We're all a part of the story of Earth's changing climate.

Since greenhouse gases are increasing the average temperature of the Earth, scientists have been researching our climate for decades and have come to one unavoidable conclusion: if this trend continues, our world will become much more difficult to live on. Extreme environmental events that are difficult to prepare for, experience, and recover from have been brought on by climate change and will continue to be brought on by it. There are things that each of us can do to help protect our planet, ourselves, and each other. We can't change the past, but together we can change the future and meaningfully slow down and stop climate change. This will have effects that will continue to build upon the current inequalities in our world.

The historic Paris Agreement was created in 2015 by nations from all around the world. In it, they vowed to take strong measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming in many countries. This deed led to a commitment to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050. The goal of these commitments is to limit how much the average global temperature rises, specifically to limit warming by the end of the century to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial Revolution levels, and ideally to stop at 1.5 degrees. This means that they have agreed to reduce emissions as much as possible and make up for anything they can't eliminate by removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Even though half a degree may not seem like much, research has proven that it may have a huge impact, especially in regions of southern Europe, Central America, and Australia that already have sporadic water shortages.

Intense and protracted droughts will result from two degrees of warming, but at 1.5 degrees, the situation is far less dire, with certain areas having half as many water shortages as in the scenario, to name just one.With just 1.5 degrees of warming, everything from the vegetables you eat to the coral reefs you want to visit someday would have a better chance of surviving, which ultimately translates to better food security and a higher standard of living for millions of people and all life on Earth. However, maintaining this level of warming will be extremely difficult. Even an industry that appears to be unconnected on the surface, like textile manufacturing, generates over a billion tons of greenhouse gases annually as a result of our intense investment in burning fossil fuels for energy. Therefore, if we want to stop the globe from overheating, we must change the way we do almost everything as quickly as possible.

Limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius is nothing short of a monumental challenge, but if we take immediate action to transform every major industry, we can achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 and thereby keep global warming in check. The International Energy Agency has solutions involving things like stopping the use of fossil fuels in new construction and other major infrastructure projects. worst-case stopping the sale of fossil fuel boilers to heat our water and homes by 2025 and stopping the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035. By 2040 the whole world would be running on electricity with net zero emissions and half of all buildings would have systems in place to operate without releasing greenhouse gases by 204 low-carbon We would be getting half of our heat from efficient low carbon heat pumps and finally by 2050 even manufacturing would be transformed with more than 90 percent of heavy industry like Machinery production and shipbuilding being considered low emission manufacturing processes are often especially hard to decarbonize so

in addition to technological breakthroughs on the materials we use we

would likely also rely on Technologies to capture the emissions released rather than letting them Escape in the atmosphere. Imagine it there'd be no

more coalfield power plants belching smoke over cities the phrase gas guzzler would also be a thing of the past because there'd be no more gasoline pumps instead you'd be rocking an electric hot rod Camry or hopping on public transit powered by carbon-free electricity and in your home that same electricity would power all your devices from your phone charger to your robots.

Thank goodness, this future is not only a science fiction fantasy. We already have many options for producing carbon-neutral electricity, including wind, solar, nuclear, hydroelectricity, and more, but in order to use them to power the entire world, we'll need significant improvements in electricity storage and transmission so we can get power when we need it. Many carbon-neutral technologies already exist in every sector; they just need to become more affordable to take off. However, in order to achieve this Net Zero future, we'll also need some serious technological advancements.

Technology won't be the only obstacle to overcome; there are still a number of government programs, subsidies, and laws in place that are intended to keep fossil fuels affordable and artificially inflate the cost of different carbon-free alternatives, leading to the concept of the "green premium."Governments may assist make carbon-free energy more accessible and make technologies that release greenhouse gases less desirable by carefully reducing and eventually eliminating fossil fuel subsidies.

