–Brief–
World Climate Change
6 minute starting point 📖
4 questions that matter 💭
9 ways to get involved 💡
Fall 2019
Background
We were hunter-gatherers who stopped travelling for food to survive when we learned how to create it.
We discovered natural materials underground 300 years ago that, if burned like wood, created a new energy source.
We started to learn, between 30 to 50 years ago, what happens when we pull fossil fuels from the earth and burn them.
Burning fossil fuels creates more greenhouse gases. When these heat-trapping gases are emitted (released) into the air, they are absorbed by the atmosphere.
By 1992, countries around the world began working together to find ways to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions from human activity. ✊🏽🌍
The ☝🏽first☝🏽 global plan to reduce GHGs was signed in 1997 by 192 countries.
A ✌🏽second✌🏽 global plan to reduce GHGs was signed in 2015 by 195 countries.
- We built homes beside the food and became farmers. Then we became merchants who sold and exchanged the food.
- To heat our homes and cook our food, we used wood as an energy source by burning it to create fire.
- To move ourselves and stuff around, we used sunlight and water as an energy source to power our transportation:
- To travel across water and prepare food like grains in bulk, we used wind as an energy source to power boats and windmills.
- This period of time is called The Agricultural Revolution. 🚜💥
We discovered natural materials underground 300 years ago that, if burned like wood, created a new energy source.
- These natural materials are gas, coal, and petroleum (oil). Together they’re called fossil fuels.
- Fossil fuels are plants and animals (dinosaurs, too) that have decayed underground.
- When we burn fossil fuels, we create energy quickly, cheaply, and tons of it. Jackpot.
- Not only could we heat more homes and cook more food, but thanks to burning fossil fuels we could:
- Move across land, faster and further, in better and better machines.
- Move across water, faster and further, in better and better machines.
- Move in the sky, faster and further, in better and better machines.
- Refrigerate our food, microwave our food, freeze our food, protect our food with plastic.
- Turn light on and off by a switch.
- Cool our homes when we‘re hot.
- This period of time is called The Industrial Revolution. 🏭💥
We started to learn, between 30 to 50 years ago, what happens when we pull fossil fuels from the earth and burn them.
- The earth is covered in a blanket of gases. This blanket works like the glass of a greenhouse, filtering solar energy (sunlight) to let life grow and thrive. This blanket is called the atmosphere.
- Most of the atmosphere's gases are nitrogen, which helps build life and oxygen, which helps keep life alive.
- There is a bit of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which are gases that ‘trap’ heat. Together, they’re called greenhouse gases.
- The heat-trapping process is called the greenhouse effect, and it’s the reason why life can grow and thrive naturally on this planet, and not on others. Miracle, right?
Burning fossil fuels creates more greenhouse gases. When these heat-trapping gases are emitted (released) into the air, they are absorbed by the atmosphere.
- The more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the more heat from the sun gets trapped.
- The more heat from the sun trapped in the atmosphere, the more temperatures increase.
- The more temperatures increase, the more changes to the climate occur.
- This includes unpredictable weather, heat waves, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, melting glaciers, extinction of animals and plants, and less crops with less nutrients. 🥀
- Climate refers to long-term temperature patterns (like decade-to-decade), which impacts the weather. Weather refers to short-term temperature patterns (like day-to-day).
By 1992, countries around the world began working together to find ways to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions from human activity. ✊🏽🌍
The ☝🏽first☝🏽 global plan to reduce GHGs was signed in 1997 by 192 countries.
- This was called the Kyoto Protocol and each country was responsible for reducing GHGs by a certain amount by 2012.
- The problem: the agreement didn’t come into effect until 8 years later. By then, countries created targets but were still developing plans to reach them – and GHGs increased by a lot.
- There are a few reasons this didn’t work. The main ones are:
- The biggest emitter, at the time America, wouldn’t make it official law unless China and India, developing countries that hadn’t polluted for as long, participated.
- America, India, and China produced more GHGs than what other countries successfully reduced.
- Canada set targets without a workable plan in an economy that relies on fossil-fuel production.
- The good news: the world learned how to work together to measure and reduce GHG emissions and we’re equipped to solve the problem now.
A ✌🏽second✌🏽 global plan to reduce GHGs was signed in 2015 by 195 countries.
- This is called the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and each country is responsible for reducing GHG by a certain amount by 2030.
- The goal: don’t let the world get 1.5°C hotter than today. Currently, the world is 1°C hotter than pre-industrial levels, or the temperature before the Industrial Revolution.
