So imagine a world 6 degrees warmer. It's not going to recognize geographical boundaries. It's not going to recognize anything. So agriculture regions today will be wiped out.
Interpretation
The quote warns about the disastrous effects of climate change on agriculture and global geography.
Steven Chu highlights the severe consequences of global warming, emphasizing that a rise of 6 degrees will disrupt traditional geographical boundaries and agricultural zones. This change signifies a dramatic shift in how we perceive our environment and the potential for widespread disruption in food production.
In practice
During a seminar on climate action, this quote can highlight the need for urgent policy changes.
I've always been inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, who articulated his Dream of an America where people are judged not by skin color but "by the content of their character." In the scientific world, people are judged by the content of their ideas. Advances are made with new insights, but the final arbitrator of any point of view are experiments that seek the unbiased truth, not information cherry picked to support a particular point of view.
Switching to light-coloured roofs and roadways would have the equivalent effect on greenhouse gas emissions to taking one billion cars off the road for eleven years.
Back in the autumn I had awakened to a growing darkness and cacophony, as if something in the depths were crying out. A whole chorus of voices. Orphaned voices. They seemed to speak for all the unlived parts of me, and they came with a force and dazzle that I couldn't contain. They seemed to explode the boundaries of my existence. I know now that they were the clamor of a new self struggling to be born.
Anything in history or nature that can be described as changing steadily can be seen as heading toward catastrophe.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
The future is completely open and we are writing it moment to moment.
What I am very, very moved and struck by is that so many people in the world are often living a life that they hadn't planned for themselves. And they wake up one day and say, 'Hang on. Who am I? Is this really me? Is this what I really wanted?' And also, 'Can I change it? Have I got the courage to change it?'
If we are going to realise our ambition of ending the harmful practices of FGM and forced marriage, the role of young people in pushing for change is crucial. We also need to ensure that everyone, from government to civil society, is playing their part.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.