Xixi Wang

View TED-Ed’s new climate education resource

.“TED Explores: A New Climate Vision” is a 60-minute film that brings to life the groundbreaking ideas shared at the 2023 TED Countdown Summit in Detroit, Michigan. Hosted by Manoush Zomorodi of the TED Radio Hour, this special TED documentary examines the rapid technological revolution underway — and the real possibility of a better future for all.

Through a collaboration between TED-Ed and TED Countdown, we created a suite of engaging activities around the film that empower educators and students to dive into climate challenges — and explore their own role in creating solutions.  The documentary is broken down into 7 film chapters, each with relevant quizzes, discussion questions, and additional resources, students are guided toward further learning, actionable steps, and will gain a deeper understanding of the climate crisis they will inherit.

Join us in inspiring a generation that is well-informed, resilient, and ready to build a sustainable future. We’re excited for your classrooms to embark on this journey with us!

Facilitator Guide overview

The Facilitator Guide breaks down the film into seven key segments. Each includes:

— Video clips (5-11 mins each).

— Quiz & discussion questions: Multiple-choice and open-ended questions adaptable for middle school and older.

— Deep dive resources: Additional links and a vocabulary word bank to support comprehension of key concepts and further learning.

— Action and empowerment tools: Suggestions for how students and educators can take action in their local communities, such as hosting screenings or giving TED-style talks.

Learning objectives

This tool aligns with Next Generation Science Standards, enhancing students’ understanding of climate science and critical thinking skills. Through engaging quizzes, discussions, and creative activities, students will:

— Explore human impacts on Earth’s ecosystems – and how to mitigate them.
— Evaluate scientific evidence of climate change and forecast future impacts.
— Analyze climate solutions and conservation strategies.
— Connect expert insights with their own experiences and communities.
— Practice effective climate communication and advocacy.
— Apply local and global perspectives to pressing environmental challenges.

We can’t wait for you to join us in creating a cleaner, greener world. Let’s begin!

— Learn more about bringing TED Countdown’s documentary into the classroom

— Explore the documentary video clips and customizable lesson plans

— Dive into the Facilitator Guide materials for educators

Adobe

Water is needed for development, production and consumption, yet we are overusing and polluting an unsubstitutable resource and system.

Eight safe and just boundaries for five domains (climate, biosphere, water, nutrients and aerosols) have been identified beyond which there is significant harm to humans and nature and the risk of crossing tipping points increases. Humans have already crossed the safe and just Earth System Boundaries for water.

To date, seven of the eight boundaries have been crossed, and although the aerosol boundary has not been crossed at the global level, it has been crossed at city level in many parts of the world.

For water, the safe and just boundaries specify that surface water flows should not fluctuate more than 20 per cent relative to the natural flow on a monthly basis; while groundwater withdrawal should not be more than the recharge rate. Both of these boundaries have been crossed.

These thresholds have been crossed even though the minimum needs of the world’s poorest to access water and sanitation services have not been met. Addressing these needs will put an even greater pressure on already-strained water systems.

AI’s potential

Technological optimists argue that artificial intelligence (AI) holds the potential to solve the world’s water problems. Supporters of AI argue that it can help achieve both the environmental and social Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for example by designing systems to address shortages of teachers and doctors, increase crop yields and manage our energy needs.

In the past decade, research into this area has grown exponentially, with potential applications including increasing water efficiency and monitoring in agriculture, water security and enhancing wastewater treatment.

AI-powered biosensors can more accurately detect toxic chemicals in drinking water than current quality monitoring practices.

The potential for AI to change the water used in agriculture is evident through the building of smart machines, robots and sensors that optimize farming systems.

For example, smart irrigation automates irrigation through the collection and analysis of data to optimize water usage by improving efficiency and detecting leakage.

A smart irrigation system for green oak lettuce in Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Shutterstock)

As international development scholars who study the relationship between water, the environment and global inequality, we are curious about whether AI can actually make a difference or whether it exacerbates existing challenges. Although there is peer-reviewed literature on the use of AI for managing water and the SDGs, there are no peer-reviewed papers on the direct and indirect implications of AI on water use.

AI and water use

Initial research shows that AI has a significant water footprint. It uses water both for cooling the servers that power its computations and for producing the energy it consumes. As AI becomes more integrated into our societies, its water footprint will inevitably grow.

The growth of ChatGPT and similar AI models has been hailed as “the new Google.” But while a single Google search requires half a millilitre of water in energy, ChatGPT consumes 500 millilitres of water for every five to 50 prompts.

AI uses and pollutes water through related hardware production. Producing the AI hardware involves resource-intensive mining for rare materials such as silicon, germanium, gallium, boron and phosphorous. Extracting these minerals has a significant impact on the environment and contributes to water pollution.

Semiconductors and microchips require large volumes of water in the manufacturing stage. Other hardware, such as for various sensors, also have an associated water footprint.

Data centres provide the physical infrastructure for training and running AI, and their energy consumption could double by 2026. Technology firms using water to run and cool these data centres potentially require water withdrawals of 4.2 to 6.6 billion cubic metres by 2027.

Microsoft data centers located in Noord-Holland, The Netherlands. (Shutterstock)

By comparison, Google’s data centres used over 21 billion litres of potable water in 2022, an increase of 20 per cent on its 2021 usage.

Training an AI at the computing level of a human brain for one year can cost 126,000 litres of water. Each year the computing power needed to train AI increases tenfold, requiring more resources.

Water use of big tech companies’ data centres is grossly underestimated — for example, the water consumption at Microsoft’s Dutch data centre was four times their initial plans. Demand for water for cooling will only increase because of rising average temperatures due to climate change.

Conflicting needs

The technology sector’s water demand is so high that communities are protesting against it as it threatens their livelihoods. Google’s data centre in drought-prone The Dalles, Ore. is sparking concern as it uses a quarter of the city’s water.

Taiwan, responsible for 90 per cent of the world’s advanced semiconductor chip production, has resorted to cloud seeding, water desalination, interbasin water transfers and halting irrigation for 180,000 hectares to address its water needs.

Locating data centres

As water becomes increasingly expensive and scarce in relation to demand, companies are now strategically placing their data centres in the developing world — even in dry sub-Saharan Africa, data centre investments are increasing.

Google’s planned data centre in Uruguay, which recently suffered its worst drought in 74 years, would require 7.6 million litres per day, sparking widespread protest.

What emerges is a familiar picture of geographic inequality, as developing countries find themselves caught in a dilemma between the economic benefits offered by international investment and the strain this places on local water resources availability.

We believe there is sufficient evidence for concern that the rapid uptake of AI risks exacerbating the water crises rather than help addressing them. As yet, there are no systematic studies on the AI industry and its water consumption. Technology companies have been tightlipped about the water footprint of their new products.

The broader question is: Will the social and environmental contributions of AI be overshadowed by its huge water footprint?

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Joyeeta Gupta is a full professor of environment and development in the global south at the University of Amsterdam and IHE Delft Institute for Water Education.

