So you want to learn about climate issues.
It. Is. Complicated.
And if it were an easy thing to implement we would have done it already.
This is your educational page. I will try not to link to anything that is opinion. Rather, I want to give you some places for official documents, well-resourced and recognized institutions with a backbone of science and data.
I will update this page as I come across useful items.
The EN-Roads Interactive Climate Modeling Tool
This simulator was developed by MIT Sloan, and the underlying data is updated regularly. It gives you (and policymakers) the opportunity to test drive scenarios and see which ones are effective or how they impact one another. For instance, how does a carbon price affect the temperature? What about carbon requestration? Electrification? Energy conservation? More interested in land use? Change the graphs. This tool is mind-blowing in its usefulness.
IPCC Report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
It’s OK if you don’t know what this is. Few people do. And it’s 3949 pages long. I have not read the whole thing, but I do have a goal of reading it before the next one comes out. It is “the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, and global and regional climate simulations.” Got it? Don’t worry, there are shortcuts.
This is a comprehensive overview of the findings in the almost 4000 page document. It is 6 pages. The meat of it is summarized on page 2.
A new tool that’s been added is the interactive atlas with a regional component. Keep in mind as you go through, that 1.5 C is really the goal for survivability and sustainability. We are currently on track for a 3.7C increase. It would be a tragic scenario.
International Energy Agency (IEA)
The IEA is a wealth of information, data and analysis. You can dig deep into fuels, bio-energies, electronic vehicles…anything that interests you. Their mission statement: The IEA works with governments and industry to shape a secure and sustainable energy future for all