Climate scientists have issued a dire warning — our planet is “almost certain” to experience new record temperatures in the next five years.
The new climate report published on Wednesday found there is a 66% likelihood of exceeding the 1.5° C threshold in at least one year between 2023 and 2027.
Global average surface temperatures have never before breached the 1.5° C threshold. The highest average in previous years was 1.28° C above pre-industrial levels.
If that doesn’t sound like a lot because you don’t know the Metric System, 1.5° C = 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, Americans!
While the report indicates breaching the crucial 1.5° C threshold “could have dire consequences,” it should be “only temporary.”
According to research from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), it would still “represent a marked acceleration of human impacts on the global climate system,” and send the world into “uncharted territory.”
When the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, it required countries to hold global temperature increases to no more than 2° C above pre-industrial levels while “pursuing efforts” to hold them to 1.5° C.
At the time, scientists were forecasting that the chance of temporarily exceeding the 1.5° C threshold within the following five years was zero.
Secretary General of the WMO, Prof. Petteri Taalas, said the report doesn’t mean the planet will permanently exceed the 1.5° C specified in the Paris Agreement:
“However, WMO is still sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency,” he added.
“A warming El Niño is expected to develop in the coming months and this will combine with human-induced climate change to push global temperatures into uncharted territory,” Taalas climate-splained.
“This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment,” he said. “We need to be prepared.”
In just one example of how extreme temperatures can impact the global population, climate scientists are keeping a close eye on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is melting faster than they previously thought.
Ice melts in the Arctic are widely considered by polar scientists as “Earth’s refrigerator” due to their role in regulating global temperatures.
An influx of melting fresh water into the oceans could have catastrophic effects on the rest of the world.
That’s the conceit of the 2004 disaster film The Day After Tomorrow, which presented an over-the-top global storm that puts Earth into a new Ice Age.
We might not be there just yet, but it’s critical for all nations on this planet to take aggressive action on climate change.
This Infrastructure Week, our Administration is proud to announce $11 billion for clean energy projects in rural areas and tribal communities.
This is the largest investment in rural electrification since the 1930s. It will lower energy costs as we tackle the climate crisis.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) May 16, 2023
After record-breaking droughts across most of Europe, a sudden deluge floods parts of Northern Italy. It's a #climate pattern Californians know well. https://t.co/la9fabb2u2
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 17, 2023
This souvenir shop in Florida is highlighting the danger the climate crisis poses to the state 🌴😰 pic.twitter.com/hmWbzrzlC6
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) May 16, 2023
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