Hilmer Bosch is a postdoctoral Researcher with the Global Commission on the Economics of Water at the University of Amsterdam

Luc van Vliet is a researcher for the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW).

iStock

As scorching heat grips large swaths of the Earth, a lot of people are trying to put the extreme temperatures into context and asking: When was it ever this hot before?

Globally, 2023 has seen some of the hottest days in modern measurements, but what about farther back, before weather stations and satellites?

Some news outlets have reported that daily temperatures hit a 100,000-year high.

As a paleoclimate scientist who studies temperatures of the past, I see where this claim comes from, but I cringe at the inexact headlines. While this claim may well be correct, there are no detailed temperature records extending back 100,000 years, so we don’t know for sure.

Here’s what we can confidently say about when Earth was last this hot.

This is a new climate state

Scientists concluded a few years ago that Earth had entered a new climate state not seen in more than 100,000 years. As fellow climate scientist Nick McKay and I recently discussed in a scientific journal article, that conclusion was part of a climate assessment report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2021.

Earth was already more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) warmer than preindustrial times, and the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were high enough to assure temperatures would stay elevated for a long time.

Earth’s average temperature has exceeded 1 degree Celsius (1.8 F) above the preindustrial baseline. This new climate state will very likely persist for centuries as the warmest period in more than 100,000 years. The chart shows different reconstructions of temperature over time, with measured temperatures since 1850 and a projection to 2300 based on an intermediate emissions scenario. D.S. Kaufman and N.P. McKay, 2022, and published datasets, Author provided

Even under the most optimistic scenarios of the future – in which humans stop burning fossil fuels and reduce other greenhouse gas emissions – average global temperature will very likely remain at least 1 C above preindustrial temperatures, and possibly much higher, for multiple centuries.

This new climate state, characterized by a multi-century global warming level of 1 C and higher, can be reliably compared with temperature reconstructions from the very distant past.

How we estimate past temperature

To reconstruct temperatures from times before thermometers, paleoclimate scientists rely on information stored in a variety of natural archives.

The most widespread archive going back many thousands of years is at the bottom of lakes and oceans, where an assortment of biological, chemical and physical evidence offers clues to the past. These materials build up continuously over time and can be analyzed by extracting a sediment core from the lake bed or ocean floor.

These sediment-based records are rich sources of information that have enabled paleoclimate scientists to reconstruct past global temperatures, but they have important limitations.

For one, bottom currents and burrowing organisms can mix the sediment, blurring any short-term temperature spikes. For another, the timeline for each record is not known precisely, so when multiple records are averaged together to estimate past global temperature, fine-scale fluctuations can be canceled out.

Because of this, paleoclimate scientists are reluctant to compare the long-term record of past temperature with short-term extremes.

Looking back tens of thousands of years

Earth’s average global temperature has fluctuated between glacial and interglacial conditions in cycles lasting around 100,000 years, driven largely by slow and predictable changes in Earth’s orbit with attendant changes in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. We are currently in an interglacial period that began around 12,000 years ago as ice sheets retreated and greenhouse gases rose.

Looking at that 12,000-year interglacial period, global temperature averaged over multiple centuries might have peaked roughly around 6,000 years ago, but probably did not exceed the 1 C global warming level at that point, according to the IPCC report. Another study found that global average temperatures continued to increase across the interglacial period. This is a topic of active research.

That means we have to look farther back to find a time that might have been as warm as today.

The last glacial episode lasted nearly 100,000 years. There is no evidence that long-term global temperatures reached the preindustrial baseline anytime during that period.

If we look even farther back, to the previous interglacial period, which peaked around 125,000 years ago, we do find evidence of warmer temperatures. The evidence suggests the long-term average temperature was probably no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) above preindustrial levels – not much more than the current global warming level.

Now what?

Without rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the Earth is currently on course to reach temperatures of roughly 3 C (5.4 F) above preindustrial levels by the end of the century, and possibly quite a bit higher.

At that point, we would need to look back millions of years to find a climate state with temperatures as hot. That would take us back to the previous geologic epoch, the Pliocene, when the Earth’s climate was a distant relative of the one that sustained the rise of agriculture and civilization.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Watch this TED-Ed video to learn more about how weather has been affected by climate change: 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Darrell Kaufman is a Regents’ Professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability at Northern Arizona University. He has been researching the Quaternary geology and paleoclimatology of Alaska for over 30 years. He has a special interest in geochronology and in coordinating large collaborative science synthesis projects. His research group studies geologic records of environmental changes to understand how the Earth system responds to natural and anthropogenic forcings on millennial time scales. It focuses on lake sediments from Alaska, geochronology, and proxy climate syntheses.

Stocksy

Throughout the ages, artists have used their canvases to deliver powerful social messages and influence change.

So as stories about extreme weather and environmental catastrophe flood our daily newsfeeds, it’s no surprise that many filmmakers are grappling with the climate crisis — the single biggest planetary health threat facing us today.

From ravaged landscapes to terrifying dystopian societies, our media reveals our innermost fears and anxieties about the future of our world. Mental health professionals say that eco-anxiety, or the fear of environmental doom, is a natural response to a real threat — and movies, TV shows and books naturally reflect the moods of any given era. In fact, a growing number of young people worldwide are reporting increasing feelings of anxiety, anger, powerlessness, helplessness, guilt and dissatisfaction with government responses to the climate crisis.

But while humans may have been imagining the apocalypse for literally hundreds of years — they’ve also been dreaming of a cleaner, more beautiful, more just world. In that spirit, these nine films are reimagining the “cli-fi” genre with stories of hope and resilience — stories about communities coming together to avert catastrophe and stubborn individuals who go up against powerful forces to safeguard the future.

Fantasy

1. The Sea Beast (2022)

In a world where terrifying beasts roam the high seas and ravage coastal towns, monster hunters like the great Jacob Holland are celebrated as heroes. But when a curious young girl, Maisie Brumble, stows away on his fabled ship, they embark on a journey into uncharted waters and discover there may be more to these creatures than meets the eye. This heart-warming film (which is also part of Netflix’s sustainability stories collection) is ultimately about questioning the stories we’re told and standing up for what’s right despite seemingly impossible odds.

The Sea Beast. Photo courtesy of Netflix.

2. Ponyo (2008)

Many of Studio Ghibli’s films tackle environmental issues, and Ponyo is no different. The film opens by highlighting how human activity in a harbor town has polluted the water with mounds of garbage and murky black sludge. On the surface, this is a story about the friendship between a young boy (Sasuke) and a magical fish that transforms into a little girl (Ponyo). But it’s also a story about Sasuke’s unconditional love for a marine creature and the ocean she inhabits, and the lengths he is willing to go to prove his devotion and save her home.

3. Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)

Mowgli is an orphaned boy who was raised by a pack of wolves in the jungles of India and has always struggled with a sense of unbelonging. But as the human and animal worlds collide, Mowgli finds he alone is uniquely positioned to act as a bridge between these two forces. The film’s message rings clear: harmony and mutual respect between humans and nature is necessary for the survival and prosperity for all.

