What If We Treated Climate Change Like a Pandemic?

WHAT IF

What would happen if cared about the climate change as much as we care about the pandemic?

Transcript

00:00 It's unforgiving,

00:04 uncompromising,

00:06 and is devastating our planet.

00:09 It's annihilating upwards of 7 million people a year,

00:14 and it's changing 60 million lives forever.

00:20 Of course, we're talking about climate change.

00:23 What, you were thinking of a pandemic?

00:26 Well, that line of thinking

00:28 could help us solve this problem.

00:31 Think about it.

00:32 We saw how quickly the world reacted

00:34 to a catastrophic pandemic,

00:36 so what if we took a page from that book

00:39 and applied it to climate change?

00:42 Could we kick things into gear

00:44 if we approached climate change this way?

00:47 And what would life be like if we pulled it off?

00:51 This is WHAT IF,

00:53 and here's what would happen

00:55 if we treated climate change like a pandemic.

00:59 From AIDS to SARS,

01:01 we've seen the world come together

01:03 when facing medical crises.

01:05 During times of epidemics and pandemics,

01:08 the world works hard to create

01:10 concrete solutions to problems.

01:13 But even if we beat every single

01:15 contagious contender that picks a fight,

01:17 it means nothing if we don't have a planet to stand on.

01:21 Recent pandemics have had us glued to the screen,

01:24 watching the news about the confirmed cases,

01:26 and listening to the media

01:27 discussing doomsday scenarios.

01:30 But in 2019,

01:32 broadcast networks in the U.S.

01:34 covered news on climate change

01:35 less than 1% of the time.

01:39 Could it be that a pandemic

01:41 is seen as an imminent danger,

01:43 while climate change is viewed as

01:45 a problem happening in the future?

01:48 We've seen the world come together

01:50 in an effort to kick viruses

01:51 in their debilitating derrieres,

01:53 but it's harder to imagine

01:55 how bad a global temperature increase

01:57 of 1.5°C (104°F) would be.

02:00 So what if we were to use

02:02 what we've learned fighting the virus,

02:05 and came together to fight climate change?

02:08 It's time to get to work.

02:11 We could start by pressuring

02:12 the leaders of the world to admit

02:14 that climate change affects everyone.

02:17 This is a global problem.

02:18 No more procrastinating.

02:21 But then what?

02:23 Well, they would need to invest

02:25 in onshore wind power.

02:27 This is one of the best ways

02:29 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

02:32 If by the year 2050,

02:33 we increased the number of wind turbines,

02:37 they'd go from generating

02:38 4.4% of the world's electricity

02:41 to 26.9%.

02:43 This would reduce greenhouse gas emissions

02:46 by 147 gigatons.

02:50 For perspective, 147 gigatons

02:53 of carbon dioxide is 70 times more

02:56 than all of the CO2 emitted

02:58 by the U.S. transport sector during 2018.

03:01 And yes, we know it's a tall order.

03:04 This transition would cost $1,659 billion.

03:10 But get this,

03:11 the result would be a lifetime savings

03:14 of up to $10 trillion.

03:16 Sounds like a win to us.

03:19 And what if we kept this fight going,

03:21 and applied it to solar energy too?

03:24 Solar power could make 25%

03:26 of our electricity by the year 2050.

03:29 And that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions

03:32 by 119 gigatons.

03:35 But what can you do at home?

03:38 Well, if we choose to,

03:39 we could waste 75% less food

03:42 by the year 2050,

03:44 which would reduce CO2 emissions

03:46 by 18.8 gigatons of greenhouse gases.

03:50 This will also result in less deforestation,

03:53 preventing another 73.6 gigatons of emissions.

03:57 All this adds up to a whopping

03:59 438 gigatons of energy.

04:03 And that's just the beginning.

04:04 We would expand our mass transit services,

04:07 research and invest in geothermal energy,

04:10 and make going green really cool.

04:13 We know it seems like a lot,

04:15 but think about how fast we've acted

04:17 to take on the recent pandemic.

04:19 If we worked together,

04:20 we could really pull it off.

04:22 We could start fighting climate change today.

04:25 We have a lot of the knowledge

04:27 and technology we need.

04:29 And there's lots of solar, wind,

04:31 water and geothermal energy available to us.

04:34 We could do this.

04:36 So while we're brainstorming,

04:38 what else could we do for the Earth?

04:40 Could we share it more equally?

04:43 What if we set aside half of the planet

04:45 for wildlife?

04:47 Well, that's a story for another WHAT IF.

04:51 ♪ MUSIC ♪

04:55 (whooshing)

04:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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