seeming victories can turn into losses when the opposition has enough resources to roll back laws. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Water Security Under Climate Change Asit K. Biswas, Cecilia Tortajada, 2021-09-28 This book highlights the likely impacts of climate change in terms of global and national water securities, how different countries are attempting to address these complex problems and to what extent they are likely to succeed. A major global concern at present, especially after the social and economic havoc that has been caused by COVID-19 in only one year, is how we can return to earlier levels of economic development patterns and then further improve the process so that sustainable development goals are reached to the extent possible by 2030, in both developed and developing countries. Mankind is now facing two existential problems over the next several decades. These are climate change and whether the world will have access to enough water to meet all its food, energy, environment and health needs. Much of expected climate change impacts can be seen through the lens of extreme hydrological events, like droughts, floods and other extreme hydrometeorological events. Chapter 7 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.Chapter 12 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Drawdown Paul Hawken, 2017-04-18 • New York Times bestseller • The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world “At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the climate crisis. Reported by-effects include increased determination and a sense of grounded hope.” —Per Espen Stoknes, Author, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming “There’s been no real way for ordinary people to get an understanding of what they can do and what impact it can have. There remains no single, comprehensive, reliable compendium of carbon-reduction solutions across sectors. At least until now. . . . The public is hungry for this kind of practical wisdom.” —David Roberts, Vox “This is the ideal environmental sciences textbook—only it is too interesting and inspiring to be called a textbook.” —Peter Kareiva, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here—some are well known; some you may have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path forward, not just to slow the earth’s warming but to reach drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being—giving us every reason to see this planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2012-05-28 Extreme weather and climate events, interacting with exposed and vulnerable human and natural systems, can lead to disasters. This Special Report explores the social as well as physical dimensions of weather- and climate-related disasters, considering opportunities for managing risks at local to international scales. SREX was approved and accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 18 November 2011 in Kampala, Uganda. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference Rebecca Huntley, 2020-07-02 'The antidote to climate anxiety is action. Make your first action reading this book.' OSHER GUNSBERG 'Rebecca Huntley has given us a great gift: an essential guide to understanding ourselves and each other as we face the climate crisis. Let's take down the walls that divide us. Collectively, with compassion and courage, we can make real change happen.' KYLIE KWONG 'Explains whether and how we will choose to solve the climate problem. Immensely important analysis in a great read.' PROFESSOR ROSS GARNAUT Why is it so hard to talk about climate change? While scientists double down on the shocking figures, we still find ourselves unable to discuss climate change meaningfully among friends and neighbours - or even to grapple with it ourselves. The key to progress on climate change is in the psychology of human attitudes and our ability to change. Whether you're already alarmed and engaged with the issue, concerned but disengaged, a passive skeptic or an active denier, understanding our emotional reactions to climate change - why it makes us anxious, fearful, angry or detached - is critical to coping on an individual level and convincing each other to act. This book is about understanding why people who aren't like you feel the way they do and learning to talk to them effectively. What we need are thousands - millions - of everyday conversations about the climate to enlarge the ranks of the concerned, engage the disengaged and persuade the cautious of the need for action. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Berlin Calling Paul Hockenos, 2017-05-23 An exhilarating journey through the subcultures, occupied squats, and late-night scenes in the anarchic first few years of Berlin after the fall of the wall Berlin Calling is a gripping account of the 1989 peaceful revolution in East Germany that upended communism and the tumultuous years of artistic ferment, political improvisation, and pirate utopias that followed. It’s the story of a newly undivided Berlin when protest and punk rock, bohemia and direct democracy, techno and free theater were the order of the day. In a story stocked with fascinating characters from Berlin’s highly politicized undergrounds—including playwright Heiner Müller, cult figure Blixa Bargeld of the industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten, the internationally known French Wall artist Thierry Noir, the American multimedia artist Danielle de Picciotto (founder of Love Parade), and David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust incarnation—Hockenos argues that the DIY energy and raw urban vibe of the early 1990s shaped the new Berlin and still pulses through the city today. Just as Mike Davis captured Los Angeles in his City of Quartz, Berlin Calling is a unique account of how Berlin became hip, and of why it continues to attract creative types from the world over. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Averting Catastrophe Cass R. Sunstein, 2021-04-27 Best-selling author Cass R. Sunstein examines how to avoid worst-case scenarios The world is increasingly confronted with new challenges related to climate change, globalization, disease, and technology. Governments are faced with having to decide how much risk is worth taking, how much destruction and death can be tolerated, and how much money should be invested in the hopes of avoiding catastrophe. Lacking full information, should decision-makers focus on avoiding the most catastrophic outcomes? When should extreme measures be taken to prevent as much destruction as possible? Averting Catastrophe explores how governments ought to make decisions in times of imminent disaster. Cass R. Sunstein argues that using the “maximin rule,” which calls for choosing the approach that eliminates the worst of the worst-case scenarios, may be necessary when public officials lack important information, and when the worst-case scenario is too disastrous to contemplate. He underscores this argument by emphasizing the reality of “Knightian uncertainty,” found in circumstances in which it is not possible to assign probabilities to various outcomes. Sunstein brings foundational issues in decision theory in close contact with real problems in regulation, law, and daily life, and considers other potential future risks. At once an approachable introduction to decision-theory and a provocative argument for how governments ought to handle risk, Averting Catastrophe offers a definitive path forward in a world rife with uncertainty. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Earth's Changing Climate Richard Wolfson, 2007 Twelve lectures on climate change and global warming presented by Professor Wolfson. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: A Bright Future Joshua S. Goldstein, Staffan A. Qvist, 2019-01-08 The inspiration for Nuclear Now, the new Oliver Stone film, co-written by Joshua Goldstein As climate change quickly approaches a series of turning points that guarantee disastrous outcomes, a solution is hiding in plain sight. Several countries have already replaced fossil fuels with low-carbon energy sources, and done so rapidly, in one to two decades. By following their methods, we could decarbonize the global economy by midcentury, replacing fossil fuels even while world energy use continues to rise. But so far we have lacked the courage to really try. In this clear-sighted and compelling book, Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist explain how clean energy quickly replaced fossil fuels in such places as Sweden, France, South Korea, and Ontario. Their people enjoyed prosperity and growing energy use in harmony with the natural environment. They didn't do this through personal sacrifice, nor through 100 percent renewables, but by using them in combination with an energy source the Swedes call käkraft, hundreds of times safer and cleaner than coal. Clearly written and beautifully illustrated, yet footnoted with extensive technical references, Goldstein and Qvist's book will provide a new touchstone in discussions of climate change. It could spark a shift in world energy policy that, in the words of Steven Pinker's foreword, literally saves the world. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee Abraham Riesman, 2021-02-16 The definitive, revelatory biography of Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, a writer and entrepreneur who reshaped global pop culture—at a steep personal cost HUGO AWARD FINALIST • “A biography that reads like a thriller or a whodunit . . . scrupulously honest, deeply damning, and sometimes even heartbreaking.”