How to Save the World for Just a Trillion Dollars by Rowan Hooper

How to Save the World for Just a Trillion Dollars by Rowan Hooper imagines what could be achieved if a trillion dollars were spent on solving the world’s biggest challenges. He explores strategies to combat poverty, disease, climate change, and biodiversity loss, combining research with cost estimates. The book shows that tackling global crises isn’t just idealistic – it could be financially within reach.

World Poverty

• Scale of poverty
  • 760 million people live on less than $2/day
  • $1 trillion split among them ≈ $1,315 per person
• Universal Basic Income (UBI)
  • Large-scale trials: people worked more, not less
  • Formats: lump sums, installments, unconditional, suggested-use
  • Less spent on temptation goods (alcohol, tobacco)
  • More spent on food, health, women’s empowerment, political engagement
  • Sri Lanka: one-time gift → income up 64-96% after one year
  • Just labeling cash for education cut dropouts by 70%
  • Education → higher earnings + better life outcomes
• Breaking the poverty trap
  • Metal roof: lasts 10+ years, collects rainwater
  • Straw roof: ~$150/year, short-term solution
  • Upfront investment barrier keeps people trapped in survival cycles
• Example $1T budget
  • Universal education (10 years): $400B
  • Cash transfers: $600B

Cure All Diseases

• The trillions spent on COVID showed massive ROI of preparedness
• Current health challenges
  • Malaria (2018): 228M cases, 400K deaths (mostly kids under 5)
  • Has killed ~1/2 of all humans in history; recorded since 2700BC
  • Tuberculosis: 2M deaths/year
  • Tropical diseases: affect 1B+ people/year
  • Goal: universal treatment + near-zero lethality (not zero illness)
• Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
  • High ROI via added Value-Adjusted Life Years (VALYs)
  • Achievable in less than a generation
  • Example: Ethiopia — 3 doctors per 100,000 → high child/maternal mortality
• Vaccines
  • Main challenges: development + distribution (not tech)
  • ROI of 21-54% in low-income countries
  • Polio: 350,000 cases/year → 33 cases/year
    • 1.5M lives saved
    • 18M paralyses prevented
    • $40-50B saved globally
  • $3.5B could enable vaccines ready in 100 days for new outbreaks
• Cell Mapping
  • Retina alone has 100+ cell types
  • Key to understanding biology
  • Enables regenerative medicine, organ repair, precision treatments
  • Ex: Wilms tumor treated by regenerating healthy kidney cells 
  • Ex: Cystic fibrosis linked to newly discovered pulmonary ionocyte
• Example budget: $868B
  • UHC in Ethiopia (for example case): $100B
  • Vaccine Preparations: $100B
  • Malaria & Tropical Diseases (mosquito gene mods): $100B
  • TB eradication: $23B
  • HIV & other infections: $30B
  • Antibiotic resistance: $10B
  • Human Cell Atlas: $5B
  • Major diseases research (heart, cancer, neuro): $300B
  • Regenerative medicine & lifespan: $200B

Climate Change

• CO₂ is a key greenhouse gas due to heat-trapping effect
  • Emissions: ~20B tons/year (1988) → 37B tons/year (now)
  • 50% of all historical emissions occurred in the last 30 years
  • Concentration, preindustrial to now: 280 ppm → 420+ ppm
  • 2°C warming → sea levels will rise for centuries, threatening ~630M people (including NYC, London, Mumbai)
  • Potential economic damage: ~$70T this century
  • ~10 years left to stay below 1.5°C at current rates
• Continued Reliance
  • Oil demand projected to rise 35% by 2030
  • China adding 200 GW of coal (≈ current EU total)
  • India still ~50% coal-powered
• Economics
  • Cost of action: ~$2.5T/year to 2050
  • Savings: ~$20T by 2050 in avoided damage
  • LCOE research shows renewables are more economical
• Feasibility
  • Wind in North Dakota, Texas, Kansas could power the U.S.
  • Berkeley: 139-country grid study (every 30 seconds for 5 years)
  • 100% renewable grids are technically viable
  • Main barrier is political, not technical
• Path to net zero
  • Global cost to reach net-zero by 2050: ~$100T (~$3T/year)
  • U.S. share: ~$7.8T → 3.1M jobs created
• Example $1T budget
  • Renewable deployment: $860B
  • Hydrogen economy: $50B
  • EVs & rail incentives: $25B
  • Nuclear development: $35B
  • Net-zero buildings: $10B
  • Industrial decarbonization: $20B