Suzanne Chew
“Creative and engaging! Everyone, everywhere, needs to know not only the threats but also the many opportunities in combating climate change.” - Nick Nuttall, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Suzanne Chew
Reviews for Little Climate “Creative and engaging! Everyone, everywhere, needs to know not only the threats but also the many opportunities in combating climate change. This book provides a fascinating insight and impulse as to why all of us need to act.” Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change “Eminently readable. An ambitious and comprehensive book that clearly and concisely outlines everything anyone needs to know, spanning good science, economics and policies. Should be required reading.” Ash Sharma, Special Adviser for Climate Change Nordic Environment Finance Corporation “This book is a magnificent contribution to understanding climate disruption, suitable for both novices and experts. Grounded in a strong foundation of references, this should be at the top of everyone’s reading list. I hope that readers will follow with action. Behavioral change, needed on many levels, is not easy, but clearly possible.” Dr. Russell deLucia, Recipient of the Purpose Prize President and Executive Director The Small-Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund i
“Sometimes it’s better to laugh than cry!” Dr. James Hansen, Columbia University Earth Institute Former Director at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies “Delightfully different. A book to read again and again.” Dr. Svati Bhogle, Ashoka Fellow Founder and Managing Director, Sustaintech “Packed with inescapable facts, this is a cartoon book with a difference. Vivid images draw you in, smart text makes you think, the need for individual actions is clear. People are now pushing leaders to preserve the planet for future generations – this book should turn us all into activists in our daily lives.” Bill Farmer Chairman, Uganda Carbon Bureau Founder, Carbon Foundation of East Africa “The best book I’ve ever read on the science of climate change. I’ve been working in this sector for more than a decade, yet I still learned much from this little book.” Boonrod Yaowapruek, Clean Energy Finance Team Leader Private Financing Advisory Network for Asia ii
“Simple and easy to understand, this is a very helpful book for the general public to understand climate change and the appropriate solutions we have to deal with it.” Dr. Yang Saing Koma, Recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award President, Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture “Illuminating. A great pleasure to read this smart, well-written book, filled with clever cartoons.” Bastiaan Teune, Sector Leader Renewable Energy SNV Lao PDR “No one has ever put together funny yet cheeky cartoons with established scientific research quite like this before! Perfect for parents and kids to learn and laugh together.” Eleonora Gatti, Founder and Director Great Women Speak Out “Great for anyone who has always wanted to understand climate change in a speedy manner, suitable even for young audiences. Suzanne provides bite-sized, logical information on what is regarded as a complex issue, and showcases solutions to address them. A recommended read!” Olivia Choong, President and Co-founder Green Drinks Singapore iii
“Suzanne has written a very informative and compact book. In clear, short explanations with attractive pictures, she’s able to easily explain a very complex and dry topic: climate change. I hope this book will build greater awareness for us to reach further below the 2 degrees Celsius target.” Lieselotte Heederik, Co-founder and Director Nazava Water Filters “This is an excellent book for anyone to get started on climate change issues. It’s remarkably well-researched and gives a valuable overview of what is happening to the planet, as well as practical recommendations on how everyone can get involved. A worthwhile read!” Alvin Chua, London “A fun and unique approach to a difficult topic, Little Climate makes the science behind climate change easily accessible, and clearly explains concrete solutions to big problems!” Jo Hazelwood, Geneva “A condensed, humorous look at the biggest problem of our time. With bright, colourful, tongue-in-cheek illustrations that break the monotony of such a complex subject, this book is never boring or difficult to absorb.” Eng Poh Yin, Singapore iv
Copyright © Suzanne Chew, 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This book has been typeset in Andika New Basic and Action Man. For further information, please contact the Publisher at www.littleclimate.com ISBN: 978-981-09-8330-7
Attention: Schools, institutions and businesses This book is available at a discount with bulk purchase for educational, training and public awareness purposes. For more information, please contact the Publisher.
For Mum and Dad.
Start your journey, press me!
Why read this book?
What’s happened so far?
Why is it warming?
Know your enemy
Running the race!
Making progress!
Fast forward to tomorrow!
Where’s it coming from?
House of solutions
What now?
References
Index, and everything else vii
map
Why read this book?
1
Why read this book? This book is about climate disruption, and the choices we have! Too fed up to read yet another news article about how we’re all going to die? No time for long boring reports? Want to have everything easily at your fingertips? Want to know enough to make your own decisions? If you’ve answered “Yes” to any of the above, this book was made for you!
“GIVE A CRAP ABOUT climate disruption!”
2
Get a grip on the science! Cut to the chase about what scientists worldwide are saying, without the jargon and acronyms! Find out just how bad laughing gas really is, and learn to calculate for yourself how much time we really have left to act!
Oceanographers!
Glaciologists!
Chemists! 3
Protect what you love. Climate disruption is messy. Its impacts cut across most of what we cherish how our kids will grow up to learn from our example, and what kind of future they’ll have. The safety of our homes that we’ve worked so hard to build. Our peaceful and magnificent countryside. Even the very values that define who we are. How might we learn to better protect what we love? This book gives you the critical knowledge to make the decisions that are right for you. Whether you choose to follow your own moral compass, or defend what you own, the direction we need to head in is often the same!
4
But wait, there’s more! You’ll gain a simple but powerful understanding of one of the toughest challenges of our time. More importantly, you’ll learn to laugh in the face of adversity! Hahaha, hahah!
“boo?” 5
map
What’s happened so far?
6
What’s happened so far? Rising temperatures, breaking new records! Melting poles, where it’s warming up much faster than everywhere else! Bleaker oceans, that are losing oxygen, turning acidic, and powering rising tides! Strange weather, headlined by fierce snowstorms, long droughts, and more frequent extreme events. These are early symptoms that many of us have seen with our own eyes. We’ve felt the chill in our bones, and the sweat slicking off our back. Our smartest minds have analyzed these symptoms with scientific instruments, and pored over them in great detail. Now, see for yourself.