—Neil Gaiman Stan Lee was one of the most famous and beloved entertainers to emerge from the twentieth century. He served as head editor of Marvel Comics for three decades and, in that time, became known as the creator of more pieces of internationally recognizable intellectual property than nearly anyone: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Black Panther, the Incredible Hulk . . . the list goes on. His carnival-barker marketing prowess helped save the comic-book industry and superhero fiction. His cameos in Marvel movies have charmed billions. When he died in 2018, grief poured in from around the world, further cementing his legacy. But what if Stan Lee wasn’t who he said he was? To craft the definitive biography of Lee, Abraham Riesman conducted more than 150 interviews and investigated thousands of pages of private documents, turning up never-before-published revelations about Lee’s life and work. True Believer tackles tough questions: Did Lee actually create the characters he gained fame for creating? Was he complicit in millions of dollars’ worth of fraud in his post-Marvel life? Which members of the cavalcade of grifters who surrounded him were most responsible for the misery of his final days? And, above all, what drove this man to achieve so much yet always boast of more? |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Climate Change and Waste , 1999 |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: 2052 Jorgen Randers, 2012-06-13 With clarity, conscience, and courage, global-systems pioneer Jorgen Randers and his distinguished contributors map the forces that will shape the next four decades. Forty years ago, The Limits to Growth study addressed the grand question of how humans would adapt to the physical limitations of planet Earth. It predicted that during the first half of the 21st century the ongoing growth in the human ecological footprint would stop-either through catastrophic overshoot and collapse-or through well-managed peak and decline. So, where are we now? And what does our future look like? In the book 2052, Jorgen Randers, one of the coauthors of Limits to Growth, issues a progress report and makes a forecast for the next forty years. To do this, he asked dozens of experts to weigh in with their best predictions on how our economies, energy supplies, natural resources, climate, food, fisheries, militaries, political divisions, cities, psyches, and more will take shape in the coming decades. He then synthesized those scenarios into a global forecast of life as we will most likely know it in the years ahead. The good news: we will see impressive advances in resource efficiency, and an increasing focus on human well-being rather than on per capita income growth. But this change might not come as we expect. Future growth in population and GDP, for instance, will be constrained in surprising ways-by rapid fertility decline as result of increased urbanization, productivity decline as a result of social unrest, and continuing poverty among the poorest 2 billion world citizens. Runaway global warming, too, is likely. So, how do we prepare for the years ahead? With heart, fact, and wisdom, Randers guides us along a realistic path into the future and discusses what readers can do to ensure a better life for themselves and their children during the increasing turmoil of the next forty years. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: CLIMATE CHANGE and the Road to NET-ZERO Mathew Hampshire-Waugh, 2021-06-03 CLIMATE CHANGE and the road to NET-ZERO is a story of how humanity has broken free from the shackles of poverty, suffering, and war and for the first time in human history grown both population and prosperity. It's also a story of how a single species has reconfigured the natural world, repurposed the Earth's resources, and begun to re-engineer the climate. The book uses these conflicting narratives to explore the science, economics, technology, and politics of climate change. NET-ZERO blows away the entrenched idea that solving global warming requires a trade-off between the economy and environment, present and future generations, or rich and poor, and reveals why a twenty-year transition to a zero carbon system is a win-win solution for all on planet Earth. From the Author I wrote Climate Change and the road to Net-Zero to provide a generalist reader with a clear, comprehensive, and objective take on the issues surrounding climate change and air pollution. The book walks the reader through a history of energy, innovation, and the rise of human civilisation; how scientists have come to understand our past climate and can now forecast future change; the problems economists encounter as they attempt to piece together the potential monetary and social damages from climate inaction; and a technology agnostic assessment of potential climate change solutions (from climate-engineering to mitigation) including their costs, risks, and limitations. The book demonstrates why sustainable technologies such as wind, solar, and batteries get cheaper with scale of production, not time, and why a rapid transition to a fully-fledged net-zero system will end up significantly cheaper than remaining bound to fossil fuels, whilst also avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, and preventing nearly eight million premature deaths each year from air pollution. I hope Climate Change and the road to Net-Zero delivers an understanding of humanity's relationship with Earth that is as intriguing as Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin's The Human Planet, or Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens. I very much hope too that the book conveys the passion and call to action of David Wallace-Well's The Uninhabitable Earth, coupled with the sober economic analysis of The Climate Casino by William Nordhaus or Capital in the 21st century by Thomas Piketty, and that it provides the technical rigour of Sustainable Energy Without The Hot Air by David MacKay, the rationality of Hans Rosling's Factfulness, and the eternal hope of The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac. I believe net-zero will be cheaper, cleaner, safer, more reliable, more sustainable, and will create more employment than if we remain bound to fossil fuels. After reading the book, I hope you will agree. Mathew Hampshire-Waugh, Author. