In every world earth day we have the opportunity to check the state of our planet. This year we find that many irreversible tipping points are now perilously close. We can calculate in months what is left in the budget in order to stabilize its growth temperature only 1.5 degrees Celsius – this is no more than 75 months. The earth as we knew it at the dawn of civilization is disappearing in the rear-view mirror of our multi-purpose fossil fuel vehicles. We have an obligation as citizens, companies and governments to do everything we can to cut emissions as quickly as possible and reach 50% of the target by 2030.

In the latest report of the Intergovernmental Commission on Changing of the climate it seems technically feasible, so what do we prioritize? Planting trees, capturing and storing pollutants, changing diets, or wind and solar power? The answer is simple: strengthen the feedback loops that are everywhere.

Imagine a boulder rolling down a hill and increasing its acceleration until it can no longer stop, or a microphone placed so close to a loudspeaker that it causes a rapid increase in unbearable noise. The mother of all feedback loops is (Gordon’s) Moore’s Law at its finest. technologies. In the 1960s, the late Moore, the founder of Intel, noticed that computer power doubled every year for up to two years when semiconductor prices fell. The more powerful the latter become, the more useful they become, forcing engineers to make them more powerful by activating a feedback loop.

This simple law, which has become a general rule of thumb and followed by every technology company, changed the world forever, giving us the Internet, smartphones and even more powerful Artificial intelligence.

Climate change solutions, which are expanding rapidly, are based on feedback loops. If not, then she is the weakest. Cases of solar and wind energy have already joined this scheme. And while more and more photovoltaic systems And wind turbines are sold, the cost of the relevant technology drops sharply, creating much more demand and lowering prices even further. This also explains why renewables collectively made a huge contribution to manufacturing capacity last year, accounting for 83%.

Another example might be electric vehicles. Over the past decade, the price of lithium batteries – the most expensive part of a car – has fallen by 90%. Opera means that car it becomes more affordable, more people will buy it, so it will also become cheaper. In this particular case, there are several feedback loops. And while there are fewer moving parts, maintenance costs are falling, making them much more attractive. The more people buy them, the more pressure will increase on charging stations, networks will expand and be created even more – and this will convince even more indecisive drivers who are afraid of running out of the battery.

* Mr. Owen Gaffney and Joan Falk are co-founders of the Exponential Roadmap initiative, which aims to address the climate crisis exponentially.