Let's balance out

It isn't as bad as you think. Or maybe it is.

Another week has passed and we're back with the climate updates! This is "Let's balance out" and you'll read one good news and one bad news about the climate crisis. Shall we begin?

So what do you want first? The good news or the bad news?

The plastic waste that is thrown into the oceans is expected to triple in the next 20 years. Even if governments took the decision to only use alternatives to plastic and restrict the sale and use of plastic materials, it would cut the waste only to little less than half of today's levels. (7% by 2040)

Also, once the plastic is in the sea, it stays there basically forever and creates other problems related to microplastics. What could make a difference is to improve waste collection, recycling more waste and investing in alternative materials. It would cost $150bn on a global scale in the next 5 years, compared with the $670bn costs of inefficient waste management between now and 2040.

This is both a good news and a bad news, depends how you look at it. It's about a study that narrows the probable climate outcomes. It basically says that the best and worst case scenarios climate-wise are both equally unlikely to happen.

This news simply "reassures" that catastrophically climate outcomes are less likely than we think.

Zeke Hausfather, one of the authors of the study, said: "If we were planning for the worst, the worst has become less likely".

Illustration by Asia Renna