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Speed & Scale John Doerr, 2021-10-28 #1 bestselling author and acclaimed venture capitalist John Doerr reveals a sweeping action plan to conquer humanity's greatest challenge: climate change. In 2006, John Doerr was moved by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and a challenge from his teenage daughter: Dad, your generation created this problem. You better fix it. Since then, Doerr has searched for solutions to this existential problem-as an investor, an advocate and a philanthropist. Fifteen years later, despite breakthroughs in batteries, electric vehicles, plant-based proteins and solar and wind power, global warming continues to get worse. Its impact is all around us: droughts, floods, wildfires, the melting of the polar ice caps. Our world is squarely in a climate crisis and on the brink of a climate disaster. Yet despite our state of emergency, climate change has yet to be tackled with the urgency and ambition it demands. More than ever, we need a clear course of action. Fueled by a powerful tool called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), SPEED & SCALE offers an unprecedented global plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions before it's too late. Used by Google, Bono's ONE foundation and thousands of startups the world over, OKRs have scaled ideas into achievements that changed the world. With clear-eyed realism and an engineer's precision, Doerr identifies the measurable OKRs we need to reduce emissions across the board and to arrive by 2050 at net zero-the point where we are no longer adding to the heat-trapping carbon in the atmosphere. By turns pragmatic and inspiring, SPEED & SCALE intersperses Doerr's wide-ranging analysis with firsthand accounts from Jeff Bezos, Christiana Figueres, Al Gore, Mary Barra, Bill Gates, and other intrepid policy leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists and activists. This book is a launchpad for leaders of all kind, for anyone anywhere who can move others to act with them. With a definitive action plan, the latest science and a rising climate movement on our side, we can still reach net zero before it is too late. But as Doerr reminds us, there is no more time to waste. ________________ 'A critical blueprint for anyone looking to take concrete steps to reach net-zero emissions.' Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President 'A practical guide for both public and private sector participation in decarbonizing the global economy, a task as challenging as it is urgent.' Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Climate Change Convention 'A comprehensive plan to tackle one of the most vexing challenges in human history.' Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Business Maharajas Gita Piramal, 2000-10-14 The inside track to India's most powerful tycoons The eight business maharajas profiled here are among Asia's most powerful industrial tycoons, Their combined turnover runs into billions of rupees, and between them they employ some 650,000 people, while indirectly affecting the lives of millions more. Sip a cup of tea, drive to work, listen to music, build a house and the chances are that in these and a myriad other ways you are using products that they manufacture or market. By any yardstick, the achievements of these men would rank among the great business stories of our time. How did these men build their enormous empires? What are their management secrets? How did they thrive and prosper even as others failed? What is their vision for the future? Top business writer and industry insider Gita Piramal draws on exhaustive interviews and in-depth research to discover the answers to these and related questions in her profiles of the men who will lead the country's push to become an industrial superpower in the 21st century. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: The Great Derangement Amitav Ghosh, 2017-07-24 Are we deranged? The acclaimed Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh argues that future generations may well think so. How else to explain our imaginative failure in the face of global warming? In his first major book of nonfiction since In an Antique Land, Ghosh examines our inability—at the level of literature, history, and politics—to grasp the scale and violence of climate change. The extreme nature of today’s climate events, Ghosh asserts, make them peculiarly resistant to contemporary modes of thinking and imagining. This is particularly true of serious literary fiction: hundred-year storms and freakish tornadoes simply feel too improbable for the novel; they are automatically consigned to other genres. In the writing of history, too, the climate crisis has sometimes led to gross simplifications; Ghosh shows that the history of the carbon economy is a tangled global story with many contradictory and counterintuitive elements. Ghosh ends by suggesting that politics, much like literature, has become a matter of personal moral reckoning rather than an arena of collective action. But to limit fiction and politics to individual moral adventure comes at a great cost. The climate crisis asks us to imagine other forms of human existence—a task to which fiction, Ghosh argues, is the best suited of all cultural forms. His book serves as a great writer’s summons to confront the most urgent task of our time. |
| how to avoid a climate disaster: Losing Earth Nathaniel Rich, 2020-03-05 By 1979, we knew all that we know now about the science of climate change - what was happening, why it was happening, and how to stop it. Over the next ten years, we had the very real opportunity to stop it. Obviously, we failed.Nathaniel Rich's groundbreaking account of that failure - and how tantalizingly close we came to signing binding treaties that would have saved us all before the fossil fuels industry and politicians committed to anti-scientific denialism - is already a journalistic blockbuster, a full issue of the New York Times Magazine that has earned favorable comparisons to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and John Hersey's Hiroshima. Rich has become an instant, in-demand expert and speaker. A major movie deal is already in place. It is the story, perhaps, that can shift the conversation.In the book Losing Earth, Rich is able to provide more of the context for what did - and didn't - happen in the 1980s and, more important, is able to carry the story fully into the present day and wrestle with what those past failures mean for us in 2019. It is not just an agonizing revelation of historical missed opportunities, but a clear-eyed and eloquent assessment of how we got to now, and what we can and must do before it's truly too late. |
HOW TO AVOID A CLIMATE DISASTER - eba-net.org
Feb 11, 2023 · SETTING THE TABLE Near the outset, Gates suggests that two crucial components for avoiding a climate disaster are already present: (1) public enthusiasm – exemplified by “a growing global movement led by young people;” and (2) an increasing level …
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how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change.
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it’s bad news for the climate we all live in. Consider that nearly 40 percent of the world’s emissions are produced by the richest 16 percent of the population. (And that’s not counting the …
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New risks and the aggravation of existing risks posed by climate change need to be more comprehensively addressed in DRR tools. Committed individuals and organizations working in …
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Climate change and compound crises highlight the need to strengthen communities’ and systems’ resilience to rising and interrelated risks to avoid climate hazard-induced losses and damages.
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In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical, and accessible plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions, in time to avoid a climate …
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HOW TO AVOID A CLIMATE DISASTER. ng isn’t the only challenge. We’ll also have to do something about deforestation and other uses of land, which together add a net 1.6 billion tons …
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Bill Gates,2021-02-16 1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER In this urgent authoritative book Bill Gates sets out a wide ranging practical and accessible plan …
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re-allocate existing resources for disaster risk reduction, and mobilize new financing in order to build and develop hazard and climate-resilient infrastructure. Such strengthening of …
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and …
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, by Bill Gates, Toronto, Alfred A Knopf, 2021, 257 pp., $34 (hbk), ISBN 970-0-385-54613-3. How …
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examines how to strengthen disaster risk reduction and resilience for climate action through risk-informed governance as illustrated in Figure 1. WHAT IS RISK-INFORMED GOVERNANCE
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Disaster risk reduction and management (including emergency preparedness and response) and climate change adaptation approaches are combined to develop a suite of actions to address …
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Gates has crafted a calm, reasoned, well-sourced explanation of the greatest challenge of our time and what we must change to avoid cooking our planet in "How to Avoid Climate Disaster:...