Romance

4. Falling Inn Love (2019)

Falling Inn Love stars eco-conscious designer, Gabriela, who wins a rustic New Zealand inn from a contest only to discover it’s run down from years of neglect. She teams up with local contractor and restoration expert Jake to restore the inn to its former glory while making eco-friendly upgrades. (And yes, plenty of flirting ensues!)

Falling Inn Love. Photo Courtesy of Netflix.

5. Weathering With You (2019)

Unlike most stories that illustrate catastrophe on a global scale, Weathering With You conveys the relatable everyday experience of living with the impacts of global warming. In a version of Tokyo, Japan, that experiences never-ending rain, a boy named Hodaka Morishima meets a girl named Hina Amano who can summon the sun — but at a great personal cost. The film demonstrates how an individual’s actions (and sacrifices) can make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things as long as you choose to prioritize the greater good.

6. Holiday in the Wild (2019)

Romantic comedy and wildlife conservation might be a peculiar combination for some, but Holiday in the Wild manages to make it sexy. After splitting up with her husband, Kate embarks on what was supposed to be a romantic vacation to Africa on her own. When Kate meets Derek, she’s whisked away into a world of elephant conservation where she finds renewed personal meaning — and gets a second chance at romance.

Adventure

7. Okja (2017)

Mija is a South Korean girl growing up on an idyllic mountainside with her grandfather and best friend: Okja, a giant “superpig.” When her beloved pet Okja is abruptly taken away from her, Mija embarks on a dangerous rescue mission that places her at the center of a sinister corporate conspiracy. The film raises thought-provoking ethical questions about animal farming, meat production and the impact of our dietary choices on the planet.

Okja. Photo courtesy of Netflix.

8. WALL-E (2008)

One of the most popular environmental films of the 2000s is none other than WALL-E, which stars a trash-compacting robot and a high-tech, egg-shaped robot named EVE. Against the backdrop of a polluted, uninhabitable Earth, the sentient pair of robots go to great lengths to save a living seedling and prove that the planet can — and should be — saved. While the film does show an apocalyptic scenario of Earth, the overarching message is that humanity can come together and heal the environment, no matter how far gone it may seem.

9. Tomorrowland (2015)

In Tomorrowland, Earth is almost certainly going to end in about two months. Although many feel resigned and refuse to do anything about it, the protagonist, Casey, refuses to give up. Her indomitable will and hope for the future reduce the probability of world catastrophe by a tiny percentage, but it is significant enough to make a difference. Overall, the story demonstrates that every individual can shape the future by remaining optimistic — and more importantly — actively doing something to shape it.

In this TED Talk, author and physics professor Vandana Singh reads from her latest work of speculative fiction and shares a hopeful vision for Earth’s renewal:

…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carla M. Delgado is a freelance health and science journalist based in the Philippines.

This piece was adapted for TED-Ed from this Ideas article.

Stocksy

The food we consume has a massive impact on our planet.

Agriculture takes up half the habitable land on Earth, destroys forests and other ecosystems, and produces a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Meat and dairy specifically account for around 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

So changing what we eat can help reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable farming. But there are several “climate-friendly” diets to choose from. The best known are the completely plant-based vegan diet, the vegetarian diet (which also allows eggs and dairy) and the pescetarian diet (which also allows seafood).

There are also “flexitarian” diets, where three-fourths of meat and dairy is replaced by plant-based food, or the Mediterranean diet which allows moderate amounts of poultry, pork, lamb and beef.

Which diet should you choose?

Let’s start with a new fad: the climatarian diet. One version was created by the not-for-profit organization Climates Network, which says this diet is healthy, climate friendly and nature friendly. According to the publicity, “with a simple diet shift you can save a tonne of CO₂ equivalents per person per year” (“equivalents” just means methane and other greenhouse gases are factored in alongside carbon dioxide).

Meat, especially highly processed meat, has been linked to a string of major health issues including high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer.

Sounds great, but the diet still allows you to eat meat and other high-emission foods such as pork, poultry, fish, dairy products and eggs. So this is just a newer version of the “climate carnivore” diet except followers are encouraged to switch as much red meat (beef, lamb, pork, veal and venison) as possible to other meats and fish.

The diet does, however, encourage you to cut down on meat overall and to choose responsibly produced and local meat where possible, in addition to avoiding food waste and consuming seasonal, local foods.

So saving a tonne of carbon dioxide is great but switching to vegetarianism or veganism can save even more. A Western standard meat-based diet produces about 7.2 kilograms of CO₂ equivalent per day, while a vegetarian diet produces 3.8 kg and a vegan diet 2.9 kg. If the whole world went vegan, it would save nearly 8 billion tonnes CO₂equivalent — while even a switch to the Mediterranean diet would still save 3 billion tonnes. That is a saving of between 20 and 60 percent of all food emissions, which are currently at 13.7 billion tonnes of CO₂equivalent a year.

Here’s how much CO2e (in billions of tonnes, or Gt) would be saved if the whole world switched to each of these diets. Terms as defined by CarbonBrief. Data: IPCC, author provided

Plant-based diets can save water and land — and they’re healthier

To save our planet, we must also consider water and land usage. Beef, for instance, needs about 15,000 liters of water per kilo to produce. Some vegetarian or vegan foods like avocados and almonds also have a huge water footprint, but overall a plant-based diet has about half the water consumption of a standard meat-based diet.

A global move away from meat would also free up a huge amount of land, since billions of animals would no longer have to be fed. Soy, for instance, is one of the world’s most common crops, yet almost 80 percent of the world’s soybeans are fed to livestock.

The reduced need for agricultural land would help stop deforestation and help protect biodiversity. The land could be used to reforest and rewild large areas, which would become a natural store of carbon dioxide.

One study suggests a move to a global plant-based diet could reduce global mortality by up to 10 percent by 2050.

What’s more, a plant-based diet is generally healthier. Meat, especially highly processed meat, has been linked to a string of major health issues, including high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. One study suggests that a move to a global plant-based diet could reduce global mortality by up to 10 percent by 2050.

However, meat, dairy and fish are the main sources of some essential vitamins and minerals such as calcium, zinc, iodine and vitamin B12. A strict vegan diet can put people at risk of deficiencies unless they can have access to particular foods or take supplements. Yet both supplements and vegan food products are too expensive or difficult for many people around the world to access, and it would be hard to scale up supplement production to provide for billions of extra people.

So a climatarian or flexitarian approach means there are fewer health risks but it still allows people to exercise choice.

We slaughter around nine animals per person per year — even though the same nutrients can come from plants

One issue that seems to be missing from many food discussions is the ethical dimension. Every year we slaughter 69 billion chickens, 1.5 billion pigs, 0.65 billion turkeys, 0.57 billion sheep, 0.45 billion goats and 0.3 billion cattle for food worldwide. That is over nine animals killed for every person on the planet per year — all for the nutrition and protein that we know can come from a plant-based diet.

