Mitigating extreme climate change

Climate change is a well-known threat to our planet. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report emphasizes that global warming risks seriously worsening the conditions for life on earth. If we do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than under the Paris Agreement, scientists estimate a 50% risk of temperature increases of 3.5ºC and a 10% risk of increases above 4.7ºC. With higher warming, we risk serious outcomes – more frequent and more severe floods, famines, fires, and droughts — leading to a lack of food and water, large movements of vulnerable populations, as the world’s poorest people will be affected the most, and reduced global stability. 

There is also a non-negligible probability that the temperature will rise even more, especially if we do not reduce emissions according to existing agreements. This would mean that the consequences worsen further, for example by increasing the risks of other global catastrophic risks. In the most extreme scenarios, climate change risks contributing to the collapse of human civilization.

Source: Our World in Data 

While many popular approaches to working on climate change and other environmental problems probably aren’t actually that helpful, there are areas that are both promising and neglected. Promising career paths in the field include researching extreme risks and worst scenarios from climate change and how those can be mitigated, reducing animal agriculture through advocacy or developing plant-based alternatives, engineering greentech innovations, doing research on carbon removal technologies, and pursuing a career in politics, think tanks or journalism to advocate for measures such as carbon taxes and investment in new technologies.

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Climate change – article by 80,000 Hours

Climate change cause area profile – article by EA Sweden

Climate change – article by Our World in Data