The world faces a future of floods, famine, and extreme heat — here's how we survive

Business Insider

The warnings were plentiful. The limits were clearly defined. 

We have long understood how to keep the Earth's average temperature from reaching dangerous levels. But as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to trap more heat, we're now face-to-face with the volatile climate, intense heat waves, and large-scale storms scientists predicted decades ago. 

Substantial damage is already locked in, even if emissions — the cause of the problem — are quickly cut. The question is no longer whether we can prevent a climate crisis. It's: Now what? 

Scientists, planners, engineers, and entrepreneurs are developing solutions and adaptations to address this new reality. But surviving in an inevitably harsher environment will require fundamental changes to the way we eat, live, build, and power the world. 

Business Insider reporters have spent months reporting on the changes we need to make and the people trying to make them for a series titled 'Saving Our World.' You can see the full series here. 

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• The world faces a future of floods, famine, and extreme heat — here's what it'll take to bounce back: We are on the cusp of the greatest disaster-response effort in history. Here's how we can be resilient in the face of weather catastrophes and rising seas.
• Miami is racing against time to keep up with sea-level rise: When the flooding is really bad, water doesn't just fill the streets outside Manolo Pedraza's house. It bubbles up through a shower drain. Miami is already struggling with flooding related to sea-level rise. This is how bad it could get, and what the city is doing to save itself.

Skye Gould/Business Insider

• Our buildings can't withstand extreme weather — these new structures could save lives: These new types of architecture are preparing us for a future when storms and other climate-related disasters become more common and severe.
• The way Americans get electricity is one natural disaster away from decimation — but a resilient power grid is within our reach: America's energy infrastructure is crumbling, but the country has the opportunity to shift to a flexible, clean, resilient power grid. Several new energy projects are lighting the way.

In Humacao, a Puerto Rican province blacked out by Hurricane Maria, residents asked for help on October 10, 2017. That month, German energy company Sonnen worked with local company Pura Energia to provide solar power to the region.

REUTERS / Lucas Jackson

• A controversial technology could save us from starvation — if we let it: A ready-to-use set of biological tools, including CRISPR, is poised to save our food supply from climate change.
• The quest to save the Earth's fragile reefs: We've already lost half the world's coral because of human activity. Now scientists are working on emergency interventions to regrow coral, since Earth's oceans depend on reefs.

Matt Kieffer/flickr

• How a last-ditch 'planet-hacking' plan could keep Earth habitable for longer: It's 2055. A row of airplanes streak across the sky. They're barely visible because they're flying far above the usual traffic of jetliners and delivery drones. Climate change shows no signs of slowing, so as a last resort, a process called solar geoengineering could temporarily cool the planet by modifying the skies.
• Life in a bubble — how we can fight hunger, loneliness, and radiation on Mars:Elon Musk wants to send humans to Mars, but a large-scale experiment from the 1990s remains one of the best illustrations of the challenges in the quest to colonize the red planet.