Trillion Dollar Questions

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Discussions of climate change are often focused on what it would take to achieve a particular climate change target. That’s not surprising given the proliferation of new reports in these areas almost weekly.

But focusing just on that question provides little insight into the many other topics critical to societal climate outcomes. The Climatographers have identified a number of Trillion Dollar Questions that can help in understanding the bigger picture when it comes to climate change.

  • Why is Climate Change a “Wicked Problem?”
  • Can a Low Carbon Transition Happen Fast Enough?
  • Can Cities and States Solve Climate Change?
  • Can Individuals Solve Climate Change?
  • Will Climate Advocates Develop a Successful Climate Narrative?
  • Can the Business Community Solve Climate Change?
  • Can We Adapt to Future Climate Change?
  • Can We Reliably Predict Future Climate Change?
  • How Bad Could Climate Change Get?
  • How Fast Could Climate Change Become Dangerous?
  • How Fast Could Sea Levels Rise?
  • Is Climate Change Already an Emergency?
  • Will “Sustainability” Mitigate Climate Change?
  • Is it Too Late to Successfully Tackle Climate Change?
  • What Would Success in Tackling Climate Change Look Like?
  • Is Someone to Blame for Climate Change?
  • Why Has Climate Change Been So Difficult to Solve?
  • Will Carbon Pricing Solve Climate Change?
  • Will Climate Change Trigger an Economic or Social Collapse?
  • Will Technology Innovation Solve Climate Change?
  • Will COVID-19 Shift the Climate Change Conversation?

An entire graduate level course could be organized around almost any of these questions, and entire books have been written about many of them. They have no “right answers.” The full Your Climate Change PhD brings you up the learning curve rapidly, including:

  • An explanation of the question’s relevance to the big picture

  • An introduction to differing perspectives, opinions, and outcomes for the question

  • Hyperlinks to curated information collections in the Climate Web

  • Pre-set search strings that you can use to check for the most recent developments on individual questions using Google Search, Google Scholar, YouTube, Quora, and more content platforms.