- This ‘temperature target’ is a goal created by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 🎯
- The IPCC is a group of climate scientists from around the world that are organized by the United Nations (UN). 🧑🏽🔬
- The UN is an international group created after the Second World War to promote peace and security.
- The strategy: reach net-zero emissions by balancing the amount of GHGs produced by human activity with the amount of GHGs in the atmosphere. ⚖️
Julian, Toronto | proactivecitizen.org
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What happened
Fossil fuels power 80% of the world.
Countries are giving tax dollars to fossil-fuel companies.
Most countries aren't on track to meet Paris agreement goals.
Canada is the largest producer of GHGs per person in the G20.
Canadian governments are making big plans. And people have big opinions. 🤨
Canada, under Liberal leadership, introduced a carbon-pricing plan, which went into effect April 2019 and is one part of a bigger climate-action plan.
Ontario, under Conservative leadership, cancelled the previous Liberal leadership’s carbon-pricing plan and hasn’t introduced another one yet.
Municipalities, or local governments, keep saying the solution is in the city.
- Using fossil fuels as an energy source has given us the freedom to heat and cool our homes, buy stuff online, buy stuff from dollar stores, eat and drink on the go, travel the world, and have cellphones within our budgets. ⚡️
- Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy sources because they do not naturally and regularly replenish themselves. 🙅🏽
- Solar, wind, water, and biomass (plant and animal materials like waste) are renewable energy sources because they naturally and regularly replenish themselves. 💁🏽
- Nuclear energy is another energy source and it's debated whether or not it's renewable. 🤷🏽
- How all of these energy sources are used in percents is difficult to find, but this chart measures them in time. ⏱
- The numbers are changing but it’s slow and complicated. More on why below. 👇🏽
Countries are giving tax dollars to fossil-fuel companies.
- Governments around the world are subsidizing, or financially supporting, oil, gas, and coal companies to compete with other countries selling the same product. Banks are investing in them, too. 💵
- If North American and Western European countries stopped subsidizing their fossil-fuel companies, countries like Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia would help their fossil-fuel companies sell more of oil, gas, and coal.
- The bottom line: the supply of energy continues until the demand for energy changes.
Most countries aren't on track to meet Paris agreement goals.
- Two out of 195 countries are on track: Morocco and The Gambia, which are countries in Africa. ✅
- The biggest polluters are China, United States, European Union, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. ❌
- Russia was the last country to sign the agreement, but then quietly started burning coal for energy. 🤫
- America announced plans to leave the agreement and whoever is president in 2020 will have the last word. 🤔
Canada is the largest producer of GHGs per person in the G20.
- The G20, or Group of Twenty, are countries that work together to figure out how to ‘do’ money in the world. 🌍
- Its members make up 85% of global economic output, or the value of goods and services, like fossil fuels, created and sold worldwide.
- Canada’s largest contributors to GHGs are the energy and transportation sectors. Energy in this case refers to oil and gas ⛽️🛢 and transportation in this case refers to passenger vehicles and transport trucks. 🚗🚚
Canadian governments are making big plans. And people have big opinions. 🤨
Canada, under Liberal leadership, introduced a carbon-pricing plan, which went into effect April 2019 and is one part of a bigger climate-action plan.
- 💡 The big idea: pay an upfront fee on activity that emits carbon and get your money back on your income tax return as a way to encourage new habits. 🔄
- For individuals this means paying more upfront to power your vehicle with petroleum-based gasoline and your home with fossil-fuel generated electricity and heating.
- For businesses this means the same but a bit more complicated because economics, plus receiving money for starting projects that decrease energy use and carbon pollution.
- Each province and territory was allowed to create their own carbon-pricing plan, but if they didn’t they had to follow this federal one.
Ontario, under Conservative leadership, cancelled the previous Liberal leadership’s carbon-pricing plan and hasn’t introduced another one yet.
- Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba took Canada to court to say carbon-pricing is not fair. The courts said the plan is fair and to be followed. 🧑🏽⚖️
- Some are fighting it still but focused now on who’s going to win the federal election, because Conservatives plan to cancel national carbon-pricing and focus on requiring companies to invest in green technology and other things. 👇🏽
Municipalities, or local governments, keep saying the solution is in the city.
- 1,123 municipalities around the world declared a climate emergency, which means the climate has been identified as an emergency issue to be prioritized. 🆘
- 90% of urban areas, or cities that aren’t villages or towns, exist near water, making them most at-risk for flooding and storms. ⚠️
- It is estimated that 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. 🏙
What's next
Scientists say we have one decade to cut our emissions in half of what they were 10 years ago.
Wind and solar energy (renewables) are getting cheaper – but for questionable reasons.