7
s e g It’s getting hot, hot, hot! n ur i s You might already know that between 1880 and 2012, ri rat the average temperature of our planet rose by 0.85 degrees Celsius. e p That’s 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Early indications show that we’ve now m e warmed by a full 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. t 54
73
It’s the reason why we now have more warm nights and days than before.46 As of 2015, fifteen of the hottest years on record all happened in the previous fifteen years, except for one. Can you guess the top three hottest years?116
8
s e g in tur s ri ra e p m e t
Record-breaking years!
2005 2010
2014
“TIME TO bring back the MANKINI...?”
As of late 2015, the hottest year on record goes to 2014! Second place goes to 2010, and third place to 2005.116
9
s e g Record-breaking days! n ur i s temperatures have been hitting record highs more often than ri rat record Daily lows. In 2015, record highs happened twice as often as record lows in the e p U.S. and Australia. As we warm, it’s likely that we’ll continue to break m e more and more records for hot days. t 103, 76
too hot to fish? YIPPEE!
10
ng i t s l me ole p
What does a gigatonne of ice look like? Imagine an ice cube about 1.1 km tall, deep and wide. (That’s about 0.7 miles.) If this was floating under the Golden Gate Bridge, it would just about squeeze between the two towers!43 That’s a billion metric tons, or a gigatonne, of ice. A gigantic ice cube!
11
ng i t s l me ole p
Can you guess how many ice cubes have melted from our ice sheets? In just twenty years, Antarctica and Greenland have lost the net sum of over four thousand of these ice cubes.*
Melting has speeded up too. Antarctica now loses a net sum of around 150 gigatonnes of ice each year, while Greenland loses over 200 gigatonnes.111
* 4,260 gigatonnes of ice melted in the period 1992-2011
12
ng i lt es e m ol p
Our North Pole is warming up much faster! In just fifty years, much of the Arctic has already warmed by over 2 degrees Celsius (that’s 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).*80
“I’ll just lie down here till it cools down...”
* Between 1960-2011
13
er Our seas are turning acidic faster k s a than we’ve ever seen before. e an l b ce As oceans absorb the excess carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, o they become more acidic. Our oceans are now 26% more acidic, and rising. 54
We haven’t seen anything quite like this in the past 65 million years!49
Why does it matter? The more acidic our seas, the less carbon dioxide they can absorb. This means more remains in our atmosphere to warm us up.38 Marine life, especially corals and shellfish like oysters and mussels, face tough challenges as their world turns acidic.
“OOH, THIS ACID FACE PEEL REALLY DOES WORK!”
14
r e Suffocating seas! k s a e an Did you know that warmer water can’t hold as much dissolved oxygen? l b ce There’s also less oxygen the deeper you go, because warm water doesn’t mix o well. Oxygen from the air that dissolves at the ocean’s surface stays there, instead of mixing downwards. Our seas are deoxygenating as it warms.
In our coastal seas, oxygen levels have dropped ten times faster than in the open ocean. Scientists have recorded substantial drops off the west coast of North America.* Dead zones, which are regions of water with very low oxygen, are also expanding in the tropical Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.91
“...can’t hold our breath!” * Observed during 1976-2000.
15
er k a ns e bl cea o
Rising tides. Our seas have risen by 19 cm in the last hundred years.*54 This doesn’t sound like much, but it’s picking up speed. What are countries doing about it?
Singapore, a small island nation, has increased the height of their reclaimed land, to protect against the rising seas. Land is now reclaimed to a height of over two metres above the highest recorded tide level.40 Vietnam, with its long seafront and many coastal cities, is restoring mangroves to help reduce flooding in some areas.17 Other countries are exploring stronger jetties and higher sea walls. How will rising waters affect where you live?
* From 1901 to 2010.
16 16
er k a ns e bl cea o
4
Why are our seas are rising?
19 cm or 7.5 inches
50%: melting ice! 54 40%: Expanding hot water! 54
10%: flushed groundwater! 27
17
er k a ns e bl cea o
Coral reefs face a triple whammy! Poor reefs. Bashed by rising waves, eaten away by acidifying waters, and bleached by the rising heat. No wonder they’re not feeling well!
Corals are very sensitive to temperatures. Like a canary in a coal mine, bleached corals are a shrill warning to us that things are getting worse.38, 41
Coral bleaching has been happening in northeastern Australia since the ‘70s. It’s recently started in western Australia too, affecting World Heritage sites like Ningaloo reef.88 All over the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Caribbean, corals are also rapidly disappearing, due to heat stress and other factors.41
“I’M TURNING WHITE WITH WORRY!”
18
e g Let it snow...? n r a r the Did you know that warm air holds more water vapour than cool air? t For every 1 degree Celsius it warms up, air holds 7% more water. In the s ea last forty years, water vapour has risen by 3.5%. It’s why we’ve had more w rain and snow, which has been spread unevenly worldwide.101
Some parts, like Europe, North and Central America, have had more rain and snow since the ‘70s. We’ve seen more storms in the North Atlantic. Other parts, like southern Australia, western Asia, western Himalayas and Japan, have had less snow and rain. It’s likely that droughts have intensified in the Mediterranean and West Africa since 1950.46
“THESE SNOWSTORMS ARE GETTING WEIRDER!”
19 19
What’s coming next? These symptoms are expected to get worse, but with plenty of hard work and tough medicine, there’s hope that we can get better. Before we can learn to solve it, we need to understand the next basic piece of the puzzle - why is it warming?
20 20
map
Why is it warming?
21
How could it be us? Some of us feel that it must be the fault of our Sun, warming us to a crisp. Surely only the Sun could have the power to make the kind of fast changes we’re seeing! Some feel that it’s got to be our volcanoes, like the super eruptions that happened in our fiery, prehistoric past. Our planet was young then, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Others feel that it’s because of our planet’s tilt and orbit through the galaxy. After all, isn’t this what triggered the Ice Ages? Exhaustive, peer-reviewed scientific research shows that it’s none other than the power of man that’s causing it. Let’s check for ourselves!
