(highlight:: let’s compare the amount of CO2 we’d save by taking three different climate-focused actions: unplugging a phone charger when not in use, installing home insulation, and avoiding a transatlantic flight.

Sources: CO2 emissions saved for return flight from London to New York taken from TravelNav. Emissions saved for home insulation from Wynes & Nicholas (2017). Emissions saved for unplugging phone charger assumes energy use of 1.5kwh per year, converted into CO2 using this conversion chart (assuming coal as electricity source).
According to these estimates, averting one overseas trip could save the same emissions as more than six years of home insulation – and you’d have to leave your phone charger unplugged for nearly 800 years to save the same amount of carbon emissions!
Even more surprisingly, donating just $100 to an effective climate change organization could save over eight times as much carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere as skipping a long-haul flight.)
- View Highlight
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(highlight:: However, if we look at how the size of this problem varies by country and region, its importance can look quite different depending on where we focus. Let’s look at the United States. Though the US produces among the highest CO2 per capita, only an estimated 0.25% of plastic ocean waste stems from the US, meaning that it contributes around 30,000 tons per year.
Though plastic pollution is a pressing cause, there are far more significant problems affecting the environment than the US’ specific contributions to ocean waste. So, if you were to live in the US and focus exclusively on US ocean waste, you might not be doing nearly as much to combat the problem as you might do elsewhere.)
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: Temperature has been shown to have a surprisingly significant effect on mortality rates. Even mild deviations from optimal temperatures have been shown to increase mortality risk, primarily through increasing the prevalence of many different causes of death, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as strokes.
This is a cause for concern since global warming stands to increase ambient temperatures worldwide. Putting some numbers to this, recent research suggests that we could see as many as 580,000 additional deaths per year by 2050 due to increased temperatures, assuming a warming of slightly over 2°C above pre-industrial levels.)
- View Highlight
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An important component of heat adaptation is increasing access to cooling, particularly in indoor areas where people spend the majority of their time. Air conditioning may have a particularly important role to play. This is particularly crucial in sub-Saharan Africa, which will be especially impacted by rising temperatures, but where nearly half the population lacks access to electricity. Because of this, some have suggested that increasing electrification investment in this region could be particularly crucial for alleviating heat-induced mortality. The World Bank has recently stepped up efforts in this area, but it seems there’s room for much more funding and investment.
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: There are at least several adaptation measures that could prove effective. For starters, one important approach to developing sea-level-rise resilience is through infrastructure projects, such as building flood barriers and seawalls or relocating infrastructure to elevated ground.
There also exist adaptation measures that harness the natural environment to develop resilience, as opposed to constructing or improving infrastructure. One prominent possibility here is “beach nourishment”, which involves increasing the quantity of sand in coastal areas to protect against flooding. Though generally seen as a short-term solution, some recent research indicates beach nourishment could provide protection over decades.
In terms of effectiveness, a 2014 report from the World Health Organization projects that adaptation measures could prevent an enormous number of deaths from the increased frequency of storm surges associated with sea level rise, saving tens of thousands of lives per year, and reducing mortality rates to ‘roughly baseline levels by 2080’. These estimates may be slightly dated, but they provide a rough sense of the importance of adaptation efforts in this space.)
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: According to the World Health Organization, over 900 million people faced severe food insecurity in 2021, meaning they experienced entire days without food. Estimates vary, but hunger is reportedly responsible for thousands of deaths every day.
Food insecurity also causes other harms. For instance, in 2022 more than one in five children under the age of five were stunted, due in significant part to malnutrition. Stunting has been shown to lower cognitive performance and future earnings.)
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: One recent paper predicts that climate change could cause as many as 73 million extra people to become undernourished by 2050 relative to a world without climate change, assuming no major adaptations are introduced.
Additionally, climate change may also increase the risk of conflict, which Action Against Hunger claims to be the leading cause of food insecurity worldwide.)
- View Highlight
-

Due to rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, larger parts of the world will be hospitable to common “vectors” of disease, such as mosquitoes, ticks, and bacteria. On top of this, climate change can also increase the risk of disease contracted through contaminated water and food. This threatens to increase the global prevalence of diseases such as malaria, zika, cholera, and dengue – which already take the lives of hundreds of thousands of people each year, with malaria alone estimated to have taken the lives of as many as 627,000 people in 2020.
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: The neglectedness of these adaptation efforts, as with others, is not fully clear. In general, many of the diseases that stand to spread further due to climate change are currently highly neglected. Dengue, for instance, receives very little pharmaceutical attention despite its prevalence. The primary reason for the neglectedness of these diseases is that they disproportionately affect low-income countries that have fewer resources to combat them.
As we start to see them spread into higher-income regions with larger healthcare spending, we may plausibly see more resources invested into effective surveillance and pharmaceuticals.)
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: let’s compare the amount of CO2 we’d save by taking three different climate-focused actions: unplugging a phone charger when not in use, installing home insulation, and avoiding a transatlantic flight.