Poultry production has almost doubled this century, as chicken has raced ahead of pork and beef. Our World In Data / data: FAO, CC BY-SA

So what is the ideal global diet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce habitat destruction and help you live longer?

Well, I suggest being an “ultra-flexitarian,” a diet of mostly plant-based foods but one that allows meat and dairy products in extreme moderation, with red and processed meat completely banned. This would save at least 5.5 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year (or 40 percent of all food emissions), decrease global mortality by 10 percent, and prevent the slaughter of billions of animals.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Watch these TED-Ed videos to learn more about how our diets and food production affect the planet: 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Maslin PhD is a Professor of Earth System Science at University College London and the Natural History Museum of Denmark. He is a co-founder of the leading AI geospatial analytics company Rezatec Ltd and he was a Royal Society Industrial Fellow. He is science advisor to Transition Lab, Sopra-Steria, Net Zero Now, and Sheep Inc. He is member of Cheltenham Science Festival Advisory Committee. Maslin is a leading scientist with particular expertise in past and future global and regional climatic change and has publish over 185 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Climate Change, The Lancet and Geology. He has been awarded research council, charity and Government research and postgraduate training grants of over £75 million. Professor Maslin has presented over 50 public talks over the last three years for example: Twitter (EU/Asia), New Scientist Live, Guardian ‘Master Classes’, Google (UK), Global Leaders Forum (South Korea), RGS, Royal Society, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Hay literature festival, Harvard, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge Universities etc. He has supervised 15 Research fellows, 20 PhD students and over 60 MSc students. He has also have written 10 popular books, over 80 popular articles (e.g., The Conversation, New Scientist, Geographical magazine, The Times, Independent and Guardian), appeared on radio and television (including Timeteam, Newsnight, Dispatches, Horizon, The Today Programme, Briefing Room, BBC News, Channel 5 News, and Sky News). He was also one of the key presenters of Sir David Attenborough’s BBC One ‘Climate Change: The Facts’. His books include the high successful ‘Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction’ (OUP, 2021), ‘The Cradle of Humanity’ (OUP, 2019), ‘The Human Planet: How we created the Anthropocene’ co-authored with Simon Lewis (Penguin, 2018) and ‘How to save our planet: the facts’ (Penguin, 2021). Maslin was also a co-author of the 2009 Lancet report ‘Managing the health effects of climate change’ and a contributor the annual Lancet Commission on climate change and global health. Prof. Maslin was included in Who’s Who for the first time in 2009 and was granted a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award for the study of early human evolution in East Africa in 2011. He is currently the Co-Director of the London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership.

Alamy

The health of our planet depends on all of us, and perhaps no group today feels this more acutely than the world’s youth.

Younger generations will be left to grapple with some of the most devastating consequences of a warming world. According to some projections, for example, a child born in 2020 will experience a two- to seven-fold increase in extreme weather events compared to those born in 1960.

So it’s no surprise that young people have been on the forefront of climate movements demanding bold, global action.

We asked nine young trailblazers — all pushing for change in their communities in inspiring and creative ways — to share their favorite climate-related books and podcasts, as well as what one action they’d like to see in the world.

Let their recommendations help you sharpen your understanding of the crisis from all angles:

Marina Melanidis, Founder, Youth4Nature

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: All We Can Save by Ayana Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson. It’s a hopeful and unapologetically feminist view of not just the climate crisis, but how beautiful the solutions are.

My favorite climate change podcast is: The “Ajyal Podcast” with Rayan Kassem. It’s a podcast that highlights and explores the priorities, perspectives and expertise of youth leaders about nature, climate and justice within West Asia and the Middle East. It’s one of the (if not the) only podcasts focused on climate justice by West Asian youth. These perspectives are absolutely critical, yet often unheard in climate spaces, especially by the Global North. Episodes are both in English and Arabic, and cover topics including oil and gas in the Gulf region, Palestinian land rights, the fight of Indigenous communities in the Middle East for social and climate justice, and the impacts of militarization on climate movements.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Join a collective. Individual action alone will not catalyze the systemic, transformative changes necessary to address the climate crisis. Only as a collective, pushing for change on the streets, in our communities and at the ballot box, will we be able to build the world we both need and deserve.

Ayisha Siddiqa, Cofounder, Polluters Out

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: Ecology by Ernest Callenbach. This book is less about the climate crisis and more about the intricate networks of what we call ecology. The book touches on the harrowing effects of the climate catastrophe, but it also opens up the complex and ever developing life on earth. I keep it around like a thesaurus.

My favorite climate change podcast is: Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt’s podcast “Hot Take” is one of the most introspective series about climate. It has not only made me more knowledgeable about the history of the crisis but also be able to explicitly link it with injustice. On a separate note, I find that working in a field of emergency can be emotionally taxing and thus poetry podcasts — especially poems of imagination or finding love in everyday objects — are as necessary to my role in mitigating the climate crisis as are the facts.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Push for complete divestment and transition away from fossil fuel. You can do this by joining groups like Polluters Out. I think for an issue of such magnitude, there are so many ways to get involved, but the single most largest contributor to the climate crisis is corporate extraction and use of fossil fuels.

Clover Hogan, Founder & Executive Director, Force of Nature

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation by Paul Hawken. Climate science tells us we’re hurtling toward the cliff and that we can’t just hit the brakes – we need to turn around and drive in the other direction. This book of solutions shows us how.

My favorite climate change podcast is: Season 2 of the “Force of Nature” podcast, “We need to talk about eco-anxiety.” Each episode in this 12-part series explores a different face of the climate crisis through the lens of our mental health: from the food we eat, to our relationship with media and our addiction to fossil fuels. It’s a powerful piece of storytelling told through the voices of young people who have inherited the challenge.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: To step up rather than shut down in the face of the climate crisis. It’s easy to feel powerless to make a difference, yet we’ll only create the world we know is possible if we have the courage to imagine it – and the mindset to make it happen.

Helen Watts, Director of Global Partnerships, Student Energy

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: I really appreciated A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency by Seth Klein for a couple of reasons. One, being a history nerd I find the content really interesting — I’m drawn to comparative analyses between history and current times, and what we can learn from looking back at history. The second reason being that the book felt like a bit of a “calling the BS” on incremental climate action and long-term commitments by governments by pointing to the real fact that when countries throughout history have felt like they truly have no time to lose to avoid real human, political and economic costs, they do know how to act and treat that situation like the crisis it is.

My favorite climate change podcast is: For energy transition conversations, “Watt It Takes” by Emily Kirsch is awesome and really important. It features complex yet accessible conversations on the real barriers to changing our energy system and what’s working well that we can learn from. For climate change and action, “How to Save a Planet” by Gimlet is super fun, really engaging, and keeps climate action feeling fresh, innovative and people-centered, which is key when you’re feeling disillusioned with the lack of ambition and action at a leadership level.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Show up and vote for strong climate platforms — challenge your elected officials and platforms running for office to get bolder, more concrete and more inclusive with their climate plans.