22
Is it warming because of volcanoes? In the prehistoric past, super volcanoes caused some of our fastest warming periods. Massive eruptions spewed out vast volumes of carbon dioxide, over thousands of years. Our fossil record shows how some of these super eruptions led to mass extinction, millions of years ago. What about now? Today, we produce at least 80 times, to as much as 270 times, more carbon dioxide than volcanoes every year.107
“GETTING so DIZZY...”
23
Is it warming because of the Sun? Let’s check how much energy our Sun has been giving out. Our satellites in space have measured this directly from 1978 to 2009. They’ve recorded no net increase in energy.79 Yet, over the same time span, we’ve seen temperatures continue to rise here on Earth. What does research tell us? Over the past century, the Sun has been responsible for around 10% of the warming we’ve observed. In the past twenty-five years, the Sun has played practically no role at all in our rising temperatures.66
“LA LA LAAA, IT WASN’T ME!” 24
Is it warming because of Earth’s orbit or tilt? Ice Ages were caused by changes in our orbit and tilt. These changes take tens of thousands of years. This effect is too tiny to explain the rapid warming we’ve seen.*78
“...and i thought i was going pretty fast already!”
* Our orbit moves from a rough circle to an oval, approximately every 95,000 years. Our planetary tilt shifts by a few degrees about every 41,000 years. Our poles wobble in a roughly 26,000 year cycle. These are known as the Milankovitch Cycles.67
25
Why is it warming? In our planet’s history, natural causes of large climate change have been because of the Sun, the Earth’s orbit, super volcanoes and meteor strikes.78 Today, none of these natural causes can explain our rising temperatures. But, once you include the greenhouse gases we’ve released unintentionally, the numbers all start to add up.54
“WHEN YOU HAVE ELIMINATED THE IMPOSSIBLE, WHATEVER REMAINS, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, MUST BE THE TRUTH!”
26
People power! The power we’ve demonstrated in changing our planet in just three or four generations, is nothing short of incredible. Since the dawn of human civilization, around half of our trees have disappeared.30 Today, agriculture blankets around two-fifths of all land on the planet.115 We might not have wielded our power so wisely, but we haven’t lost any of it! We can just as successfullly turn the game around. Today, our knowledge is far deeper, and our technologies much more sophisticated. If we choose to, we have the power to switch it up faster than ever before! As with solar power, we’re already seeing for ourselves just how fast we can go. But first, as any good general knows, we need to understand just what we’re fighting...
27
map
Know your enemy
28
How well do you know your enemy? Can you explain the greenhouse effect? Can you name the four top greenhouse gases? How long do they live? How powerful are they at warming? How much are we releasing each year? Where have all the extra greenhouses gases we’ve added in gone?
“Know your enemy, and know yourself, and a hundred battles you will win! Know yourself, but not your enemy, and you might win or lose... Know not yourself nor your enemy, and you will always be in danger.” - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
29 29
Not just a glass ceiling, but a glass greenhouse. How do greenhouse gases work? They prevent heat from escaping the Earth, into the cold space beyond. They turn our atmosphere into one giant greenhouse, trapping us in. The more greenhouse gases we emit, the more powerful our invisible greenhouse. Unlike a street mime only pretending to be trapped, our glass walls are all too real!
“I can’t mime my way out of this one!”
30 30
What greenhouse gases are we releasing? What’s public enemy #1? Carbon dioxide! This made up 76% of our total emissions in 2010. But, it’s not working alone... Greenhouse gases also include methane, which added 16% to our emissions, nitrous oxide, which added 6%, and fluorinated gases, which added 2%.55 Can you guess which one is which? (Hint: the more they pollute, the bigger they are!)
Credit: Jmol was used to create the 3-D visualizations of the Greenhouse Gang molecules. Jmol: an open-source Java viewer for chemical structures in 3D. http://www.jmol.org/
31
The most common, and important, greenhouse gas! Released when we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, make cement, and burn forests.6 Chemical symbol: What is it made of? How long does it last? How much has it risen?
CO2 1 carbon + 2 oxygen atoms. over 20% remains for over 1,000 years.21 40% rise since pre-industrial times.78
32
The second most common greenhouse gas! Released from gas leaks when we mine for coal, oil and gas, from belching livestock, rotting waste, and some common farming practices.105 Chemical symbol: What is it made of? How long does it last? How much has it risen?
Ch4 1 carbon + 4 Hydrogen atoms. more than 12 years. 150% rise since pre-industrial times.
How powerful is it?
28x the warming power of carbon dioxide.78
33
Also known as laughing gas! Hahaha! Ha... Released by soil bacteria feeding off chemical fertilizers and manure left on pastures.2 Also released when we burn fossil fuels, process sewage, and when we make nylon and chemical fertilizers.6,39 Chemical symbol: What is it made of? How long does it last? How much has it risen? How powerful is it?
N20 2 nitrogen + 1 oxygen atoms. 121 years. 20% rise since pre-industrial times. 265x the warming power of carbon dioxide.78 34
F-gases are man-made; they don’t occur naturally. These include CFCs, HFCs, and HCFCs. We use them to cool us down - in our aircons, fridges, and chillers. We also use them to make our electronics.6 Chemical symbol: What is it made of? How long does it last? How powerful is it?
CHF3 (Also known as HFC-23). one of many F-gases. 1 carbon + 1 hydrogen + 3 fluorine atoms. 222 years. some F-gases like CF4 last 50,000 years. 12,400X the warming power of carbon dioxide. SOME F-GASES like SF6 ARE over 20,000X as powerful.78 35
What does a tonne of carbon dioxide look like? Imagine a bubble that’s 10 metres high, tall enough to fit an adult Tyrannosaurus Rex! (That’s a bubble over 30 feet tall.) This is what a metric ton of carbon dioxide looks like. It’s easy to compare how much warming different greenhouse gases cause, by measuring this in terms of “tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent”, or “tCO2e”. Did you know that over a hundred years, just 1 tonne of methane causes the same warming as 28 tonnes of carbon dioxide? It’s even more powerful over the short-term of twenty years, where methane has over 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. What about the others? Nitrous oxide is 265 times worse than carbon dioxide. Most of the f-gases we use are several thousand times worse, some up to 23,500 times more.78
“POKE!”
