SCALES
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Quick Explanation
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Climate action is just one form of sustainability—a concept that asks us to see the big picture of what we are taking from the Earth, and how our actions affect future generations.
For long-range flights with many passengers, liquid fuels like hydrogen are probably our best bet.
Pumping carbon dioxide deep underground can cause earthquakes under certain conditions, but there are ways to prevent this.
It can make sense to wait for low-carbon technology to improve in efficiency and cost, but to slow climate change we must balance what makes economic sense with what reduces emissions the fastest
Atmospheric CO2 levels of between 280 and 350 parts per million created the climate that let humanity build and feed the modern world. The farther we get from those levels, the more we run the risk of disturbing that balance.
Electric heating can cause a short-term rise in emissions in areas that get their electricity from fossil fuels. But without electric heat, we can’t get greenhouse gas emissions to zero
Scientists and policymakers have long agreed that global warming beyond 2° C above the pre-industrial average would pose large and escalating risks to human life as we know it on Earth, and governments have used that number as an organizing principle.
This greenhouse gas is short-lived but has far greater heat-trapping potential than CO2. The more concerned we are about global warming over the next 10 or 20 years, the more emphasis we have to put on cutting methane emissions.
The phrase can refer to a literal threat to humanity’s existence, but also to the danger that unchecked climate change can pose to our ways of life and place in the natural world.
The earth’s largest land masses and its north and south poles are warming the fastest, mainly because of differences in how these areas reflect energy from the sun.
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