Alexandria Villasenor, Founder, Earth Uprising International

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: All We Can Save, co-edited by Ayana Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson. It is diverse, and features 60 women authors writing about an array of climate issues. The best part is that it is framed with positivity and hope.

My favorite climate change podcast is: I like “Drilled” because Amy Westervelt is amazing, they are part of the Covering Climate Now media initiative and they are accountable for the information and facts they bring to the climate movement.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Write, call and visit your lawmakers to demand action and accountability on the climate crisis. This is because the climate crisis is a systemic issue and we need broad governmental action.

Ricardo Pineda Guzman, Director, Sustenta Honduras

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: The Age of Sustainable Development by Jeffrey D. Sachs. Climate change is more than just the climate. This is one of the best books to learn about intersectional impacts and sustainability.

My favorite climate change podcast is: “People Taking Action.” It’s an inspiring way to hear about how youth are changing and shaping the world. Hero|Podcast is another really inspiring podcast about youth on climate action.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Advocacy. We need rapid and equitable decarbonization.

Haven Coleman, Founder/Director, ARID agency and #GiveAIR Fund

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: Anything by Naomi Klein or Bill McKibben is the best, but This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein is a must. If you’re wondering why capitalism hasn’t solved the climate crisis already, want ideas on how you can be of help, and need hope to keep you going, this is your book.

My favorite climate change podcast is: “Hot Take” or “How to Save a Planet” — sorry, I can’t pick a fave! Their hearts and wit shine through each episode, they aren’t afraid to tell it like it is, and I always learn something new.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Everyone on Earth needs to be starting and leading conversations about the climate crisis with everyone they come in contact with in their community. I’m choosing this because not everyone on Earth is responsible for the crisis nor does everyone have the means or power to fix it, but we all need to be talking about the crisis and how it affects us for any change to occur.

Neeshad Shafi, Co-Founder, Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken is a comprehensive, easy-to-understand plan to save and reverse global warming, plus information to share with the community.

My favorite climate change podcast is: “How to Save a Planet” and “Outrage + Optimism.”

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: At the personal level, I would recommend taking action on your carbon footprint on a regular basis. We have started the first carbon footprint calculator of Qatar to be released later this month.

Maurus Pfalzgraf, youth activist, FFF Switzerland

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: I listened to the audiobook version of This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein and I learned how different the fight is in different countries.

My favorite climate change podcast is: Not a podcast, but “Our Changing Climate” is a Youtube channel I like because it informs in a way which is understandable for a really broad audience.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: If I knew a smart answer to that question I would give a TED Talk about it. I promise.

Today’s youth have inherited a big, unprecedented climate problem to solve — and the eco-anxiety to go with it. Gen-Zer and activist Clover Hogan believes the path to climate action starts with the one thing you can control: your mindset.

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This piece was adapted for TED-Ed from this Ideas article.

Georgina Smith / CIAT

November’s UN climate conference, COP26, turned a spotlight on the climate crisis.

But in order to better understand the policies and impacts of global warming, it’s useful to understand the science behind it.

I’m an atmospheric scientist who has worked on global climate science and assessments for most of my career.

Here are six things you should know, in charts:

Chart 1: Since 1960, CO2 levels have been steadily climbing

The primary focus of the negotiations at COP26 has been on carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is released when fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — are burned, as well as by forest fires, land-use changes and natural sources.

The Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s started an enormous increase in the burning of fossil fuels. It powered homes, industries and opened up the planet to travel. That same century, scientists identified carbon dioxide’s potential to increase global temperatures, which at the time was considered a possible benefit to the planet. Systematic measurements started in the mid-1900s and have shown a steady increase in carbon dioxide, with the majority of it directly traceable to the combustion of fossil fuels.

NOAA Global Monitoring Lab

Chart 2: CO2 stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years

Once in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide tends to stay there for a very long time. A portion of the carbon dioxide released through human activities is taken up by plants, and some is absorbed directly into the ocean, but roughly half of all carbon dioxide emitted by human activities today stays in the atmosphere — and it likely will remain there for hundreds of years, influencing the climate globally.

During the first year of the pandemic in 2020, when fewer people were driving and some industries briefly stopped, carbon dioxide emissions from fuels fell by roughly 6 percent. But it didn’t stop the rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide because the amount released into the atmosphere by human activities far exceeded what nature could absorb.

If civilization stopped its carbon dioxide-emitting activities today, it would still take many hundreds of years for the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to fall enough naturally to bring the planet’s carbon cycle back into balance because of carbon dioxide’s long life in the atmosphere.

Pieter Tans

Chart 3: When CO2 levels go up, so do global temperatures

Multiple lines of scientific evidence point to the increase in greenhouse emissions over the past century and a half as a driver of long-term climate change around the world. For example:

- Laboratory measurements since the 1800s have repeatedly verified and quantified the absorptive properties of carbon dioxide that allow it to trap heat in the atmosphere.
- Simple models based on the warming impact of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere match historical changes in temperature.
- Complex climate models, recently acknowledged in the Nobel Prize for Physics, not only indicate a warming of the Earth due to increases in carbon dioxide but also offer details of the areas of greatest warming.

Salawitch et al., 2017, updated with data to the end of 2020, CC BY

When carbon dioxide levels have been high in the past, evidence shows temperatures have also been high. Based on Salawitch et al., 2017, updated with data to the end of 2020, CC BY

- Long-term records from ice cores, tree rings and corals show that when carbon dioxide levels have been high, temperatures have also been high.
- Our neighboring planets also offer evidence. Venus’ atmosphere is thick with carbon dioxide, and it is the hottest planet in our solar system as a result, even though Mercury is closer to the sun.

Chart 4: Temperatures are increasing on every single continent

The rising temperatures are evident in records from every continent and over the oceans.

The temperatures aren’t rising at the same rate everywhere, however. A variety of factors affect local temperatures, including land use that influences how much solar energy is absorbed or reflected, local heating sources like urban heat islands, and pollution.

The Arctic, for example, is warming about three times faster than the global average in part because as the planet warms, snow and ice melt makes the surface more likely to absorb, rather than reflect, the sun’s radiation. Snow cover and sea ice recede even more rapidly as a result.

NOAA Global Monitoring Lab

Chart 5: Rising temperatures = rising oceans

Earth’s climate system is interconnected and complex, and even small temperature changes can have large impacts – for instance, with snow cover and sea levels.

Changes are already happening. Studies show that rising temperatures are already affecting precipitation, glaciers, weather patterns, tropical cyclone activity and severe storms. A number of studies show that the increases in frequency, severity and duration of heatwaves, for example, affect ecosystems, human lives, commerce and agriculture.

Historical records of ocean water levels have shown mostly consistent increases over the past 150 years as glacier ice melts and rising temperatures expand ocean water, with some local deviations due to sinking or rising land.

Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level

Chart 6: If we don’t act, temperatures will keep increasing. So will rainfall

While extreme events are often due to complex sets of causes, some are exacerbated by climate change. Just as coastal flooding can be made worse by rising ocean levels, heat waves are more damaging with higher baseline temperatures.