36
What does a gigatonne of carbon dioxide look like? Now, imagine a billion bubbles filled with T-rexes. Rawr! This would make a monster bubble, 10 km tall, deep and wide. That’s about the same height as 30,000 feet - the cruising altitude of our aeroplanes. This is what a billion metric tons, or a gigatonne (GtCO2), of carbon dioxide looks like.
“squawk!”
37
How much greenhouse gas do we emit in a year? In 2010, we released greenhouse gases equivalent to 49 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s the same weight as around one million Titanics!* 55, 36
“and Our gas will go on, and on...”
* The Titanic weighed approximately 53,000 tonnes.
38
Our emissions are growing fast. In fact, they’ve doubled in just a few short decades.55
49 gigatonnes
2010
38 gigatonnes
1990
27 gigatonnes
1970 0
10
20
30
40
How much greenhouse gas we’ve emitted each year (gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent)
50
39
We’re the first humans to see greenhouse gases this high. Did you know that we’ve drilled deep into ice that’s over 800,000 years old? Trapped air bubbles show that our prehistoric air contained much less carbon dioxide than today.69,70 Modern man, or “homo sapiens”, only evolved around 200,000 years ago.99 This means that we’re the first of our species to witness carbon dioxide levels this high. With every breath we take, we’re making history!
“sigh, you still using dino power like me?!”
40 40
Where have all the greenhouse gases gone? So far, we’ve emitted over two thousand gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, most of it unintentionally.*54 Where’s it all gone? Into our sea, sky, and soils. Around 43% of this has remained in our atmosphere, causing warming. About half of the remainder has been absorbed by oceans, causing acidification; the other half has been stored in our lands, like in our forests, peatlands and soils.54
* From 1750 to 2011
41 41
map
Where’s it coming from?
42
What’s producing our greenhouse gases? In 2010, here’s roughly how we spent our emissions:55 • 1/3 released by our industries. • 1/4 released by our farms and by clearing forests and peatlands. • 1/6 released by our homes and offices. • 1/7 released by our transport, mostly cars and trucks. • 1/9 released by converting fossil fuels into usable energy, through mining, refining, and transmitting it to where we need it.
that’s all the stuff I buy, eat and use! but, hey, you only live once, right? 43
Our industries! Our industries give us many of our everyday comforts, things we treasure and things we can’t live without. Today, industries have many ways to improve and become much more emissions-efficient. Which are our most emissions-intensive industries? Iron, steel, and cement manufacturers. What else emits substantially? These are industries that make: • chemicals • plastics • fertilizers • pulp & paper • aluminium • textiles • processed food Greenhouse gases also come from badly managed landfills that let methane escape, and untreated wastewater.39 44
Our farms! Where would we be without our farmers? Hungry! Our farmers work hard to feed us, but conventional farming tends to be high-carbon. Where do most emissions come from?96 Lost lands
Flooded fields
We clear forests and peatlands, for more space to grow crops and cattle.
How do we grow rice? The traditional way of flooding paddy fields releases methane.
Belly belches
Busy bacteria
Cattle have four stomachs, like sheep and goats. This means big belches, filled with methane which is around 28x worse than carbon dioxide.
They love cowpats and chemical fertilizers, and get busy in our soils making nitrous oxide. This is around 265x worse than carbon dioxide.
“four stomachs? more space for dessert, right?” 45
Our homes and offices! Can you guess whether homes or offices added more emissions in 2010? The answer is: Homes! These were responsible for twothirds of all emissions from the buildings sector.At home, two-thirds of our emissions came from how we used energy - mostly for keeping our homes warm, heating up water, and cooking. The rest came from building them.67 Setting the right temperature on your thermostat or aircon, and keeping showers short and sweet, can make a sizeable difference! Look around your home. Can you see quick ways to get smart about the energy we use every day?
“ooh, very chic!”
46
Our cars and trucks! This is a tough one. Data shows that emissions from our transport sector have doubled since 1970. This is faster than most other sectors. What’s fuelling this rise? Over 80% of it is due to the boom in our cars and trucks. In 2010, road vehicles contributed over 70% of total emissions from all transport. Aviation and shipping added about one-tenth each. Did you know that more than half the oil we used in 2010 was used to power around 90% of our transport? That’s oil going straight into our fuel tanks. What if more of us used clean electric cars, or more public transport?95
“HONK HONK!”
47
Our energy supply! Today, most of our energy comes from coal, oil and gas. Before we can use it, we have to produce it. This means mining, and refining. Then, we need to make it usable. This means turning it into heat for our factories, gas we can transport along our pipelines, or electricity we can send through our power grids.18,64 These activities, including leaks and losses, all release greenhouse gases.
48
What does all this add up to? Without knowing it, we’ve played a big role in changing our atmosphere. Compared to 1750, our air today is 40% higher in carbon dioxide, 20% higher in nitrous oxide, and 150% higher in methane.46 What does our future look like with this new atmosphere?
“I DIDN’T DO IT!” “PEEYOO!”
49
Continue reading! I hope you’ve enjoyed this sneak preview of the first few chapters of the book! Continue reading to learn not just about the impacts where you live, but also the many opportunities to solve them! Find out about decarbonizing to clean energy, electrifying all that we can, preserving forests and peatlands, the role of geoengineering, like bioenergy with carbon capture storage and other techno-fixes, the potential of smart design, smart processes and smart habits, and more! Continue your journey! Press the bear below to visit our website to buy the book directly from the author, from the Apple iBookstore, or using Dogecoin. 10% of the net income from this book is donated to 350.org, the only international nonprofit building a grassroots, global climate movement in 188 countries.
