Earth from First Principles
(Intro) Your guide to learning about climate change from the ground up
I’ve done 100’s of hours of research and read 1000’s of pages to distill climate change into easy to understand first principles that you can read in less than 1 hour.
Here’s why I did it..
In the last 20 years, the conversation on climate change has crescendoed into a chorus screaming “STOP”. As the years wear on and the thermostat ticks up, the glum reality of our collective fate has come into focus. This is not by accident. A concerted effort from scientists, activists, reporters, investors, and politicians has elevated our climate reality into the limelight.
Like most important issues, climate change is frequently discussed but seldom understood. The nuanced scientific search for Earth’s truths is often boiled down into absolute statements as we can’t expect complexity to be distilled into a headline. Along the way, important details are lost in favor of retweetability. This works for most as it draws attention to the broader problem and garners support at the water cooler.
I care deeply about leaving this planet in a better place than I found it. I’m committed to finding ways to help us build a more sustainable, prosperous world for all humans while I’m here. In order to do that, I needed to understand the problem much, much better.
So, I set out to answer these questions from the ground up. Why is Earth the way it is? How has human activity imbalanced the climate? And perhaps most critically, how has humanity benefited along the way?
Climate change did not happen in a vacuum. Along the way, we benefited from a fossil fuel energy backed renaissance of creation that provided many of the luxuries we enjoy today and food for 8x more people. The benefits of fossil fuels have mostly made life better in the rich west, but the rest of the world is understandably trying to catch up.
Solutions cannot exist in a vacuum. If a solution is to work in the long term, it must solve the real societal problems previously met with fossil fuels. I believe that any climate solution that does not also satisfy a basic societal need will collapse.
This newsletter is a collection of my research, learning, and conversations as I dove off the deep end by quitting my job. It’s made for people seeking the root causes, the nuance, and the complexity of climate change, not a high level overview.
Get up to speed in 45 minutes
Before diving in, you must know that Climate Change is not a complete science. The world’s best scientists do not have it all figured out & that’s ok. What matters is if we have enough of an understanding to change our future decisions. My research has shown me that we do & we should. With that out of the way…
How the Earth’s climate works (4 min)
Why solar changes or orbital patterns are likely insignificant (4 min)
Why other natural occurrences are likely insignificant (5 min)
How greenhouse gas emissions have messed with the balance (5 min)
Why it’s important to take predictions with a grain of salt (6 min)
Easy right? Less than 45 minutes and you will have caught up on 1000’s of pages of research.
Up next is the fun part… how do we fix it? Answering this requires a history lesson on how we got here in the first place, an overview of the levers we can pull, and observance of the macro trends that will define the 21st century.
Follow along for the latest!