Question: How can we stop drastic climate change?

James Pope answered on 4 Jul 2012:

Hi wishqueen,

The best way to stop drastic climate change is to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. The best way to do this would be a 25% (one quarter) cut by 2020 and reducing our emissions to zero by 2050. That will limit warming to about 2°C, which is seen as being the ‘safe’ upper limit for how much warming we can allow the planet to have in the next 100 years.

The alternative, would be to reduce the amount of energy we get from the sun, by making clouds brighter or adding chemicals to the atmosphere to reflect away the solar radiation, but doing this could lead to other issues with the climate that may or may not be worse than just letting it warm!