Katharine Hayhoe: The power of 'And' | Climeworks

Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and is the Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy. She studies climate change, one of the most pressing issues we face today.

On June 26, she gave an inspiring lecture in our headquarter in Zurich, Switzerland about the power of "And": Nature and tech working hand in hand toward net zero.

The most important thing we can do in our daily lives and business practices is to reduce our carbon emissions. But the science is clear: to keep global temperatures below 1.5°C, we must also actively remove carbon dioxide from the air. More specifically, we need to extract billions of tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere between now and 2050.

There are many carbon removal solutions available. Some are technological, like DAC+S, and some are nature-based, like afforestation, i.e., planting trees, which work to enhance our planet’s natural carbon sinks. There are pros and cons to all the available solutions, and they must be carefully evaluated as a matter of urgency: including how to scale them up and best use them in the fight against climate change. Because the fact is, we need all solutions to work together to maximize our chances of succeeding — nature and technology hand in hand.

[ExtraDryingTime]

Great swimming pool analogy! I fell asleep in economics too, but I do remember one thing, that there is something called social cost and social benefit, which would cover those externalities like waste and clean air. I can't remember them being calculated as part of GDP though. Perhaps that's something we should be doing.

[sandiplivingandlife]

Less consumption and less human population and a spiritual mind

[valsarff]

Giggling women discussing an "important" topic is worrisome, but in looking at the existential crisis of climate change, there is much controversy. Controversy strongly suggests a lack of information and understanding of the topic. The earth is self cleaning. If you throw money at what you do not understand, you will lose all your money and fail.

[valentinrafael]

If you can terraform Mars, why not terraform Earth? It’s right where you are