Cracking the Carbon Code Step One: Time Your Carbon Tipping Point

Abstract

Contrary to the character’s assertion in Soylent Green, everything is not burning up. “Climate change” is a better term than “global warming” to describe the phenomena that are playing out on the world stage, due largely to the combustion of fossil fuels, because the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causes a variety of changes to weather patterns, and not all of those are increases in temperature. Regardless of these trends or the nomenclature used to describe them, they have highlighted an opportunity for businesses to use carbon as a measure of efficiency and, by reducing waste, increase profits. In some cases, the trends also suggest ways to avoid significant liabilities as the impact of climate change alters landscapes and operating environments.

How can anything survive in a climate like this? A heat wave all year long. A greenhouse effect. Everything is burning up.

—From the 1973 film Soylent Green, more than a decade before the first hearing on climate change in Congress