Suzanne Chew
Reviews for Little Climate “Creative and engaging! Everyone, everywhere, needs to know not only the threats but also the many opportunities in combating climate change. This book provides a fascinating insight and impulse as to why all of us need to act.” Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change “Eminently readable. An ambitious and comprehensive book that clearly and concisely outlines everything anyone needs to know, spanning good science, economics and policies. Should be required reading.” Ash Sharma, Special Adviser for Climate Change Nordic Environment Finance Corporation “This book is a magnificent contribution to understanding climate disruption, suitable for both novices and experts. Grounded in a strong foundation of references, this should be at the top of everyone’s reading list. I hope that readers will follow with action. Behavioral change, needed on many levels, is not easy, but clearly possible.” Dr. Russell deLucia, Recipient of the Purpose Prize President and Executive Director The Small-Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund i
“Sometimes it’s better to laugh than cry!” Dr. James Hansen, Columbia University Earth Institute Former Director at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies “Delightfully different. A book to read again and again.” Dr. Svati Bhogle, Ashoka Fellow Founder and Managing Director, Sustaintech “Packed with inescapable facts, this is a cartoon book with a difference. Vivid images draw you in, smart text makes you think, the need for individual actions is clear. People are now pushing leaders to preserve the planet for future generations – this book should turn us all into activists in our daily lives.” Bill Farmer Chairman, Uganda Carbon Bureau Founder, Carbon Foundation of East Africa “The best book I’ve ever read on the science of climate change. I’ve been working in this sector for more than a decade, yet I still learned much from this little book.” Boonrod Yaowapruek, Clean Energy Finance Team Leader Private Financing Advisory Network for Asia ii
“Simple and easy to understand, this is a very helpful book for the general public to understand climate change and the appropriate solutions we have to deal with it.” Dr. Yang Saing Koma, Recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award President, Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture “Illuminating. A great pleasure to read this smart, well-written book, filled with clever cartoons.” Bastiaan Teune, Sector Leader Renewable Energy SNV Lao PDR “No one has ever put together funny yet cheeky cartoons with established scientific research quite like this before! Perfect for parents and kids to learn and laugh together.” Eleonora Gatti, Founder and Director Great Women Speak Out “Great for anyone who has always wanted to understand climate change in a speedy manner, suitable even for young audiences. Suzanne provides bite-sized, logical information on what is regarded as a complex issue, and showcases solutions to address them. A recommended read!” Olivia Choong, President and Co-founder Green Drinks Singapore iii
“Suzanne has written a very informative and compact book. In clear, short explanations with attractive pictures, she’s able to easily explain a very complex and dry topic: climate change. I hope this book will build greater awareness for us to reach further below the 2 degrees Celsius target.” Lieselotte Heederik, Co-founder and Director Nazava Water Filters “This is an excellent book for anyone to get started on climate change issues. It’s remarkably well-researched and gives a valuable overview of what is happening to the planet, as well as practical recommendations on how everyone can get involved. A worthwhile read!” Alvin Chua, London “A fun and unique approach to a difficult topic, Little Climate makes the science behind climate change easily accessible, and clearly explains concrete solutions to big problems!” Jo Hazelwood, Geneva “A condensed, humorous look at the biggest problem of our time. With bright, colourful, tongue-in-cheek illustrations that break the monotony of such a complex subject, this book is never boring or difficult to absorb.” Eng Poh Yin, Singapore iv
Copyright © Suzanne Chew, 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This book has been typeset in Andika New Basic and Action Man. For further information, please contact the Publisher at www.littleclimate.com ISBN: 978-981-09-8330-7
Attention: Schools, institutions and businesses This book is available at a discount with bulk purchase for educational, training and public awareness purposes. For more information, please contact the Publisher.
For Mum and Dad.
Start your journey, press me!
Why read this book?
What’s happened so far?
Why is it warming?
Know your enemy
Running the race!
Making progress!
Fast forward to tomorrow!
Where’s it coming from?
House of solutions
What now?
References
Index, and everything else vii
map
Why read this book?
1
Why read this book? This book is about climate disruption, and the choices we have! Too fed up to read yet another news article about how we’re all going to die? No time for long boring reports? Want to have everything easily at your fingertips? Want to know enough to make your own decisions? If you’ve answered “Yes” to any of the above, this book was made for you!
“GIVE A CRAP ABOUT climate disruption!”
2
Get a grip on the science! Cut to the chase about what scientists worldwide are saying, without the jargon and acronyms! Find out just how bad laughing gas really is, and learn to calculate for yourself how much time we really have left to act!
Oceanographers!
Glaciologists!
Chemists! 3
Protect what you love. Climate disruption is messy. Its impacts cut across most of what we cherish how our kids will grow up to learn from our example, and what kind of future they’ll have. The safety of our homes that we’ve worked so hard to build. Our peaceful and magnificent countryside. Even the very values that define who we are. How might we learn to better protect what we love? This book gives you the critical knowledge to make the decisions that are right for you. Whether you choose to follow your own moral compass, or defend what you own, the direction we need to head in is often the same!
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But wait, there’s more! You’ll gain a simple but powerful understanding of one of the toughest challenges of our time. More importantly, you’ll learn to laugh in the face of adversity! Hahaha, hahah!
“boo?” 5
map
What’s happened so far?
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What’s happened so far? Rising temperatures, breaking new records! Melting poles, where it’s warming up much faster than everywhere else! Bleaker oceans, that are losing oxygen, turning acidic, and powering rising tides! Strange weather, headlined by fierce snowstorms, long droughts, and more frequent extreme events. These are early symptoms that many of us have seen with our own eyes. We’ve felt the chill in our bones, and the sweat slicking off our back. Our smartest minds have analyzed these symptoms with scientific instruments, and pored over them in great detail. Now, see for yourself.
