Our planet's climate is breaking down because of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere.
What are the root causes of this?
Cause: Humans have been rapidly deforesting the planet, destroying billions of trees which suck emissions out of the atmosphere.
Cause: We rely on energy sources which contribute dangerous amounts of emissions to our atmosphere.
Why? Many governments around the world subsidise fossil fuels.
Why? The cost of renewable energy sources have not dropping fast enough due to lack of investment from governments.
Why? Fossil fuel companies donate billions to certain politicians so they will carry out their money making agenda.
Why? A transition to renewable energy will put them out of business unless they change their product offering.
Why? Fossil fuel companies make their shareholders a lot of money and they likely want to maintain their fortunes above all else.
Cause: Most countries and their inhabitants prioritise growth (GDP, wealth) over the environment.
Cause We choose to invest a lot of money in funds and companies who are not interested in what's best for the planet.
Why? Lack of environmentally responsible options to grow our cash with more
Why? Lack of awareness of environmentally responsible cash growing options.
Why? Humans clear land of trees so it can be used for livestock and plantation. Unsustainable farming techniques mean farmers must constantly shift to new land.
Why? Trees are cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel.
Why? Forests are cleared to make living space for the quickly expanding human population.
Solution: Changing to the global food system to being plant-based would free up 3.1bn hectares of farmland and reduce deforestation by 55%
Cause: The global food industry is responsible for around 17% of the world's total emissions with animal products; meat, dairy and eggs having the largest negative impact.
Why? The vast quantity of crops grown to feed animals are responsible for most of the world's deforestation
Why? Manure and rice paddies are also big contributors to methane in the atmosphere.
Cause: We are inefficient with our energy usage. If we didn't waste as much energy we wouldn't create as much from harmful sources.
Cause: We predominantly travel by using vehicles and airplanes which contribute a quarter of all emissions to our atmosphere.
Why? We don’t want to sacrifice the freedom cars and planes give us to get to places and live our chosen lifestyle.
Why? Using public transport can take more time and is often not as convenient.
Why? Businesses most often prioritise based on cost and efficiency, so until the cost of transporting goods and services is cheaper and more efficient with clean energy vehicles, they won’t be used.
Why? There is currently no real alternative to flying if you need to get somewhere quickly.
Potential Solution: Make it known to governments that the development of cheaper and faster forms of travel is an important voting issue.
Why? Politicians want to offer economic support to geographic areas that benefit from fossil fuel industry.
Why? Politicians want to ensure domestic supply of energy to reduce dependency on foreign sources.
Potential Solution: Force fossil fuel companies to disclose lobbying expenses via shareholder proposals
Potential Solution: Help make politicians who take money from fossil fuel companies fear they will lose power if they don’t prioritise the planet.
Potential Solution: Pressure fossil fuel companies to diversify, e.g. by investing in renewable energy technology
Potential Solution: Help humanity to not value money and power above all else.
Potential Solution: Encourage renewable energy investments in these geographic areas
Why? Shareholders are more concerned about short-term results, ignoring the long-term threat of climate change.
Why? The largest shareholders of most companies are large institutional investors that need to demonstrate short-term profits.
Why? The shareholders of the institutional investors care more about short-term results.
Potential Solution: Create an investment vehicle for people more concerned about the long-term threat of climate change.
Solution: Reforest our planet as much as possible
Cause: It is too difficult to raise funding for potential solutions to climate change.
Why? Most societies have developed to value money and power above all else.
Why? Aviation has many tax breaks, making prices artificially low
Solution: Encourage sustainable farming techniques that keep soils healthy and improve yields.
Why? Many renewable energy sources are expensive and low density (power/area). This means large amounts of land and new infrastructure are required to replace fossil fuel equivalents.
Why? Nuclear energy is feared by the public and inefficient to build, so existing nuclear power is being shut down.
Solution: Public awareness campaign to improve image of nuclear power
Solution: Invest into newer nuclear technologies which promise to be cheaper and safer than current technologies
Solution: Lobby governments to keep existing plants running until their planned end of life, to give a larger zero-carbon energy base supply.
Why? Renewables are often geography dependent, requiring sun, wind, seismic activity, or valleys.
Why? The cheapest renewables (solar and wind) are variable, meaning maintaining capacity requires fossil-fueled backups and/or energy storage
Why? Creating animal products is inefficient with most animal products requiring more calories for the animals short life compared to what is left to consume.
Why? Animal agriculture uses around 83% of the world's available farmland, if we were to decrease our consumption of animal products, we could reduce the amount of land needed by 3.1bn hectares (roughly the size of Africa)
Why Comparing beef with tofu: 1 kg of beef creates 10-30kg of CO2 compared to 1kg of tofu which only creates around 1kg
Solution A transition to a plant-based diet would reduce the amount of global cropland required by 83% - 3.1bn hectares (giving land for carbon capture interventions), reduce an individuals carbon footprint by around half, reduce an individuals water footprint by up to 1900 litres per days, reduce deforestation by around 55% and achieve a global 70% reduction of emissions.
Why? Electric vehicles are less common than ICE vehicles, more expensive, and have less range.