Climate scientists work hard to estimate future changes as a result of increased carbon dioxide and other expected changes, such as world population. It’s clear that temperatures will increase and precipitation will change. The exact magnitude of change depends on many interacting factors.

Based on SSP3-7.0, a high-emissions scenario. Claudia Tebaldi, et al., 2021

But there are a few reasons for hope

On a hopeful note, scientific research is improving our understanding of climate and the complex Earth system, identifying the most vulnerable areas and guiding efforts to reduce the drivers of climate change. Work on renewable energy and alternative energy sources, as well as ways to capture carbon from industries or from the air, are producing more options for a better-prepared society.

At the same time, people are learning about how they can reduce their own impact, with the growing understanding that a globally coordinated effort is required to have a significant impact. Electric vehicles, as well as solar and wind power, are growing at previously unthinkable rates. More people are showing a willingness to adopt new strategies to use energy more efficiently, consume more sustainably and choose renewable energy.

Scientists increasingly recognize that shifting away from fossil fuels has additional benefits, including improved air quality for human health and ecosystems.

Are we on track to limit global warming to only 1.5 degrees Celsius? The Climate Action Tracker explains the good news and the bad news for the planet:

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Betsy Weatherhead PhD is an atmospheric scientist who has received a number of awards for her scientific work on weather, climate, stratospheric ozone, UV radiation and unmanned aircraft. She is proud to share a number of awards, including the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for her contributions on understanding the Arctic climate. She has led a number of successful groups to develop programs and increase scientific activity in a number of areas (Arctic research, unmanned aircraft, renewable energy and weather forecasting). She has also brought together leaders from academia, public sector and private sector to identify a path for the U.S. to become significantly better at weather forecasting. She previously worked in the federal government and at Jupiter Intelligence, a company that advises on managing climate change risks. Currently she is working with the international community to understand trends in tropospheric ozone around the globe.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Shutterstock

In the fall of 2021, TED invited leaders and educators from around the world to participate in COUNTDOWN, a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis.

JeJuan Stewart, a leader in the TED-Ed Student Talks program from Georgia, answered that call by hosting TEDxYouth@Snellville, a COUNTDOWN event in her community. JeJuan shares her experience and advice for hosting a stellar, youth-centered TEDx event that focused on the problems and solutions of the climate crisis.

Why did you decide to host a TEDx COUNTDOWN event?

Our initial ideas were to:

1. Bring Black and Brown youth together around the issue of climate change

2. Expose them to Black and Brown climate change activists in our community

3. Share our EAGLE 7 TED-Ed Club experience (within the TED-Ed Student Talks program) with them so interested students could join our Club for the following school year

Event lineup

Tell us about your event!

Our event took place at the Emory University School of Public Health. The location was provided by the sponsors of the Black Public Health Students at the Rollins School of Public Health and was hosted by Snellville residents Briana Boykin, non-profit founder and former member of Black Public Health Students at Emory RSPH, and Joshua Stewart, who performed spoken word during the event.

Talks were given by several climate change community activists, including three Black founders of organizations:

1. Environmental justice activist and founder of Millennials 4 Environmental Justice Diamond Spratling spoke about the wonders of the environment

2. Environmental educator and organizer of Black Birders Week Sheridan Alford spoke about birds as an indicator species to the environment

3. STEM educator and leader Horace Buddoo spoke about why K-12 education is our best hope for action on our climate dilemma

4. Health scientist from Michigan Public Health Sabina Emerenini spoke about cardiovascular disease, environmental health and her experience as a Black woman

5. Founders of BLKHLTH Matthew McCurdy and Khadijah Ameen spoke about how environmental justice is racial health justice

6. Program Director of Eagles Educational Services/SFAYC John Reed spoke about carbon footprints and teens
   

7. Head of the Chad Livsey Project Chad Livsey spoke about community activism and his passion for maintaining clean communities through conducting Pop-Up environmental clean ups throughout Metro-Atlanta

Before the event, I spoke to each one of our speakers about their topic and determined how and if they would be relatable to high school students. I encouraged them to consider approaching their work from the position of empowering students. What would they say to their younger selves? How do they see youth impacting climate change?

TEDxYouth Countdown

How was your TED-Ed Student Talks group involved?

Our EAGLE 7 TED-Ed Club Students were involved in the promotion through social media for the event. They assisted with registration, set-up, and sponsored tables throughout the event. They earned volunteer hours for their time. Through supporting this event, they have a better idea of what to expect in the future, as well as ideas to help them design their own Talks for the Spring event.

What was the greatest success of the event?

Seeing everyone engaged and excited about the content. We also had break out discussions for everyone to meet each other and speak with the sponsors at their tables. Most of the after-event comments were centered around how we can continue the dialog and engage even more youth in the conversation for future events.

Why is it important for educators to be involved with the climate crisis

Educators are a critical component to this because they can bring balance and wisdom to the table by the way they facilitate discussions and enable youth to develop into the servant-leaders they can be.

Annisa Morgan of Dollarsat10

What advice do you have for someone interested in hosting a TEDxYouth event?

For those of you who want to step in to the experience of hosting a TEDxYouth event, I offer these words of advice:

1. Plan early. Give yourself time to review the links and supports that are available on the TEDx site. There are so many resources, chats, and videos to help you.

2. Create a planning team and delegate the tasks. Use a project managing system to help you keep up with communications between team members (IE Slack, Asana)

3. Connect with local TEDx organizers in your community. They can be a huge support for speakers, logistics, sponsors, and more!

4. Pay for videographer, editing services, and marketing services if you are able to! Alternatively, if you have access to a school with an audio/visual instructor that can provide you with student assistants for the event, it can be like a great “On-the-Job-Training” experience for them.  It will allow them to earn credits for school, volunteer hours, and experience for their portfolios.

5. Have speakers sign their paperwork prior to the event. (Ideally, during the 1st meeting!)

6. Enjoy the journey. Have a sense of humor and stay humble. Your patience will be tested and once you get the first TEDx event completed, take a deep breath and pause. Because believe it or not, you may find yourself applying to do another!

Interested in learning more? Check out TED-Ed Student Talks Program, COUNTDOWN, and how to host a TEDxYouth Event.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JeJuan D. Stewart is entrepreneur, parent coach, community leader, STEAM advocate, and a retired anesthetist of Snellville, GA. As the CEO of EAGLE 7 Consulting, she is committed to empowering all to give, lead and excel through servant-leadership development and training. EAGLE 7 TED Ed Club was started in 2014 in an effort to empower youth voices and provide access to underrepresented students of color to TED Ed Clubs.

Alamy

Even though cities have been centers of culture, ideas and industry since the Neolithic Revolution 12,000 years ago (!), today’s urban-centric global civilization is just a couple of hundred years old.

In 1800, six percent of humans were city dwellers; even in 1970, only New York City and Tokyo qualified as “megacities” that were home to more than 10 million residents.

