sustainability

Introduction

In this section we provide a general introduction to human-induced climate change and the planned global response.

We live in the Anthropocene Era, which started in 1950 and is defined as the geological epoch in which the influence of mankind has started to have a significant effect on the balance of global ecosystems.

The fundamental concept of sustainability involves restoring the imbalances attributable to humanity, in order to enable our species to live in harmony with nature in perpetuity.

It’s not a simple task, but it does appear to be surprisingly achievable.

Climate imbalance

Up to the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were more or less stable, at around 280 parts per million. By 1958 this had risen to 315 ppm and by 2020 it had accelerated upwards to 480 ppm.

This increase has been largely brought about by the burning of fossil fuels, which delivers excessive amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, significantly more than can be absorbed by the natural carbon sinks - the oceans, marshes, soils and forests.

Total carbon emissions demonstrate an approximately linear relationship with global temperatures. The more fossil fuels we burn, the greater the warming effect. To date humanity has emitted around 400 gigatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, which has led to a rise of 0.8C.

The broad consensus is that we should try to limit global warming to 1.5-2.0C, if we are to avoid dramatic climate change, meaning that we have to restrict total emissions over the next century to 80-135 gigatonnes. Our current rate of emissions is around 10 gigatonnes per year and rising.

Although we need to act relatively fast, we do have sufficient time to make the necessary, radical and exciting changes to our habits.

The plan

At present, countries representing 63% of total emissions have enshrined in their constitutions commitments to become carbon neutral by the year 2050.

Although this subject seems to be perpetually surrounded by doom-mongers, these objectives are really quite achievable. Here is the present projection from UNEP …

All kinds of extraordinary new technologies are currently under development, from carbon-friendly cement and steel, to extraordinarily efficient solar panels and electrical batteries, to incredibly low cost replacement meat and dairy products.

Green power generation through hydro, wind, tidal, solar and heat pumps are all now established technologies, which are rapidly becoming more cost-effective than traditional coal and gas options.

Innovation is occurring at an unprecedented rate, we really are experiencing a green industrial revolution. Over the next decade, progress is set to accelerate even further, as emission reduction targets and carbon taxation incentives are introduced.

This truly is a very exciting time to be alive.

A big challenge

Despite the enormous positive steps that are being made, the route to decarbonisation is a challenge on an unprecedented scale and there is certainly no guarantee that targets will be reached.

If we drag our feet or fail to find solutions, this could lead to profound negative effects on global ecosystems.

It therefore makes sense that, in addition to taking full advantage of the various technical innovations, we should also work as hard as we can on other ways to restore the equilibrium.

Cutting back

One obvious way to make the zero emissions target more achievable would be to reduce our demand for unclean energy and high-carbon products such as transport, heat, cement and meat.

We are strong advocates of modest consumption.

For so long as we remain less than totally confident in the capacity of technical innovations to solve the climate issues, we feel that it makes sense to keep a lid on our emissions. We even suspect that the process could be morally uplifting for those of us living in wasteful modern societies.

We’re not suggesting that we all suddenly return to being hunter-gatherers, we are simply advocating that we all try to be a little less wasteful in our daily consumption habits.

Reducing our normal emissions by 25% should be relatively painless and would represent an enormous contribution to rebalancing global ecosystems.

At the same time, we also acknowledge that a negative strategy such as this is unlikely to gather as much traction as other more positive options.

Working with nature

Perhaps the simplest and easiest way to help reduce the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is to work with nature, to restore and expand the natural carbon sinks.

The two most practicable ways we can do this are to plant trees and restore farmland soils.

The official UNEP policy document now cites these methods as being major contributors to the effort to combat climate change, although there presently appears to be suprisingly little coordination or support for large scale global implementation.

Conclusion

There’s a lot going on right now and a great deal of precipitous change is in the pipeline.

This can be rather unsettling for many people.

There is also a risk that large sections of society (such as coal miners and dairy farmers) could end up considerably worse off without suitable compensation.

But the vast majority of us should experience an enormous positive uplift from this green industrial revolution. The range of opportunities that will emerge and the degree of global cooperation presently being applied are unprecedented.

Literally millions of organisations and individuals are now embracing this change and assuming a positive attitude towards the future.

Read on to discover what it takes.

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Who we are

In this article we provide a quick overview of who we are and why we started squestr, followed by some personal profiles of some key members of our team.