How to understand climate change’s unfathomable numbers

NEW YORK: Climate people – researchers, environmental, social and governance (ESG) administrators, philanthropic organisations – can forget, under the pressure of fact, just how alien statistics can feel to those of us new to Climate World. They come to the conference and put a “419.68” on the screen.

Everyone sighs and nods. They speak in fractions or, alternately, trillions – of dollars or trees, depending on the context. These numbers are whole careers, tenure, grants proffered or not. But if you don’t live in Climate World, they don’t resonate in quite the same way. You have to learn to appreciate them.