The Stakes: Cascading Disasters
Scientists worldwide agree that warming from human-generated carbon emissions is altering life as we know it. Unless we take decisive action, we face:
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Food Shortages
Rising temperatures are turning arable land into desert and soil is being lost much faster than it’s forming. Erosion, flooding and extreme weather also threaten the food supply.
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Economic Devastation
With populations unable to cultivate food or raise livestock, many will lose their livelihoods—and agricultural collapse will reverberate throughout the global economy.
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Refugee Emergencies
As rising seas threaten coastal communities, desertification threatens agriculture and equatorial regions become too hot to live in, millions of people will be forced to migrate.
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Rising Sea Levels
As oceans rise as a result of hotter weather and melting icecaps, coastlines will face infrastructure failure and flooding—which will fuel migration and economic havoc.
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Loss of Wildlife
A hotter planet means destroyed habitats. From melting ice in the Arctic to wildfires and desertification, large numbers of species will face extinction.
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Worse Natural Disasters
Higher temperatures mean more water evaporated to fuel tropical storms, warmer ocean surfaces to increase wind speeds, and drier forests at risk for fire.
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Droughts and Flooding
Rising seas expose higher locations to waves and flooding, and certain areas will experience intensifying rain while others will see increasing drought.
Why we focus on carbon
Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas most responsible for global warming.
Confronting the Crisis
Since each of us contributes to emissions by eating certain foods, using certain kinds of power, and getting from one place to the next, we’re all responsible for the problem. To take our climate back, we must reduce carbon dioxide emissions and remove them from the atmosphere.
Carbon Offsets
A carbon offset means canceling out your own carbon emitting activities by achieving reductions elsewhere.
Offsets vs. RECs
Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) aim to expand renewables, but they’re not a verifiable way to cut emissions.
Cap-and-trade
In regions where cap-and-trade programs operate, regulators require polluters to buy a permit for every ton of carbon they emit. By acquiring the permits ourselves, we can prevent polluters from using them, thereby encouraging them to reduce their emissions.
