Ideas change everything

The 55 gigaton challenge

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Countdown Global Livestream

• October 2021

This is the climate challenge we face: we need to go from putting 55 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases into the air each year to zero. And it all needs to happen by 2050 at the latest. How can we get there? This quick animated video explains. (Written by David Biello and voiced by Elise Hu)

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

This is the climate challenge we face: we need to go from putting 55 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases into the air each year to zero. And it all needs to happen by 2050 at the latest. How can we get there? This quick animated video explains. (Written by David Biello and voiced by Elise Hu)

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

About the speakers

TED science curator, author

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David Biello is TED's science curator and the author of "The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age."

Journalist, author, host of TED Talks Daily

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Learn more

Countdown: A global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis

Learn how you can help cut the world's emissions in half by 2030, in the race to a zero-carbon world.

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