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outcomes are: (a) climate and disaster risk resilience of communities and institutions increased, (b) ecosystem resilience enhanced, and (c) low carbon economy transition enabled. ... and …
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profound ways in which climate change destabilizes the concept of law. Put simply, our normative order looks increasingly fragile in "an era of unlimited harm."5 Climate change will increase the …
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increasing impacts of climate change on mountains, their attribution to human influence, and how climate-related hazards have contributed to multiplying disasters. All these activities are in line …
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The inclination to avoid retreat is strong even in cities that have undergone a destructive climate disaster; the civic reflex of city leaders is almost always to rebuild everything as it was. After …
Natural Disasters, Climate Change, and Sovereign Risk
that climate change further restricts government’s access to nancial markets. Next, I show that \disaster clauses", that provide debt-servicing relief, allow governments to borrow more and …
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prevent, mitigate and reduce disaster and climate risk. Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages People‟s health and wellbeing are often affected as a result of …
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context for addressing questions of disaster and climate risk at national policy level. 13.1.3 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report 2018 – Global Warming of 1.5°C …
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losses and damages from climate change-related natural hazard impacts that cannot be avoided by mitigation, adaptation, and ‘classic’ disaster risk management (Figure 1). Figure 1. A global …
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climate change and disaster risk reduction and transfer (high confidence). The assessment and analysis process ... examples of, advanced learning processes that may help reduce or avoid …
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Jun 18, 2021 · Avoid Retreat Advance Resist GOALS Fig. 1. Holistic pathways of climate transformation. (Bottom left) A hypothetical present-day settlement (dense city, suburban and …
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Migration, Environment & Climate Change Nexus in Uganda Revocatus Twinomuhangi Hakimu Sseviiri David Mfitumukiza Abel Nzabona Catherine Mulinde Prepared for IOM by Of …
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climate and disaster risks can minimize infrastructure damage and yield impressive savings during recovery from a natural disaster. Resilience measures can be particularly cost-effective if risks …
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From hazard to disaster References to climate-related hazards such as floods, droughts and heatwaves as ‘climate’ or ‘natural’ disasters suggest that disasters are independent of ...
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should be considered within climate change adaptation measures.4 While considerable attention has been focused on migration and displacement, there has been less focus on planned …
Practice Problems Related to Climate Change (answers on …
Practice Problems Related to Climate Change (answers on last page) The following questions were not specifically covered in our climate change lecture; rather, they integrate information …
Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Report for Hypothetical …
Guidance on Managing Climate Risks through Enhanced Project Design. By understanding which of your project components are most at risk from climate change and other natural hazards …
REPORT SUMMARY OF WEBINAR CLIMATE CHANGE AND …
agenda and the importance of disaster risk reduction has been explicitly recognized (UNFCCC, 2010). However, capacity and financing remained limited, and of course, climate change was …
Climate and Disaster Risk Financing Instruments: An …
climate and disaster risk insurance, distribution channels for insurance, or to establish domestic risk financing pools;6 ... In theory, the premium payments may avoid the need to take on larger …
Climate Change and Risk Management: CRE Adaptation …
the chance to synthesize stories about climate adaptation. This section of the Climate Ready Estuaries 2011 Progress Report examines how CRE projects illustrate and support the risk …
Disaster and Gender Statistics - United Nations Office for …
Disaster and gender statistics • Neumayer and Plümper analyzed disasters in 141 countries and found that, when it came to deaths, ... even avoid using shelters for fear of being sexually …
Why People Adopt Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster …
climate change adaptation, or “the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects to moderate or avoid harm” (IPCC 2014, p. 76) and reduce disaster risks (Multihazard …
U.S. Framework for Climate Resilience and Security - The …
heightening demands for disaster response and security assistance. In light of these challenges, there is a clear need for leadership as well as clear benefits to taking on a leadership role.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION
persons with disabilities and make them less resilient to the impacts of disasters and climate change. Education and information about climate change and disaster risk reduction vary …
Biodiversity and climate change - cbd.int
