The number 100 has been in the news a lot lately, associated with bold action and as well as imminent disaster: commitments to 100% renewables across the globe; 100% bans of single-use plastics; and 100% certainty that the climate is changing so quickly that we’re losing our ability to cope with it.  Here’s a deeper dive into the important—and ominous—number.

100 is a powerful number.  Scoring 100 on a test was always an aspiration in my school days.  My grandmother is turning 100 in January—an incredible achievement.  100 represents a century, the boiling temperature of pure water at sea level on the Celsius scale, and the record number of points scored in one NBA game by a single player (Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors in 1962).