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s e g It’s getting hot, hot, hot! n ur i s You might already know that between 1880 and 2012, ri rat the average temperature of our planet rose by 0.85 degrees Celsius. e p That’s 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Early indications show that we’ve now m e warmed by a full 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. t 54
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It’s the reason why we now have more warm nights and days than before.46 As of 2015, fifteen of the hottest years on record all happened in the previous fifteen years, except for one. Can you guess the top three hottest years?116
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s e g in tur s ri ra e p m e t
Record-breaking years!
2005 2010
2014
“TIME TO bring back the MANKINI...?”
As of late 2015, the hottest year on record goes to 2014! Second place goes to 2010, and third place to 2005.116
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s e g Record-breaking days! n ur i s temperatures have been hitting record highs more often than ri rat record Daily lows. In 2015, record highs happened twice as often as record lows in the e p U.S. and Australia. As we warm, it’s likely that we’ll continue to break m e more and more records for hot days. t 103, 76
too hot to fish? YIPPEE!
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ng i t s l me ole p
What does a gigatonne of ice look like? Imagine an ice cube about 1.1 km tall, deep and wide. (That’s about 0.7 miles.) If this was floating under the Golden Gate Bridge, it would just about squeeze between the two towers!43 That’s a billion metric tons, or a gigatonne, of ice. A gigantic ice cube!
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ng i t s l me ole p
Can you guess how many ice cubes have melted from our ice sheets? In just twenty years, Antarctica and Greenland have lost the net sum of over four thousand of these ice cubes.*
Melting has speeded up too. Antarctica now loses a net sum of around 150 gigatonnes of ice each year, while Greenland loses over 200 gigatonnes.111
* 4,260 gigatonnes of ice melted in the period 1992-2011
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ng i lt es e m ol p
Our North Pole is warming up much faster! In just fifty years, much of the Arctic has already warmed by over 2 degrees Celsius (that’s 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).*80
“I’ll just lie down here till it cools down...”
* Between 1960-2011
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er Our seas are turning acidic faster k s a than we’ve ever seen before. e an l b ce As oceans absorb the excess carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, o they become more acidic. Our oceans are now 26% more acidic, and rising. 54
We haven’t seen anything quite like this in the past 65 million years!49
Why does it matter? The more acidic our seas, the less carbon dioxide they can absorb. This means more remains in our atmosphere to warm us up.38 Marine life, especially corals and shellfish like oysters and mussels, face tough challenges as their world turns acidic.
“OOH, THIS ACID FACE PEEL REALLY DOES WORK!”
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r e Suffocating seas! k s a e an Did you know that warmer water can’t hold as much dissolved oxygen? l b ce There’s also less oxygen the deeper you go, because warm water doesn’t mix o well. Oxygen from the air that dissolves at the ocean’s surface stays there, instead of mixing downwards. Our seas are deoxygenating as it warms.
In our coastal seas, oxygen levels have dropped ten times faster than in the open ocean. Scientists have recorded substantial drops off the west coast of North America.* Dead zones, which are regions of water with very low oxygen, are also expanding in the tropical Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.91
“...can’t hold our breath!” * Observed during 1976-2000.
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er k a ns e bl cea o
Rising tides. Our seas have risen by 19 cm in the last hundred years.*54 This doesn’t sound like much, but it’s picking up speed. What are countries doing about it?
Singapore, a small island nation, has increased the height of their reclaimed land, to protect against the rising seas. Land is now reclaimed to a height of over two metres above the highest recorded tide level.40 Vietnam, with its long seafront and many coastal cities, is restoring mangroves to help reduce flooding in some areas.17 Other countries are exploring stronger jetties and higher sea walls. How will rising waters affect where you live?
* From 1901 to 2010.
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er k a ns e bl cea o
4
Why are our seas are rising?
19 cm or 7.5 inches
50%: melting ice! 54 40%: Expanding hot water! 54
10%: flushed groundwater! 27
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er k a ns e bl cea o
Coral reefs face a triple whammy! Poor reefs. Bashed by rising waves, eaten away by acidifying waters, and bleached by the rising heat. No wonder they’re not feeling well!
Corals are very sensitive to temperatures. Like a canary in a coal mine, bleached corals are a shrill warning to us that things are getting worse.38, 41
Coral bleaching has been happening in northeastern Australia since the ‘70s. It’s recently started in western Australia too, affecting World Heritage sites like Ningaloo reef.88 All over the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Caribbean, corals are also rapidly disappearing, due to heat stress and other factors.41
“I’M TURNING WHITE WITH WORRY!”
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e g Let it snow...? n r a r the Did you know that warm air holds more water vapour than cool air? t For every 1 degree Celsius it warms up, air holds 7% more water. In the s ea last forty years, water vapour has risen by 3.5%. It’s why we’ve had more w rain and snow, which has been spread unevenly worldwide.101
Some parts, like Europe, North and Central America, have had more rain and snow since the ‘70s. We’ve seen more storms in the North Atlantic. Other parts, like southern Australia, western Asia, western Himalayas and Japan, have had less snow and rain. It’s likely that droughts have intensified in the Mediterranean and West Africa since 1950.46
“THESE SNOWSTORMS ARE GETTING WEIRDER!”
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What’s coming next? These symptoms are expected to get worse, but with plenty of hard work and tough medicine, there’s hope that we can get better. Before we can learn to solve it, we need to understand the next basic piece of the puzzle - why is it warming?
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map
Why is it warming?
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How could it be us? Some of us feel that it must be the fault of our Sun, warming us to a crisp. Surely only the Sun could have the power to make the kind of fast changes we’re seeing! Some feel that it’s got to be our volcanoes, like the super eruptions that happened in our fiery, prehistoric past. Our planet was young then, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Others feel that it’s because of our planet’s tilt and orbit through the galaxy. After all, isn’t this what triggered the Ice Ages? Exhaustive, peer-reviewed scientific research shows that it’s none other than the power of man that’s causing it. Let’s check for ourselves!
