​WHY IT MATTERS
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our planet is heating up
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It's been a gradual process that's now speeding up. In fact, it's happening faster than scientists predicted even a few years ago. The very fuels that have improved our lives for the last 200 years since the industrial revolution have added excessive greenhouse gases to our earth's thin atmosphere. This is the main cause of the climate disruption being experienced everywhere on earth.
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We have data that helps us see what this looks like:
This graphic from NASA tells a story of natural fluctuations in global temperatures. But things have shifted over the last century. We're seeing the impacts right here: longer, hotter summers, increased fire danger, rising sea and bay levels, worsening air quality, prolonged droughts, challenges to our farm communities, and the Bay Area's infrastructure.
The major cause is our use of fossil fuels - gasoline in our vehicles, diesel in trucks and trains and generators, and the gas that we use to warm our buildings, heat our water, and cook our food.
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But we can do something about it.
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In order to avoid the worst impacts of climate disruption, we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 80% no later than 2030 and be "fossil-free by '33”.
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To get there, we need to do two things:
stop using fossil fuels in our buildings, vehicles, and manufacturing
draw down the greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere
What's possible depends on the choices we make. Actions we take now will help all of us by improving our health and the air we breathe, improving our economy and our own pocketbooks, and making our communities more resilient, while also "doing a solid" for the planet. So imagine what's possible and how easy those actions could be...
Imagine what's possible by
2030
No, really...see
"What's Possible"
Narrated by Morgan Freeman
Directed by Louie Schwartzberg
from the 2014 UN Climate Summit
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