Sources: CO2 emissions saved for return flight from London to New York taken from TravelNav. Emissions saved for home insulation from Wynes & Nicholas (2017). Emissions saved for unplugging phone charger assumes energy use of 1.5kwh per year, converted into CO2 using this conversion chart (assuming coal as electricity source).
According to these estimates, averting one overseas trip could save the same emissions as more than six years of home insulation – and you’d have to leave your phone charger unplugged for nearly 800 years to save the same amount of carbon emissions!
Even more surprisingly, donating just $100 to an effective climate change organization could save over eight times as much carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere as skipping a long-haul flight.)
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: However, if we look at how the size of this problem varies by country and region, its importance can look quite different depending on where we focus. Let’s look at the United States. Though the US produces among the highest CO2 per capita, only an estimated 0.25% of plastic ocean waste stems from the US, meaning that it contributes around 30,000 tons per year.
Though plastic pollution is a pressing cause, there are far more significant problems affecting the environment than the US’ specific contributions to ocean waste. So, if you were to live in the US and focus exclusively on US ocean waste, you might not be doing nearly as much to combat the problem as you might do elsewhere.)
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: Temperature has been shown to have a surprisingly significant effect on mortality rates. Even mild deviations from optimal temperatures have been shown to increase mortality risk, primarily through increasing the prevalence of many different causes of death, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as strokes.
This is a cause for concern since global warming stands to increase ambient temperatures worldwide. Putting some numbers to this, recent research suggests that we could see as many as 580,000 additional deaths per year by 2050 due to increased temperatures, assuming a warming of slightly over 2°C above pre-industrial levels.)
- View Highlight
-

An important component of heat adaptation is increasing access to cooling, particularly in indoor areas where people spend the majority of their time. Air conditioning may have a particularly important role to play. This is particularly crucial in sub-Saharan Africa, which will be especially impacted by rising temperatures, but where nearly half the population lacks access to electricity. Because of this, some have suggested that increasing electrification investment in this region could be particularly crucial for alleviating heat-induced mortality. The World Bank has recently stepped up efforts in this area, but it seems there’s room for much more funding and investment.
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: There are at least several adaptation measures that could prove effective. For starters, one important approach to developing sea-level-rise resilience is through infrastructure projects, such as building flood barriers and seawalls or relocating infrastructure to elevated ground.
There also exist adaptation measures that harness the natural environment to develop resilience, as opposed to constructing or improving infrastructure. One prominent possibility here is “beach nourishment”, which involves increasing the quantity of sand in coastal areas to protect against flooding. Though generally seen as a short-term solution, some recent research indicates beach nourishment could provide protection over decades.
In terms of effectiveness, a 2014 report from the World Health Organization projects that adaptation measures could prevent an enormous number of deaths from the increased frequency of storm surges associated with sea level rise, saving tens of thousands of lives per year, and reducing mortality rates to ‘roughly baseline levels by 2080’. These estimates may be slightly dated, but they provide a rough sense of the importance of adaptation efforts in this space.)
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: According to the World Health Organization, over 900 million people faced severe food insecurity in 2021, meaning they experienced entire days without food. Estimates vary, but hunger is reportedly responsible for thousands of deaths every day.
Food insecurity also causes other harms. For instance, in 2022 more than one in five children under the age of five were stunted, due in significant part to malnutrition. Stunting has been shown to lower cognitive performance and future earnings.)
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: One recent paper predicts that climate change could cause as many as 73 million extra people to become undernourished by 2050 relative to a world without climate change, assuming no major adaptations are introduced.
Additionally, climate change may also increase the risk of conflict, which Action Against Hunger claims to be the leading cause of food insecurity worldwide.)
- View Highlight
-

Due to rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, larger parts of the world will be hospitable to common “vectors” of disease, such as mosquitoes, ticks, and bacteria. On top of this, climate change can also increase the risk of disease contracted through contaminated water and food. This threatens to increase the global prevalence of diseases such as malaria, zika, cholera, and dengue – which already take the lives of hundreds of thousands of people each year, with malaria alone estimated to have taken the lives of as many as 627,000 people in 2020.
- View Highlight
-

(highlight:: The neglectedness of these adaptation efforts, as with others, is not fully clear. In general, many of the diseases that stand to spread further due to climate change are currently highly neglected. Dengue, for instance, receives very little pharmaceutical attention despite its prevalence. The primary reason for the neglectedness of these diseases is that they disproportionately affect low-income countries that have fewer resources to combat them.
As we start to see them spread into higher-income regions with larger healthcare spending, we may plausibly see more resources invested into effective surveillance and pharmaceuticals.)
- View Highlight
-