Saturday, January 1st 2022

2022 Climate Notes

Fixing our planet’s atmosphere is a key challenge for this century. Here are my beliefs about focus areas for climate action in 2022.

Maximizing Habitability

Keeping the majority of our planet hospitable for human activity next century and beyond must become a priority for every person, business, and government.

Planetary Weather Disruption

Our society’s emissions and rising atmosphereric water vapor have created a heat storage feedback loop that disrupts water cycles and causes dangerous changes in our weather. We must prepare for the cost of increasingly polarized weather.

Upcoming Refugee Crises

Disruptions in local water cycles and rising temperatures across the most delicate economies in the world will cause tens of millions of people to be forced from their homes as their land becomes unlivable.

Emission Reduction

CO2, CH4, and Fluorocarbon emissions from human activity are the chemicals at the heart of the changing climate. We must prevent these emissions in order to avoid additional permanent damage to our planet.

Nuclear Energy

We must add additional bedrock fission generation capacity to help anchor our grid with carbon-free electricity.

Desalination

Scaling fission-powered desalination will be needed to support populations trapped in yearslong droughts. Mobile, barge-based marine reactors can provide emissionless power for coastal or floating desalination operations.

Fusion

Developing the technology to sustain a net positive fusion reaction will change the world. Generating our electricity from nuclear fusion reactions is a massive step forward for humanity and will allow us to end our dependence on carbon-based fuels.

Soot Reduction

Airborne soot microparticles from fuel burning and wildfires are building up in human lungs and reducing brain function and lifespan. It is critical for human productivity to breathe air free of soot and organic compounds.

Controlling Plastics

Plastic waste buildup on our land and in our water is leading to plastic microparticles coating the entire world. From the depths of the ocean to the highest glaciers, plastic microparticles are everywhere. Through the food we eat and the water we drink, plastic is building up in humans and disrupting countless processes within the body.

We must regulate plastic usage and disposal around the globe. We must also work to remove plastic buildup across the planet and, in particular, the ocean, in order to slow the global spread of plastic microparticles.

Private Climate Investment

Increasing private investment in climate projects and technologies to help humanity manage the outcomes of our emissions is key to ensuring action in the time available.

Carbon-Free Money

New financial technologies are rapidly becoming major catalysts for carbon production. Investment is our most important weapon against climate change, and so money itself should not be a contributor to it.