Stressing that achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement is highly critical to avoid further biodiversity loss and land and ocean degradation and to achieve the 2050 vision of living in …
BUILDING DISASTER/CLIMATE RESILIENCE IN …
The Building Disaster/Climate Resilience in Communities along the Dili-Ainaro and Linked Road ... detailed design of the pilot project to avoid and/or minimize involuntary resettlement. As the …
CLIMATE RISK COUNTRY PROFILE - World Bank
of development outcomes. For all IDA and IBRD operations, climate and disaster risk screening is one of the mandatory corporate climate commitments. This is supported by the Bank Group’s …
Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) Strategy 2019 …
and avoid displacement through disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and resilience building etc.measures; (ii) to move out of harm’s way in a dignified manner, through the …
Vulnerability, Risk Reduction, and Adaptation to Climate …
CLIMATE ADAPTATION DISASTER RISK REDUCTION Papua New Guinea Vulnerability, Risk Reduction, and Adaptation to Climate Change. 2 Climate Risk and Adaptation Country Profile …
INNOVATIONS for DRR Disaster Risk Reduction - United …
Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) at Tohoku University, Keio University, the ... technological responses in DRR need to take account of underlying disaster risks such as inequality, climate …
Natural Disasters, Climate Change, and Sovereign Risk
that climate change further restricts government’s access to nancial markets. Next, I show that \disaster clauses", that provide debt-servicing relief, allow governments to borrow more and …
Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Report for Water …
Guidance on Managing Climate Risks through Enhanced Project Design By understanding which of your project components are most at risk from climate change and other natural hazards …
78-971-95157-1-5 - climate.gov.ph
well our resilience to climate change in the future, for a much safer environment for people to live in. Amid the calls for better disaster preparedness in our co untry, I believe we should focus on …
Politics of attributing extreme events and disasters to …
frames that attribute disaster to climate can divert attention from these place-based vulnerabilities and their socio-political causes. Thus, while politicians ... We urge caution to avoid conflation …
Guidelines on Disaster Risk Governance - IFRC
Climate change adaptation: In human systems, climate change adaptation is the process of adjustment to ... habitual residence as a result of a disaster or in order to avoid the impact of …
Discounting the Future: On Climate Change, Ambiguity
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Aligning disaster risk reduction and climate change …
Climate Change (IPCC) shows that human activity . contributes unequivocally to global warming and climate change. 1. Climate change, in turn, drives the current increase in weather …
Climate and Disaster Risk Screening: Making Energy Projects …
climate and disaster risks can minimize infrastructure damage and yield impressive savings during recovery from a natural disaster. Resilience measures can be particularly cost-effective if risks …
Climate and Disaster Resilience - World Bank
It aims to be useful to both the Climate Change Adapta-tion/Disaster Risk Management practitioner as well as the CDD practitioner. The paper assesses the scale of climate and …
Climate Change: New Dimensions in 1 Disaster Risk, …
climate change and disaster risk reduction and transfer (high confidence). The assessment and analysis process ... examples of, advanced learning processes that may help reduce or avoid …
CLIMATE AND DISASTER RESILIENCE FINANCING - The …
Feb 8, 2017 · In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In some natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to ...
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND MANAGEMENT - DFFE
Modelling in Support of Disaster Risk Reduction in South Africa 12 1.2. Linking potential impacts to specific infrastructure 12 1.3. Adaptation Options and Recommendations 12 2. ... “Climate …
Climate Change Adaptation & Risk Mitigation PAPUA NEW …
the Disaster Management Act, WV places high emphasis on Climate Change Adaption while addressing relevant disater risk management. WV works to increase awareness and …
CLIMATE RESILIENT DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT
Climate resilient disaster risk management: Best practices compendium. Department of Relief and Rehabilitation, Govt of Maharashtra and Climate Change Innovation Programme-Action on …
Guidelines for Ecosystem-based Approaches to Climate …
and disaster risk by placing additional development pressures in zones that are most sensitive to climate change impacts, including coastal systems and low-lying areas (Field et al. 2014). …
Climate risk challenges and disaster management from a …
Role of STI in addressing the country's disaster and climate risk challenges. 5. South African policies regarding STIs for DRR and climate risks. ... the wide-ranging opportunities in South …
Adaptation to Climate Change: Linking Disaster Risk …
the disaster risks posed by climate change as well. Index-based micro-insurance, for example, is providing low-income households with financial coverage for climate risks in ... reduction …
Climate Change Commission
Climate and Disaster Risk Assessment for Municipality of Opol, Misamis Oriental. Opol Municipality in Misamis Oriental is susceptible to hydrometeorological hazards such as …