The money governments are currently spending to make fossil fuels

Cheap energy could also be used to make carbon-neutral energy cheaper or to research new emissions-free technologies. When it comes to

getting to net zero in every emission sector and every area of the world will

need a different approach there's no one-size-fits-all strategy meanwhile the

stakes keep getting higher so if you're feeling like all of this is overwhelming

you're not alone, government subsidies, emerging Technologies many of the

solutions to climate change might seem like they're happening on a level way above your head and the things you can do like the Walker cycle make thoughtful purchasing decisions eat less meat vote all of these are awesome by the way but they can feel discouraging or maybe small. It's hard to beat just one person trying to make a difference especially when you consider the impacts of what you can do versus the impacts of major corporations

from 1965 to 2017 just 20 companies were responsible for a whopping 35 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions globally so where do people like you and me fit into that part of the story well companies governments and research centers developing new technologies all have one thing in common they're made by people supported by people and can be changed by people and in a lot of big ways .young people are leading this charge you've probably heard of Greta Sundberg a Swedish environmental activist

who has led School strikes and spoken at Global Climate conferences while she might be the most famous she's far from the only young person to stand up for the climate, 18 years old Rwandan student Joseline Irocose noticed piles of electronics thrown away in a local landfill so he invented an app that helps people figure out where they can recycle them locally at 12 years old Emirati Canadian student kakashabasu started a company to

get young people involved in local sustainability efforts and today she leads people in planting mangrove trees in Tidal habitats that have suffered deforestation. At 16 years old Delaney Reynolds founded a program in Florida to educate youth in her community about the dangers of sea level rise and that's just to name a few examples of young people.

Entrepreneurs,educators, and activists have inspired people of all ages all over the globe to take action against climate change getting involved

climate change doesn't only mean making speeches staging strikes or going to marches whether you're into storytelling or gardening engineering or educating there's something there for all of us.

Throughout Earth's long history it's been a drawn out process driven by things like volcanoes and splitting continents but now driven by burning fossil fuels and greenhouse gases. climate change is happening over decades over individual human lifetimes since climate is all

about long-term patterns and things like rainfall and temperature, climate change can be hard to point to, it's everywhere all around us all the time and once you learn how the climate is changing and what's fueling it you can start to connect the dots see how it intersects with everything in your life.

climate change is the storm made more powerful by a warmer ocean ,the wiped out the lettuce crops that made your favorite salad more expensive. It's the apartment complex being built down the street from cement and steel made by burning fossil fuels it's the late season snowfall that

knocked out your power the fumes from a diesel-powered tractor and the lack of accessible public transportation in your town on the flip side climate change is also the electric pickup truck your neighbor just bought and the solar panels sparkling on those new apartment roofs and the falling cost of batteries and activists pitching their governments on policies that make heat pumps more affordable. It's people and organizations coming together to try and slow the damage that's already been done to the climate and prevent things from getting worse.So engineers, storytellers ,artists,farmers, business owners, students, you name it we're all a part of the story of

Earth's changing climate and once you learn what to look for you can see how climate change weaves throughout your entire life.

when you hear stories about people fighting against climate change

it can sometimes sound like it's just one person standing up on their own

facing down a whole government but almost always change happens because a group of people often from different backgrounds and walks of life team up for something they care about and there's a lot of people to team up with.

Surveys have shown that the majority of people on Earth are concerned about climate change and are willing to do something about it, at the end of the day human creativity can put a plane in the sky an unthinkable magic trick at the time then human creativity like yours and mine can when joined together see us out of this mess I like to think of it like this we have 8 billion people on this planet that's eight billion people coming up with eight billion

possible solutions forward climate change is everywhere and so too are the

ways to solve and stop it this involves talking to community members, designing new technologies passing new laws protecting natural spaces and caring for people and Landscapes most affected by our shifting world and of course there's a lot of learning involved too.

Ultimately reducing emissions by 2050 will take a huge effort on the part of

scientists governments corporations and individuals especially individuals

banding together other as groups and communities .sometimes that effort just looks like talking to each other about climate change helping one another see how it impacts our lives who we are our futures this can be enough to tip the first Domino to start a Cascade of hope that changes this generation the next one and all the ones to come.