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Is it warming because of volcanoes? In the prehistoric past, super volcanoes caused some of our fastest warming periods. Massive eruptions spewed out vast volumes of carbon dioxide, over thousands of years. Our fossil record shows how some of these super eruptions led to mass extinction, millions of years ago. What about now? Today, we produce at least 80 times, to as much as 270 times, more carbon dioxide than volcanoes every year.107
“GETTING so DIZZY...”
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Is it warming because of the Sun? Let’s check how much energy our Sun has been giving out. Our satellites in space have measured this directly from 1978 to 2009. They’ve recorded no net increase in energy.79 Yet, over the same time span, we’ve seen temperatures continue to rise here on Earth. What does research tell us? Over the past century, the Sun has been responsible for around 10% of the warming we’ve observed. In the past twenty-five years, the Sun has played practically no role at all in our rising temperatures.66
“LA LA LAAA, IT WASN’T ME!” 24
Is it warming because of Earth’s orbit or tilt? Ice Ages were caused by changes in our orbit and tilt. These changes take tens of thousands of years. This effect is too tiny to explain the rapid warming we’ve seen.*78
“...and i thought i was going pretty fast already!”
* Our orbit moves from a rough circle to an oval, approximately every 95,000 years. Our planetary tilt shifts by a few degrees about every 41,000 years. Our poles wobble in a roughly 26,000 year cycle. These are known as the Milankovitch Cycles.67
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Why is it warming? In our planet’s history, natural causes of large climate change have been because of the Sun, the Earth’s orbit, super volcanoes and meteor strikes.78 Today, none of these natural causes can explain our rising temperatures. But, once you include the greenhouse gases we’ve released unintentionally, the numbers all start to add up.54
“WHEN YOU HAVE ELIMINATED THE IMPOSSIBLE, WHATEVER REMAINS, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, MUST BE THE TRUTH!”
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People power! The power we’ve demonstrated in changing our planet in just three or four generations, is nothing short of incredible. Since the dawn of human civilization, around half of our trees have disappeared.30 Today, agriculture blankets around two-fifths of all land on the planet.115 We might not have wielded our power so wisely, but we haven’t lost any of it! We can just as successfullly turn the game around. Today, our knowledge is far deeper, and our technologies much more sophisticated. If we choose to, we have the power to switch it up faster than ever before! As with solar power, we’re already seeing for ourselves just how fast we can go. But first, as any good general knows, we need to understand just what we’re fighting...
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Know your enemy
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How well do you know your enemy? Can you explain the greenhouse effect? Can you name the four top greenhouse gases? How long do they live? How powerful are they at warming? How much are we releasing each year? Where have all the extra greenhouses gases we’ve added in gone?
“Know your enemy, and know yourself, and a hundred battles you will win! Know yourself, but not your enemy, and you might win or lose... Know not yourself nor your enemy, and you will always be in danger.” - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
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Not just a glass ceiling, but a glass greenhouse. How do greenhouse gases work? They prevent heat from escaping the Earth, into the cold space beyond. They turn our atmosphere into one giant greenhouse, trapping us in. The more greenhouse gases we emit, the more powerful our invisible greenhouse. Unlike a street mime only pretending to be trapped, our glass walls are all too real!
“I can’t mime my way out of this one!”
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What greenhouse gases are we releasing? What’s public enemy #1? Carbon dioxide! This made up 76% of our total emissions in 2010. But, it’s not working alone... Greenhouse gases also include methane, which added 16% to our emissions, nitrous oxide, which added 6%, and fluorinated gases, which added 2%.55 Can you guess which one is which? (Hint: the more they pollute, the bigger they are!)
Credit: Jmol was used to create the 3-D visualizations of the Greenhouse Gang molecules. Jmol: an open-source Java viewer for chemical structures in 3D. http://www.jmol.org/
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The most common, and important, greenhouse gas! Released when we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, make cement, and burn forests.6 Chemical symbol: What is it made of? How long does it last? How much has it risen?
CO2 1 carbon + 2 oxygen atoms. over 20% remains for over 1,000 years.21 40% rise since pre-industrial times.78
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The second most common greenhouse gas! Released from gas leaks when we mine for coal, oil and gas, from belching livestock, rotting waste, and some common farming practices.105 Chemical symbol: What is it made of? How long does it last? How much has it risen?
Ch4 1 carbon + 4 Hydrogen atoms. more than 12 years. 150% rise since pre-industrial times.
How powerful is it?
28x the warming power of carbon dioxide.78
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Also known as laughing gas! Hahaha! Ha... Released by soil bacteria feeding off chemical fertilizers and manure left on pastures.2 Also released when we burn fossil fuels, process sewage, and when we make nylon and chemical fertilizers.6,39 Chemical symbol: What is it made of? How long does it last? How much has it risen? How powerful is it?
N20 2 nitrogen + 1 oxygen atoms. 121 years. 20% rise since pre-industrial times. 265x the warming power of carbon dioxide.78 34
F-gases are man-made; they don’t occur naturally. These include CFCs, HFCs, and HCFCs. We use them to cool us down - in our aircons, fridges, and chillers. We also use them to make our electronics.6 Chemical symbol: What is it made of? How long does it last? How powerful is it?
CHF3 (Also known as HFC-23). one of many F-gases. 1 carbon + 1 hydrogen + 3 fluorine atoms. 222 years. some F-gases like CF4 last 50,000 years. 12,400X the warming power of carbon dioxide. SOME F-GASES like SF6 ARE over 20,000X as powerful.78 35
What does a tonne of carbon dioxide look like? Imagine a bubble that’s 10 metres high, tall enough to fit an adult Tyrannosaurus Rex! (That’s a bubble over 30 feet tall.) This is what a metric ton of carbon dioxide looks like. It’s easy to compare how much warming different greenhouse gases cause, by measuring this in terms of “tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent”, or “tCO2e”. Did you know that over a hundred years, just 1 tonne of methane causes the same warming as 28 tonnes of carbon dioxide? It’s even more powerful over the short-term of twenty years, where methane has over 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. What about the others? Nitrous oxide is 265 times worse than carbon dioxide. Most of the f-gases we use are several thousand times worse, some up to 23,500 times more.78
“POKE!”
