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The 10 Top Things You Can Do To Stop Climate Change

Updated: Nov 12, 2019


As people are slowly waking up to a planet on fire, articles like this one proliferate. But while such tips might have made a dent in 1980, these days they merely illustrate how hopeless the situation is.


Here's where we are: Climate Scientists have been under relentless attack by Climate Deniers for decades and found it easier to under-report the potential damages. While most people think we have until 2050 to get our act together, the truth is that in 8 years the world needs to completely turn off all fossil fuel energies. Otherwise we have a chance of 30% or higher that the world's climate will become unbearable within decades.


So-called adults don't really want to hear about it. Eliminating their personal CO2-emissions or paying to clean up the world is in few people's interest. So it falls to 16-year girls to tell the truth and take to the streets. Unfortunately they are misguided in their hope that politicians will take up the issue and find solutions.


While we know a lot about the dangers of the Climate Breakdown, curiously only one group has made a plan how to avoid it. That is why Paul Hawken titled his book "Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming". This is the bible for solutions, but it is still targeting a 2050 date.


Here I am explaining why the "10 Top Things" don't work. This is just the introduction to a surprising project that can truly end Global Warming.


1) Turn Off The Lights

This and other savings tips, like unplugging chargers when not in use, often say that if everyone does it, a whole coal power station could go offline. Or they say "every little thing counts". If you look at the numbers, this is like throwing a glass of water into a burning house.


2) Big International Meetings

These provide fodder for the press and allow thousands of people to fly to interesting places. But do they produce more than shallow commitments? I personally doubt it. The problem is that the discussion is based on the outdated concept that it costs a lot of money to save the world and there is a lot of haggling who pays. It is not like that anymore, as the authors of "Drawdown" proved, when they calculated a $71 trillion profit potential from climate positive enterprises.


3) Tell People to Do The Right Thing

Well, frankly, that moral thing has never worked. People are crazy, short-sighted and self-centered. They love hurting themselves and occasionally others. In a way, the whole Climate Emergency can be seen as a test whether the human species should be allowed to survive. That would be easy if humans could return to love and care for each other. Many problems would instantly disappear. But it doesn't look good.


4) Get Politicians To Change

Unfortunately it doesn't make sense to hand the problem over to incompetent politicians. And what's even worse is that they are elected by a mostly clueless population that elects representatives based on their emotions. There are still good reasons for Democracy, but an elected politician will always please the masses and the donor class. A politician would never propose a drastic, but necessary change like taxing gasoline to cost $15, which is the true environmental cost.


5) Vote

Yes, of course everyone needs to vote. But in the intervening 4 years there are 4,000 fossil fuel lobbyists in Washington and many more in the world's other capitals. They are wining and dining the elected politicians and making sure that the $5.2 trillion in direct and indirect welfare for the fossil fuel industry keep flowing. By focusing political participation on voting only, the citizens are robbed of their true power to control their representatives.


6) Plant 1 Trillion Trees

This sounds really cool, until someone does the math and figures out that every adult needs to be planting 200 trees. How many of those will still be around in a year or two? Trees, when young, need care, water and fertilizer. Shooting trees into the ground from a drone sounds uber-cool, but doesn't make them survive.


Here are some options that could make the human race survive. The very last one is serious.


7) Free The Banks from Government

We can count on the banks to destroy the financial system like in 2008, as soon as they have a free hand. So, let greed get the best of them and we will soon return to a 1930's scenario with a much reduced carbon footprint.


8) Natural Solutions

There is an increased risk to the spread of Ebola because of the Climate Breakdown. Deadly viruses get released from thawing ice in the Arctic and from cut-down rain forests. The planet has defense systems against unwelcome species. Beware!


9) The Rapture

When the good Christian ascend to heaven, there will be less people on earth.


10) Now for the Real Solution for The End of Global Warming


- It has to come from business, because everything that happens in the real world happens through the business sector (and unpaid housewives, but that's another story). 

- It cannot rely on politicians or government organizations.


- It cannot go against fossil fuel companies, car makers and other profitable industries.


- It cannot cost anything, because capitalism does not set a value for the survival of the civilization. Actually, it is better if it is massively profitable.


- It cannot be dependent on people's actions or even beliefs.


- It must work without the United States but not against it.


- It cannot damage countries or large groups of people.


The solution will also create 10,000 billionaires (or 10 trillionaires), which we hope will unleash a storm of entrepreneurial energy. It will bring prosperity to many areas of the globe and create millions of jobs. There will be side effects of food production, soil restoration and housing improvement. Climate refugees will find new homes.


The CO2 added by fossil fuels to the atmosphere will vanish, allowing time for cheaper solutions to replace fossil energies as much as possible. Meanwhile the crazy world we live in can go on without annihilating the biosphere.


The key to this hope for a new world is a magical tree that we prefer to call "Life Tree" which converts atmospheric CO2 into valuable wood at a record pace. Planting these trees on a massive scale will stop the advancement of Global Warming.


This can really happen, as opposed to all the tree planting appeals calling for government support, because this project is incredibly profitable. The wood from the trees and the biochar from the branches are valuable goods.


The plan is to create 10,000 Life Tree Forests all over the world, each run independently by an entrepreneur who wants to become a billionaire. Each forest includes a sawmill and also biochar production. The CO2 of the grown trees gets locked into timber and the soil for a long time.


Food is grown under the trees. Cottage industries using the wood to build houses, furniture and much more will develop along the sidelines of the forests. Some of these are profit-only and return $1.2 billion every 8-10 years in high-quality timber and biochar. Others benefit refugee camps, tribal lands and poor countries where most of the profits stay in the area.


Now come the doubts, so let's talk about them:


- Is that a bad/GMO/invasive/harmful tree?

No, it's been used for thousands of years and as a nitrogen fixer it benefits the soil.


- That's much too expensive, nobody has that kind of money
.

We will see, how many investors like the significant returns.


- That’s completely unproven

Most forests are managed forests (tree farms) these days and there are many that already use the Life Tree very successfully


- All monocultures are bad and take farm land away from food

Food is grown under or next to the trees and is fertilized by the tree. By planting the trees in a tree farm they are better cared for than trees planted in the wild. The trees are suited to be planted in severely degraded land which would not be useful for food.


- This is much too big to be done


Franklin Roosevelt's Conservation Corps planted three billion trees as a way of putting people to work during the Great Depression. And that was only in the U.S., while this project will be in almost 200 countries.


Quick Review: By planting Life Tree Forests worldwide, CO2 gets removed from the air and transformed into wood which is then used for homes and products. 10,000 entrepreneurs will make a billion dollars. Millions of people, especially in poor countries, will have a job. Global Warming won't end civilization. People and politicians won't notice, which is a good thing.


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