Fast-forward to today: The planet supports some 34 megacities, and cities themselves — occupying just two percent of the Earth’s surface — house more than half of the global population. What’s more, urban residency is expected to rise to 68 percent in the next 30 years.

Of course, the migration towards cities means dense populations and concentrated CO2 emissions from traffic and transportation. For example, in the US, traffic is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and globally, transportation remains a top contributor in urban centers.

But there’s good news: Through intelligent urban planning, cities around the globe are working to improve the quality of life for residents while also tackling carbon emissions. How? According to C40, a global network of cities committed to addressing climate change, it starts with prioritizing “the movement of people rather than cars.”

For example, so-called “15-minute cities” and “complete neighborhoods” are two urban design strategies that operate on the same basic principle: They enable the majority of residents to access all their basic needs by foot or bike. This reduces gridlock and commute times, frees up space for walking paths and parks, and improves air quality — all factors that boost people’s wellbeing and physical health. (The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns gave us a glimpse of what urban life could look like with less traffic.)

While cities like New York City, Paris and Copenhagen are already renowned for their people-friendly layouts, these eight cities are taking noteworthy strides to create a more sustainable way for residents to move around:

Bogotá, Colombia’s ciclovia

Metro area population: 10.7 million

Bogotá, Colombia, is decreasing their emissions through two main ways: Bussing and biking. TransMilenio — an impressive network of rapid-transit bus routes — opened in 2000. Within 10 years, it reduced the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 40 percent, and today its 1,500 buses make around 1.5 million passenger journeys each day. The city is also renowned for its ciclovia — the regular conversion of roads into car-free biking thoroughfares on Sunday mornings — and boasts the highest rate of intercity trips made by bicycle among all Latin American cities.

Still, transportation continues to account for nearly half of Bogotá’s greenhouse gas emissions. To further encourage biking as a form of transport, Mayor Claudia López Hernández plans to permanently convert 84 kilometers (52 miles) of newly established road sections into bike lanes to help essential workers travel around the city more quickly. Currently, these temporary paths connect directly to the city’s existing 550 kilometers (340 miles) of lanes. This bigger  network of bike paths and lanes should help the city in raising its already-impressive seven percent of trips taken by bike to reach its ambitious goal of 50 percent. To put that into perspective, the average number of trips by bike in the US is around one percent.

Montréal, Canada’s active transportation network

Metro area population: 4.1 million

The Greater Montreal area already boasts some 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) of permanent bike lanes and paths. In an effort to open up the city after months of COVID-19 lockdown, officials closed a handful of major city streets in June 2020 to cars and other motorized traffic through fall 2020. Spanning 327 kilometers (203 miles), this transportation plan was intended to encourage residents to travel actively by connecting bicyclists to city parks, major commercial arteries and existing bike paths (like the Express Bike Network). Many hope that these pandemic-inspired road changes will lead to the establishment of  permanent bike routes going forward.

To further reduce emissions and congestion in the city’s commercial center, the city has invested in bicycle and electric vehicle delivery services as well as new green spaces. For example, the Grand Parc de l’Ouest, slated to open in 2030, will be the largest municipal park in Canada at 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres).

Barcelona, Spain’s Superblocks

Metro area population: 5.6 million

With some of the highest traffic density in Europe, Barcelona has faced increasing pressure to curb air pollution and emissions. In 2013, it created an urban mobility plan to improve bus routes and expand biking and walking paths. In recent years, it established the Barcelona Low Emission Zone, which prohibits high-emissions vehicles from entering certain areas of the city during busy times.

But their revolutionary urban design concept — the Superblock — is one of the city’s most innovative projects. Each Superblock is an area composed of  nine city blocks in which traffic has been rerouted to go around the perimeter, speed limits are kept low (10km/h, or 6mph), and curbside parking is moved into underground lots. These Superblocks encourage cycling while creating pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares and wide swaths of green space. Though the city and nearby metro regions have only created a handful of Superblocks — six as of January 2020 –these areas have been wildly successful in reducing noise pollution, emissions and traffic, while boosting economic activity among local businesses. Barcelona has plans to establish 21 Superblock regions by 2030.

Taipei, Taiwan’s bicycle kingdom

Metro area population: 7 million

Taipei is known as “the bicycle kingdom” — not only is it home to top bike manufacturers like Giant and Merida, it’s also for its own cycling- and people-first infrastructure. In 2019, it became the second Asian city to make the Copenhagenize Index — an annual list of the world’s 20 most bikeable cities compiled by an international biking-focused urban design company. (Tokyo has been a mainstay on the list since 2011.)

A massive government-subsidized bike-share scheme, widespread availability of bicycle rentals, annual cycling conferences with sessions on urban planning, marked bicycle lanes on major streets, and scenic paved routes — like the Keelung River Bicycle Trail — have helped the city best other bike-friendly metro areas including Montréal, Canada, and Hamburg, Germany. While Taipei continues to struggle with air pollution created by fossil-fuel-powered transport, a biking-focused mindset could help the city improve its air quality and meet future urban development challenges.

Auckland, New Zealand’s electrified public transit fleet

Metro area population: 1.6 million

With its Low Carbon Auckland Action Plan in 2014 — which laid out a path to reduce emissions to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2040 through greening infrastructure and changing the way that residents travel and consume energy — Auckland declared its ambition to become the world’s most livable city, and it continues to adapt to emerging challenges. For example, when public transportation ridership increased 33 percent between 2010 and 2015, the Auckland Council invested billions of dollars to make the system more efficient and climate-resilient. It’s now on target to have a fully electric, zero-emissions public transit bus fleet by 2040.

Despite the city’s wildly successful carbon sequestration project, the Million Trees Program — which has already planted more than a million trees and will add  1.5 million more through 2022 to offset some of its emissions — Auckland hasn’t always been able to keep up with the pollution generated by its growing population. Between 2009 and 2016, it grew from a city of around 1.2 million to over 1.6 million residents, and emissions actually increased five percent. But that hasn’t stopped the city from aiming to be net zero by 2050. 

Hoi An, Vietnam’s vehicle-free roads

Metro area population: 120,000

Added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999, this historic city developed the “Hoi An Bicycle Plan” to increase the use of bicycles among  residents and tourists. To date, the city has improved biking routes and infrastructure, launched a public-private partnership to implement a low-cost bike-share program, and established car-free zones in an effort to encourage walking and bicycling.

In 2018, the city was awarded the Global Urban Mobility Challenge Award in Leipzig, Germany, which awards and assists bright ideas in sustainable urban mobility in emergent nations. Since then, the city has continued to make progress by banning vehicles from parts of the city center to create pedestrian-only streets and adding some 120 electric vehicles to its tourist transportation system.

Tshwane, South Africa’s accessible bike-share program

Metro area population: 2.6 Million

The sprawling city of Tshwane is working to improve urban living and accessibility for all of its residents. While walking is already a popular form of transit that makes up 29 percent of all trips, the city launched several initiatives to incentivize cycling.

