All is not yet lost with the world. In just a few decades, we have predominantly resolved issues such as lead, CFCs, asbestos, and tobacco. Our collective capacity to create tangible environmental improvements is clearly in evidence. Africa’s Great Green Wall is one such example. Initiated in 2007, this massive project involves planting trees along the entire width of the continent from Senegal to Djibouti. It is 16 kilometres wide, and 7000 km long. While tree-planting still features strongly, the focus is now placed more on sustainable land use, job creation, and especially, peacebuilding.

The Ocean Clean-up is another inspiring project. The stated objective is to clean up 90% of all plastic floating in the world’s oceans. The Ocean Clean-up workers are presently focusing on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between California and Hawaii, which contains over 100,000,000 kilograms of plastic. If you access the comprehensive updates on ‘Future Crunch’ or ‘Fix The News’ or ‘Good News’, you will discover many other heartening environmental projects.

There are three overarching options for contending with runaway climate change. The first is to dramatically lower our greenhouse gas emissions. One powerful process to support this is the concept of a circular economy, which is based on building simple products that can be cheaply and easily recycled. As part of this, the five ‘R’s (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle) would become core to every aspect of our lives. While most people make some effort with all of these, the political implications of this first option are significant. Hundreds of millions of workers would need to transition to other employment.

The second option is to rapidly deploy some highly unusual possibilities. Clean energy from nuclear fusion might be a gamechanger, although it is unlikely to be commonplace before the 2060s. Geo-engineering involves some mind-bending proposals, including solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal. These are not small projects. Imagine spraying seawater kilometres into the air to seed the formation of clouds that then deflect sunlight, or installing giant mirrors in space for the same purpose. While such a project may work for some parts of the planet, others might be hugely compromised. We would play with Mother Nature at our peril.

Asteroid mining may have more merit, although it will not happen any time soon. The lure is that some asteroids in our solar system contain unimaginable wealth. NASA’s Psyche mission, set to arrive in 2026 between Mars and Jupiter, will explore this 226-kilometre-wide chunk of rock. If the asteroid’s mineral wealth is confirmed, it would be worth more than the global economy at $10 quintillion. Another asteroid called Davida is estimated to be worth $27 quintillion. The obvious issues are the large-scale mining in outer space, and the transport of the raw material to Earth.

The third option is the most likely, and probably the most politically palatable. Whether it is the most effective solution long-term is another matter. The option? To steadily implement Net Zero initiatives as rapidly as possible, without destroying the world economy in the process. Cities, rather than whole countries, would most likely become the catalyst for enacting effective projects. Over 700 cities in 53 countries already have committed to halving their emissions by 2030, and reaching net zero by 2050. Copenhagen citizens have built ecologically stable practices into everyday life. Bikes outnumber cars by 5 to 1. Less than 30% of the population own a car. Nearly half of all daily commutes are done by bike.

Steadily, everyone everywhere could contribute in similar fashion. The question is: Will they? Most people agree that change is necessary. The abject reality is that their answer edges into the negative when asked if they are personally prepared to contribute to that change. Please remember: the word ‘everyone’ means ‘every one’ of us.