Libro:
Fifty-one billion i show many tons of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere every year.
Today Roughly 860 million people don’t have electricity.
Within a few years, I had become convinced of 3 things:
1-To avoid a climate disaster, we have to get to zero.
2-We need to deploy the tools we already have, like solar and wind, faster and smarter.
3-And we need to create and roll out breakthrough technologies that can take us the rest of the way.
A solar farm needs between 5 and 50 times more land to generate as much electricity as an equivalent coal-powered plant, and a wind farm needs 10 times more than solar.
How we make thing is 31% of 51 billion tons per year.
How much carbon dioxide can a tree absorb in its lifetime? It varies, but a good rule of thumb is 4 tons over the course of 40 years.
8.2billion tons of carbon we produce from transportation today.
47% Cars, suvs and motorcycles
30% Garbage trucks, buses and 18-wheelers
10% Cargo and cruise ships
10% Airplanes
3% Other
How we keep cool and stay warm.
7% of 51 billion tons a year
I never thought I’d find something to like about Malaria. It kills 400.000 people a year, most of them children.
If you live in a typical American home, your air conditioner is the biggest consumer of electricity you own –more than your lights, refrigerator, and computer combined.
Air pollution is still a major cause of illness and death, it likely kills more 7 million people every year.
China has been a major player in finding ingenious ways to make solar panels cheaper. Thanks to all this innovation, the price of solar-generated electricity has dropped 90 percent since 2009.
Wind turbines now provide about 5% of the world’s electricity.
In short, every national government needs to do 3 things:
-First, make it a goal to get to zero –by 2050 for rich countries, and as soon after 2050 as possible for middle-income countries.
-Second, develop specific plans for meeting those goals. To get to zero by 2050, we’ll need to have the policy and market structures in place by 2030.
-And third, any country that’s in a position to fund research needs to make sure it’s on track to make clean energy so cheap –to reduce the Green Premiums so much- that middle-income countries will be able to get to zero.
It is easy to feel powerless in the face of a problem as big as climate change. But you’re not powerless. And you don’t have to be a politician or a philanthropist to make a difference. You have influence as a citizen, a consumer, and employee or employer.
As a Citizen:
We aren’t going to solve the climate problem by telling people no to eat toast.
AS a Consumer:
-Sign up for a green pricing program with your electricity utility.
-Reduce your home’s emissions.
-Buy an electric vehicle.
As an Employee or Employer:
-Set up an internal carbon tax.
-Be an early adopter.