Heat is On
51 billion tons of greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere every year, trapping heat and driving up global temperatures: a staggering number quoted in “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” by Bill Gates. That number needs to be zero by 2050 in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Some notable impacts and uncomfortable truths from my personal travels include polar bears hunting more on ground than through ice in Churchill Canada and more glaciers floating in lagoons in Iceland.
Iceland: Ty Wang, 2017
Churchill, Canada: Ty Wang, 2019
My local climate change impacts are manifesting more each day with California wildfires reaching record numbers. A bad sign of the times is having fire map web browser bookmarks and mobile apps like Flightradar to monitor fire and rescue plane in the vicinity.
Fire map and Flightradar app
In his book, Bill Gates mentions the five questions to ask in every climate conversation, especially in the context of investments:
How much of the 51B tons are we talking about? 500M is the investment benchmark at Breakthrough Energy.
What’s your plan for cement? Cement and steel is 10% of annual carbon emissions. Getting to zero greenhouse emissions from 51B tons per year.
How much power are we talking about?
How much space is it going to take?
How much is it going to cost? Green premium and energy equity are considerations.
The heat is on. The road to zero must be travelled.