These include car-free streets, cycle-to-work festivals and a pilot bike-share project with standard and electric bikes. The city also runs the Shova Kalula bicycle program, which provides free bicycles to people living in underprivileged areas outside of the city to improve accessibility and foster a biking culture.

Portland, Oregon’s complete neighborhoods

Metro area population: 2.5 Million

Portland was the first US city to create a Climate Action Plan in 1993, and it’s been outpacing US climate targets ever since by cutting its carbon emissions as much as 20 percent despite a population increase of nearly 40 percent. The city’s 2015 Climate Action Plan Summary laid out plans to reduce daily per-capita vehicle miles by 30 percent through smarter urban planning and complete neighborhoods.

According to a 2020 progress report, Portland decreased its per-capita vehicle mileage by 3.9 percent in 2018 and saw an increase in electric vehicle use. The city aims to increase the percentage of its residents living in walkable and bikeable complete neighborhoods to 80 percent by 2030.

City living often means long commutes, noisy streets and small spaces. Carlos Moreno wants to change that with the 15-minute city. Watch the full Talk: 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Meghan Miner Murray is a freelance science and travel writer based in Kona, Hawaii. She once was rescued from a sinking ship in the North Atlantic. Read more about her and her work at meghanminermurray.com.

Courtesy of UNFCCC

For two weeks this November, world leaders and national negotiators will meet in Glasgow, Scotland, to discuss what to do about climate change. It’s a complex process that can be hard to make sense of from the outside, but it’s how international law and institutions help solve problems that no single country can fix on its own.

I worked for the United Nations for several years as a law and policy adviser and have been involved in international negotiations. Here’s what’s happening behind closed doors and why people are concerned that COP26 might not meet its goals.

What is COP26?

In 1992, countries agreed to an international treaty called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which set ground rules and expectations for global cooperation on combating climate change. It was the first time the majority of nations formally recognized the need to control greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming that drives climate change.

That treaty has since been updated, including in 2015 when nations signed the Paris climate agreement. That agreement set the goal of limiting global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6°F), and preferably to 1.5°C (2.7°F), to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Climate change has been fueling extreme weather events and flooding, severe heat waves and droughts, loss and extinction of species, and the melting of ice sheets and rising of sea levels.

COP26 stands for the 26th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC. The “parties” are the 196 countries that ratified the treaty plus the European Union. The United Kingdom, partnering with Italy, is hosting COP26 in Scotland from Oct. 31 through Nov. 12, 2021, after a one-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (The above photo was taken at COP25 in Madrid, Spain, in 2019.)

Why is COP26 so important?

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, released in August 2021, warned in its strongest terms yet that human activities have unequivocally warmed the planet, and that climate change is now widespread, rapid and intensifying.

The IPCC’s scientists explain how climate change has been fueling extreme weather events and flooding, severe heat waves and droughts, loss and extinction of species, and the melting of ice sheets and rising of sea levels. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called the report a “code red for humanity.”

Countries are required under the Paris Agreement to update their national climate action plans every five years, including at COP26.

Enough greenhouse gas emissions are already in the atmosphere, and they stay there long enough, that even under the most ambitious scenario of countries quickly reducing their emissions, the world will experience rising temperatures through at least mid-century.

However, there remains a narrow window of opportunity. If countries can cut global emissions to “net zero” by 2050, that could bring warming back to under 1.5 C in the second half of the 21st century. How to get closer to that course is what leaders and negotiators are discussing.

What will happen at COP26?

During the first days of the conference, around 120 heads of state, like US President Joe Biden, and their representatives will gather to demonstrate their political commitment to slowing climate change.

Once the heads of state depart, country delegations, often led by ministers of environment, engage in days of negotiations, events and exchanges to adopt their positions, make new pledges and join new initiatives. These interactions are based on months of prior discussions, policy papers and proposals prepared by groups of states, U.N. staff and other experts.

Another aim of COP26 is to increase climate finance to help poorer countries transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change.

Nongovernmental organizations and business leaders also attend the conference, and COP26 has a public side with sessions focused on topics such as the impact of climate change on small island states, forests or agriculture, as well as exhibitions and other events.

The meeting ends with an outcome text that all countries agree to. Guterres publicly expressed disappointment with the COP25 outcome, and there are signs of trouble heading into COP26.

What is COP26 expected to accomplish?

Countries are required under the Paris Agreement to update their national climate action plans every five years, including at COP26. This year, they’re expected to have ambitious targets through 2030. These are known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs.

The Paris Agreement requires countries to report their NDCs, but it allows them leeway in determining how they reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The initial set of emission reduction targets in 2015 was far too weak to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

One key goal of COP26 is to ratchet up these targets to reach net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century.

Another aim of COP26 is to increase climate finance to help poorer countries transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change. This is an important issue of justice for many developing countries whose people bear the largest burden from climate change but have contributed least to it. Wealthy countries promised in 2009 to contribute $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing nations, a goal that has not been reached. The US, UK and EU, among the largest historic greenhouse emitters, are increasing their financial commitments, and banks, businesses, insurers and private investors are being asked to do more.

The U.N. warned in September 2021 that countries’ revised targets were too weak and would leave the world on pace to warm 2.7 C (4.9 F) by the end of the century.

Other objectives include phasing out coal use and generating solutions that preserve, restore or regenerate natural carbon sinks, such as forests. Another challenge that has derailed past COPs is agreeing on implementing a carbon trading system outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Are countries on track to meet the international climate goals?

The U.N. warned in September 2021 that countries’ revised targets were too weak and would leave the world on pace to warm 2.7°C (4.9°F) by the end of the century. However, governments are also facing another challenge this fall that could affect how they respond: Energy supply shortages have left Europe and China with price spikes for natural gas, coal and oil.

China — the world’s largest emitter — has not yet submitted its NDC. Major fossil fuel producers such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Australia seem unwilling to strengthen their commitments. India — a critical player as the second-largest consumer, producer and importer of coal globally — has also not yet committed.

Other developing nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and Mexico are important. So is Brazil, which, under Javier Bolsonaro’s watch, has increased deforestation of the Amazon — the world’s largest rainforest and crucial for biodiversity and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Keeping warming under 1.5°C is still possible. The cost of failure is astronomical.

And what happens if COP26 doesn’t meet its goals?

Many insiders believe that COP26 won’t reach its goal of having strong enough commitments from countries to cut global greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent by 2030. That means the world won’t be on a smooth course for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and the goal of keeping warming under 1.5°C.

But organizers maintain that keeping warming under 1.5°C is still possible. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been leading the U.S. negotiations, remains hopeful that enough countries will create momentum for others to strengthen their reduction targets by 2025.

The cost of failure is astronomical. Studies have shown that the difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius can mean the submersion of small island states, the death of coral reefs, extreme heat waves, flooding and wildfires, and pervasive crop failure.

That translates into many premature deaths, more mass migration, major economic losses, large swaths of unlivable land and violent conflict over resources and food — what the U.N. secretary-general has called “a hellish future.”

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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