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What does a gigatonne of carbon dioxide look like? Now, imagine a billion bubbles filled with T-rexes. Rawr! This would make a monster bubble, 10 km tall, deep and wide. That’s about the same height as 30,000 feet - the cruising altitude of our aeroplanes. This is what a billion metric tons, or a gigatonne (GtCO2), of carbon dioxide looks like.
“squawk!”
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How much greenhouse gas do we emit in a year? In 2010, we released greenhouse gases equivalent to 49 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s the same weight as around one million Titanics!* 55, 36
“and Our gas will go on, and on...”
* The Titanic weighed approximately 53,000 tonnes.
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Our emissions are growing fast. In fact, they’ve doubled in just a few short decades.55
49 gigatonnes
2010
38 gigatonnes
1990
27 gigatonnes
1970 0
10
20
30
40
How much greenhouse gas we’ve emitted each year (gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent)
50
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We’re the first humans to see greenhouse gases this high. Did you know that we’ve drilled deep into ice that’s over 800,000 years old? Trapped air bubbles show that our prehistoric air contained much less carbon dioxide than today.69,70 Modern man, or “homo sapiens”, only evolved around 200,000 years ago.99 This means that we’re the first of our species to witness carbon dioxide levels this high. With every breath we take, we’re making history!
“sigh, you still using dino power like me?!”
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Where have all the greenhouse gases gone? So far, we’ve emitted over two thousand gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, most of it unintentionally.*54 Where’s it all gone? Into our sea, sky, and soils. Around 43% of this has remained in our atmosphere, causing warming. About half of the remainder has been absorbed by oceans, causing acidification; the other half has been stored in our lands, like in our forests, peatlands and soils.54
* From 1750 to 2011
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map
Where’s it coming from?
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What’s producing our greenhouse gases? In 2010, here’s roughly how we spent our emissions:55 • 1/3 released by our industries. • 1/4 released by our farms and by clearing forests and peatlands. • 1/6 released by our homes and offices. • 1/7 released by our transport, mostly cars and trucks. • 1/9 released by converting fossil fuels into usable energy, through mining, refining, and transmitting it to where we need it.
that’s all the stuff I buy, eat and use! but, hey, you only live once, right? 43
Our industries! Our industries give us many of our everyday comforts, things we treasure and things we can’t live without. Today, industries have many ways to improve and become much more emissions-efficient. Which are our most emissions-intensive industries? Iron, steel, and cement manufacturers. What else emits substantially? These are industries that make: • chemicals • plastics • fertilizers • pulp & paper • aluminium • textiles • processed food Greenhouse gases also come from badly managed landfills that let methane escape, and untreated wastewater.39 44
Our farms! Where would we be without our farmers? Hungry! Our farmers work hard to feed us, but conventional farming tends to be high-carbon. Where do most emissions come from?96 Lost lands
Flooded fields
We clear forests and peatlands, for more space to grow crops and cattle.
How do we grow rice? The traditional way of flooding paddy fields releases methane.
Belly belches
Busy bacteria
Cattle have four stomachs, like sheep and goats. This means big belches, filled with methane which is around 28x worse than carbon dioxide.
They love cowpats and chemical fertilizers, and get busy in our soils making nitrous oxide. This is around 265x worse than carbon dioxide.
“four stomachs? more space for dessert, right?” 45
Our homes and offices! Can you guess whether homes or offices added more emissions in 2010? The answer is: Homes! These were responsible for twothirds of all emissions from the buildings sector.At home, two-thirds of our emissions came from how we used energy - mostly for keeping our homes warm, heating up water, and cooking. The rest came from building them.67 Setting the right temperature on your thermostat or aircon, and keeping showers short and sweet, can make a sizeable difference! Look around your home. Can you see quick ways to get smart about the energy we use every day?
“ooh, very chic!”
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Our cars and trucks! This is a tough one. Data shows that emissions from our transport sector have doubled since 1970. This is faster than most other sectors. What’s fuelling this rise? Over 80% of it is due to the boom in our cars and trucks. In 2010, road vehicles contributed over 70% of total emissions from all transport. Aviation and shipping added about one-tenth each. Did you know that more than half the oil we used in 2010 was used to power around 90% of our transport? That’s oil going straight into our fuel tanks. What if more of us used clean electric cars, or more public transport?95
“HONK HONK!”
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Our energy supply! Today, most of our energy comes from coal, oil and gas. Before we can use it, we have to produce it. This means mining, and refining. Then, we need to make it usable. This means turning it into heat for our factories, gas we can transport along our pipelines, or electricity we can send through our power grids.18,64 These activities, including leaks and losses, all release greenhouse gases.
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What does all this add up to? Without knowing it, we’ve played a big role in changing our atmosphere. Compared to 1750, our air today is 40% higher in carbon dioxide, 20% higher in nitrous oxide, and 150% higher in methane.46 What does our future look like with this new atmosphere?
“I DIDN’T DO IT!” “PEEYOO!”
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Continue reading! I hope you’ve enjoyed this sneak preview of the first few chapters of the book! Continue reading to learn not just about the impacts where you live, but also the many opportunities to solve them! Find out about decarbonizing to clean energy, electrifying all that we can, preserving forests and peatlands, the role of geoengineering, like bioenergy with carbon capture storage and other techno-fixes, the potential of smart design, smart processes and smart habits, and more! Continue your journey! Press the bear below to visit our website to buy the book directly from the author, from the Apple iBookstore, or using Dogecoin. 10% of the net income from this book is donated to 350.org, the only international nonprofit building a grassroots, global climate movement in 188 countries.