Nuclear energy is being considered and criticized as an energy source.
Biofuel is a thing in America and becoming more common.
Engineers can’t believe we’re not talking about solar geoengineering.
Half a million Canadians could work in clean tech by 2030.
- Changes to the climate will occur if the global temperature rises to 1.5C hotter than it is today, but safety and security risks are much lower than if the temperature rises to 2C hotter than it is today. 🚨
- The problem: calculating the current Paris targets of all countries, the global temperature is expected to rise to 3C hotter than it is today, and the majority of countries aren’t meeting their targets.
- This is why people around the world are protesting. It is believed that the more changes are seen and felt by individuals and businesses, the faster mindsets and habits will change toward action. 💪🏽
Wind and solar energy (renewables) are getting cheaper – but for questionable reasons.
- Creating as much energy as burning fossil fuels with wind turbines and solar panels requires a lot of money and space. Manufacturing these products in China is making the costs go down. 🤔
- Making stuff in China costs less money because workers are treated poorly and cheap materials (including fossil fuels) are used to make the products. 🙄
Nuclear energy is being considered and criticized as an energy source.
- Nuclear energy, a cheap and clean energy, powers 11% of the world and France is a fan.
- Nuclear plants do not require fossil fuels to run, nuclear energy is carbon free, and our consumption habits wouldn’t need to change much. 👍🏽
- Nuclear plants are expensive to build, nuclear waste has to be stored, and the impact of nuclear disasters (exposure to radiation) are dangerous and long-lasting. 👎🏽
Biofuel is a thing in America and becoming more common.
- Fermented corn and sugarcane create ethanol, a biofuel that's mixed with petroleum-based gasoline to power transportation with less fossil fuels. 🌽
- America’s president is talking with the corn and oil industry (also called Big Corn and Big Oil) to figure out how to increase the amount of biofuel added to gasoline.
- American scientists are researching other ways to use biofuel as an energy source, including with grass, algae, animal waste, cooking grease, and sewage. 💩
Engineers can’t believe we’re not talking about solar geoengineering.
- There are three strategies to decrease the world’s temperature:
- Cut greenhouse-gas emissions
- Remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
- Reflect solar radiation into space
- Solar geoengineering helps with strategy 3 but it’s not getting talked about, and it could be a fast and easy solution.
- Basically: engineers create a volcano effect, emitting particles into the atmosphere that cools the planet (temporarily) to give us more time to figure out strategy 1 and strategy 2. 🌋🌬
Half a million Canadians could work in clean tech by 2030.
- 300,000 people currently work in Canada’s clean-tech industry. ♻️
- 50,000 Canadians could lose their fossil-fuel industry jobs in 10 years. Oil and gas workers have been moving into renewables but it’s been a difficult transition.
Questions to research
💭 How can we create renewable energy at scale (the amount we need) at a local level instead of in foreign factories?
💭 If we change our systems and habits to need less fossil fuels, how will this impact Canada’s economy and the world order?
💭 How are governments using tax dollars to help businesses create and provide renewable energy systems?
💭 What is my relationship with energy? How does it power my lifestyle? Get answers below.
💭 If we change our systems and habits to need less fossil fuels, how will this impact Canada’s economy and the world order?
💭 How are governments using tax dollars to help businesses create and provide renewable energy systems?
💭 What is my relationship with energy? How does it power my lifestyle? Get answers below.
Ideas to participate
💡Learn the advantages and disadvantages of different energy sources with this flash-card quiz.
💡Measure your carbon impact and receive a personalized action plan in three minutes.
💡Calculate your diet’s carbon impact with this food calculator.
💡Get nine answers to nine questions you might be shy to ask.
💡Ask Charlie the chatbot your questions about Canada’s carbon tax and credit.
💡Support clean-energy companies by investing in them through the stock market.
💡Test out a life with less plastic with a beginner’s guide to waste-free living.
💡Plant trees by offering time or money. (Trees eat carbon for breakfast, literally.)
💡See how countries around the world get lit with this interactive electricity map.
💡Measure your carbon impact and receive a personalized action plan in three minutes.
💡Calculate your diet’s carbon impact with this food calculator.
💡Get nine answers to nine questions you might be shy to ask.
💡Ask Charlie the chatbot your questions about Canada’s carbon tax and credit.
💡Support clean-energy companies by investing in them through the stock market.
💡Test out a life with less plastic with a beginner’s guide to waste-free living.
💡Plant trees by offering time or money. (Trees eat carbon for breakfast, literally.)
💡See how countries around the world get lit with this interactive electricity map.
What's essential is invisible.
–Antoine de Saint-Exupery