Climate Change

Watch

• What Earth in 2050 could look like - Shannon Odell ↗TED-Ed
• The Tipping Points of Climate Change — and Where We Stand | Johan Rockström | TED ↗TED
• What does three degrees of global warming look like? | The Economist ↗The Economist
• The carbon cycle is key to understanding climate change ↗The Economist
• What is climate change? - The Climate Question, BBC World Service ↗BBC World Service
• Climate Change: Your carbon footprint explained - BBC News ↗BBC News

Read

• Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction ↗A concise, authoritative primer, this volume distils the complex science and policy debates into an accessible overview for the uninitiated.Mark Maslin
• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History ↗A Pulitzer-winning narrative that masterfully intertwines scientific history with contemporary ecological crises, revealing humanity's profound impact on Earth's biodiversity.Elizabeth Kolbert
• Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming ↗An essential exposé detailing the systematic campaigns by a small group of scientists to sow confusion and obstruct action on critical public health and environmental issues.Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
• Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate ChangeA meticulously researched account of the crucial decade from 1979 to 1989, when the scientific consensus on climate change solidified, yet political will faltered.Nathaniel Rich
• The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming ↗A chilling, yet rigorously reported, exploration of the catastrophic consequences of unchecked global warming, challenging complacency with stark projections.David Wallace-Wells

Voices to follow

• Katharine Hayhoe ↗A leading atmospheric scientist, she is renowned for her ability to communicate complex climate science with clarity and empathy, particularly to diverse public audiences.Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair, Texas Tech University
• Michael E. Mann ↗A prominent climatologist, he is celebrated for his foundational work on historical temperature reconstructions and his vocal advocacy for climate action.Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science, Penn State University
• Elizabeth Kolbert ↗Her incisive reporting and eloquent prose illuminate the profound environmental challenges facing humanity, earning her a Pulitzer for 'The Sixth Extinction'.Staff writer, The New Yorker
• Naomi Oreskes ↗Her rigorous historical analysis exposes the tactics of climate change denial and underscores the robust scientific consensus on the issue.Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University

Glossary

• Carbon FootprintThe total amount of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, released into the atmosphere by your actions or an organization's activities. It's like the trail of gases you leave behind. For example, taking a long flight or eating a lot of meat can increase your personal carbon footprint.
• Climate ChangeLong-term shifts in Earth's weather patterns and average temperatures, mainly caused by human activities like burning fuels. For example, if your city used to have mild winters but now experiences much colder ones or very little snow, that's a sign of changing climate patterns.
• DeforestationThe clearing of forests for other uses, like farming or building, which removes trees that absorb carbon dioxide. This releases stored carbon and reduces Earth's ability to clean the air. For example, when a large area of rainforest is cut down to make space for cattle ranching, that's deforestation.
• Extreme Weather EventsWeather occurrences that are much more severe or unusual than what's typical for a region, such as stronger hurricanes, longer droughts, or heavier rainfalls. Scientists believe climate change is making these events more common. For example, a region that rarely saw floods suddenly experiencing massive, destructive floods is an extreme weather event.
• Fossil FuelsNatural fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas formed over millions of years from the remains of ancient plants and animals. Burning them releases greenhouse gases. For example, the petrol you put in a car or the coal used in some power plants are fossil fuels.
• Global WarmingThe ongoing increase in Earth's average temperature, mostly due to too many greenhouse gases trapping heat in the atmosphere. For example, when scientists say the last decade was the hottest on record, they are talking about global warming.
• Greenhouse EffectA natural process where certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat from the sun, keeping our planet warm enough to live on. Think of it like a blanket around the Earth that holds in warmth. For example, without the greenhouse effect, Earth would be too cold for plants and animals to survive.
• Greenhouse GasesGases in the atmosphere, like carbon dioxide and methane, that trap heat and contribute to the greenhouse effect. They act like the glass roof of a greenhouse, letting sunlight in but not letting all the heat escape. For example, when you burn petrol in a car, it releases carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas.
• Renewable EnergyEnergy that comes from natural sources that replenish themselves constantly, like sunlight, wind, or water. Unlike fossil fuels, these sources don't run out. For example, solar panels on a roof or wind turbines generating electricity use renewable energy.
• Sea Level RiseThe increase in the average height of the ocean's surface, mainly caused by melting glaciers and ice sheets, and the expansion of warming seawater. For example, coastal towns might experience more frequent flooding during high tides due to sea level rise.
• SustainabilityMeeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It's about living in a way that doesn't use up all our resources or harm the environment for those who come after us. For example, choosing to use a reusable water bottle instead of buying plastic ones helps promote sustainability.

