The Climate Crisis: Why One Scientist Speaks Out

For decades, the scientific community has sounded the alarm about climate change. Yet, despite overwhelming evidence and increasingly dire warnings, meaningful action remains elusive. This is the story of one scientist's journey from studying planetary atmospheres to becoming a vocal advocate for climate action.

From Venus to Earth: A Wake-Up Call

Our journey begins with the exploration of Venus. Early observations revealed an intensely hot planet shrouded in a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. This discovery highlighted the profound impact of atmospheric composition on a planet's temperature, sparking interest in the greenhouse effect here on Earth.

The greenhouse effect, understood for over a century, describes how gases like CO2 trap heat and warm the Earth's surface.
In 1981, research indicated that observed warming was consistent with the increasing greenhouse effect due to rising CO2 levels.
Predictions included shifting climate zones, drought-prone regions, melting ice sheets, rising sea levels, and the opening of the Northwest Passage – many of which have already come to pass.

The Urgency of Now: Evidence Mounts

As evidence of global warming grew stronger, the need for action became increasingly clear. However, energy policies continued to prioritize fossil fuels, raising concerns about the future. The critical conclusion from climate physics and Earth's climate history is undeniable: increasing CO2 acts like an extra blanket, trapping heat and causing a dangerous energy imbalance.

Earth's Energy Imbalance

The key quantity is Earth's energy imbalance: is more energy coming in than going out?
Currently, Earth is gaining an enormous amount of extra energy each day, equivalent to exploding 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs.
Stabilizing the climate requires reducing CO2 levels from 391 ppm back to 350 ppm to restore energy balance.

Climate Change Deniers

Climate change deniers often point to the sun as the main cause, but measurements show the energy imbalance occurred during the deepest solar minimum on record. This proves that increasing greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, overwhelm the sun's variations.

Lessons from Earth's Climate History

Analysis of ocean and ice cores reveals a strong correlation between temperature, CO2, and sea level over hundreds of thousands of years. While temperature changes slightly precede CO2 changes, this is expected due to amplifying feedbacks.

Amplifying Feedbacks

As Earth warms due to extra CO2, ice melts, and CO2 and methane are released from warming oceans and melting permafrost.
These feedbacks amplify global temperature change.
Measurements already show Greenland and Antarctica losing mass, and methane escaping from permafrost.

The Future of Sea Levels

The last time CO2 levels were at today's value of 390 ppm, sea levels were at least 15 meters higher. Continued burning of fossil fuels could lead to several meters of sea level rise this century, initiating a process of ice sheet disintegration that would continue for centuries.

The Devastating Consequences of Inaction

Continued climate denial could lead to the extermination of species, with estimates suggesting that 20 to 50% of all species could be ticketed for extinction by the end of the century if we continue with business as usual fossil fuel use.

Global warming is already affecting people, with extreme events like heatwaves and droughts becoming more frequent and severe. The Midwest and Great Plains are expected to become prone to extreme droughts, worse than the Dust Bowl, within just a few decades if global warming continues.

A Simple Solution: A Carbon Fee and Dividend

The tragedy of climate change is that we can solve it with a simple, honest approach: a gradually rising carbon fee collected from fossil fuel companies and distributed 100% electronically every month to all legal residents on a per capita basis.

This fee and dividend would stimulate the economy and innovation, creating millions of jobs.
It is the principal requirement for moving us rapidly to a clean energy future.
Instead, governments are forcing the public to subsidize fossil fuels by $4-5 trillion per year worldwide, encouraging the extraction of every fossil fuel.

Continuing on this path guarantees that we will pass tipping points, leading to ice sheet disintegration, a large fraction of species committed to extinction, and increasing intensity of droughts and floods that will severely impact bread baskets of the world, causing massive famine and economic decline.

The Time for Action is Now

The situation is akin to a giant asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth. The longer we wait to take action, the more difficult and expensive it becomes. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to communicate the gravity and the urgency of this situation and its solutions more effectively.