Air

The role of the atmosphere in climate change is clear. Humans burn fossil fuels, which produce greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane. The increasing level of these gases in the atmosphere creates a greenhouse effect, which causes the net temperature of the planet to increase. This process has numerous negative impacts, including melting glaciers, rising sea levels, extreme weather, ocean warming and acidification, and the desertification of land.

That temperature increase is a given at this point, but by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and extracting excess greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, we can limit the extent of the warming and mitigate the impact on life and ecosystems. It is absolutely vital that we take swift, direct action to this end; this is an existential threat unlike any other that humanity has faced.