I’ve Studied Climate Change Up-close for the Past Three Years. Here’s How We Can Save the Planet, and Our Global Economy

For the past three years, I’ve endeavored to learn just how drastically global warming is changing our planet and our lives.

Studying global warming for three years.

And what I’ve learned is staggering. The threat of global warming on our global well-being looms larger and more immediately than most of us know or care to consider. And this apathy is perhaps the greatest obstacle when it comes to addressing global warming, the most pressing crisis in the history of human civilization.

For the vast majority of us, the effects of global warming are minimal. We might have a rainier spring or an extended summer, but these are minor inconveniences, and they belie the enormity of the issue.

So I decided to visit sites around the world where the effects of our global warming are most pronounced and interview subject-area experts in each location. In order to fully understand global warming and its impact on our environment and economy, I had to experience it first-hand.

Read the Medium story by Sasja Beslik - “I’ve Studied Climate Change Up-close for the Past Three Years. Here’s How We Can Save the Planet, and Our Global Economy.”

Air Conditioning Is the World's Next Big Threat

The vast majority of Americans have air conditioning but in Germany almost nobody does. At least not yet. 1 

Air conditioners help keep people cool, but at
the same time can worsen climate change. 

So when temperatures in Berlin rose to an uncomfortable 37 Celsius (99 Fahrenheit) this week – a record for the month of June – I was uncommonly delighted to go to the Bloomberg office, where it’s artificially and blissfully cool.

By letting people in overheated climates concentrate on their work and get a good night’s sleep, air conditioning has played a big part in driving global prosperity and happiness over the past few decades – and that revolution has still barely begun. About half of Chinese households have this modern tool, but of the 1.6 billion people living in India and Indonesia, only 88 million have access to air conditioning at home, Bloomberg New Energy Finance noted in a recent report.

For many, relief is in sight. Because of the combination of population growth, rising incomes, falling equipment prices and urbanization, the number of air-conditioning units installed globally is set to jump from about 1.6 billion today to 5.6 billion by the middle of the century, according to the International Energy Agency.

Read the story Bloomberg story by Chris Bryant - “Air Conditioning Is the World's Next Big Threat.”