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Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Ethics and Moral Philosophy Philosophy

  How much we pollute today changes who is even born in the future, since different lives lead to different babies. So we can't say we 'harmed' a specific future person, because a cleaner path would have created totally different people. Our normal way of judging right and wrong quietly stops working.

• Fiscal Policy & Public Debt Economics

  Running up huge government debt and pumping out carbon do the same sneaky thing: we get the party now, and people not even born yet get the cleanup bill. How much you care about those future strangers is a single hidden number economists call the discount rate, and it quietly settles both debates at once.

• The Industrial Revolution History

  Drill deep into Antarctic ice and each layer traps ancient air, a frozen diary of the atmosphere. For ten thousand years the carbon dioxide line is flat, then suddenly it shoots up. That kink marks the exact moment humans fired up coal factories: the Industrial Revolution, written in ice.

• Architecture & Urban Design Arts & Design

  Buildings, heating them, cooling them, making their concrete and steel, pump out roughly 40% of global emissions. That means the biggest climate lever isn't only power plants and cars; it's floor plans and blueprints. Fighting climate change is partly an architecture problem.

• Calculus & Rates of Change Mathematics

  Think of the CO2 in the sky as water filling a bathtub, where our emissions are the tap. Even if we stop opening the tap wider, the water keeps rising as long as any is still flowing in. Most people expect the level to fall the moment emissions stop growing, but it doesn't, and that mix-up is at the heart of climate confusion.

• Applied Ethics and Bioethics Philosophy

  The nastiest fight in climate economics is over one boring-looking number called the 'discount rate.' It decides how much we should care today about people suffering a hundred years from now. Hidden inside that dial is a giant moral question, dressed up as math: is a future kid's pain worth as much as ours?

• Motivation & Behaviour Change Psychology

  Your brain treats a reward far in the future as almost worthless, which is why studying tonight for an exam next month feels impossible. Now scale that up: a climate disaster decades away feels weightless to whole societies, so we put it off. Countries procrastinate on climate for the exact same brain-glitch reason you procrastinate on saving money.

• Mathematical Finance & Markets Mathematics

  In finance, when a choice can't be undone and the future is murky, waiting has real value; you keep your options open. But climate tipping points can smash the option itself, like a door that vanishes if you hesitate. That flips 'wait and see' from the cautious move into the reckless one.

• Nuclear Weapons Risk Global Risks

  The computer models that first warned a nuclear war could plunge Earth into a freezing 'nuclear winter' used the same physics that powers today's climate science, how tiny particles in the air trap or block heat. And both dangers ask us the same hard thing: act on a catastrophe you can't fully prove until it's too late.

• Scarcity & Trade-offs Economics

  The whole climate fight can shrink down to one number: how much a life 50 years from now is worth today. Pick a high value and acting now looks like cheap insurance; pick a low one and it looks like a waste. Two famous economists read the exact same science and landed on opposite plans, just by choosing that number differently.

• Corporate Governance Business

  The planet's temperature is now being decided in company boardrooms. Directors have legal duties to protect the business, and they know oil-heavy assets could become worthless as the world shifts. So a giant science-and-climate question turns into a question about how companies are run.

• Cognitive Biases Psychology

  Climate change is almost perfectly built to slip past the human brain. The danger feels far away in time, far in space, and only maybe, so our minds treat it as not real yet. We're wired to shrug at exactly this kind of slow, distant threat.

• Narrative & Storytelling Literature

  A good story needs a villain, a ticking clock, a hero, and a big final showdown. Climate change has none of that: no single bad guy, no clear deadline, no dramatic ending. The science is settled, but our brains are built to pay attention to stories, and this threat just doesn't fit the shape of one.

• Map Scale and Gerrymandering Geography

  Count the pollution where a phone is made, and China looks like the big polluter. But count it where the phone is bought and used, and the wealthy importing countries look guilty instead. Same exact tons of carbon, opposite villain, depending only on where you decide to draw the line.

• International & Human Rights Law Law

  When governments refuse to act on climate, courts are grabbing the controls. In the Urgenda case, judges ruled that weak climate action violates people's rights — and ordered a whole country to cut emissions its own politicians wouldn't.

• Game Theory & Strategy Mathematics

  Cutting emissions helps everyone, so every country is tempted to slack off and let others do the work. One economist's fix isn't a moral lecture but a "climate club": nations that cooperate slap tariffs on those that don't. Suddenly cheating costs more than helping.

• Climate Security Global Challenges

  Climate science describes changing physical pressures. Climate-security analysis examines how those pressures interact with livelihoods, institutions and conflict conditions without assuming a direct route to violence.

  Sources: Chapter 7: Health, Wellbeing and the Changing Structure of Communities ↗ · Climate as a risk factor for armed conflict ↗