Summary
The global goal to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C is now deemed “deader than a doornail,” with 2024 likely to surpass this threshold, marking the hottest year on record.
Despite agreements under the Paris accord, emissions continue to climb, pushing the world toward 2.7°C warming and increasing risks of catastrophic climate impacts.
Experts warn of nearing irreversible climate tipping points, such as ice sheet collapse and Amazon dieback.
While progress in clean energy offers hope, scientists emphasize urgent emission reductions, as every fraction of a degree matters to limit damage.
“I’m totally unsurprised, like almost all climate scientists, that we are shooting past it at a rapid clip."
Articles on climate change already highlight the most optimistic scenarios. And even those are too scary for some people to accept
The scary ones always end with a hopeful “but if we can start to do something…”
I’m actually encouraged by the negative trend of articles recently. The first step is always acknowledging the problem. The happy endings downplay the facts, so they have to stop.
My prediction though is that we’ll set 2.0 C as a new limit. I seem to remember long ago 1.0 C was warned as a point we didn’t want to cross, but 1.5 C was the mark when it became mainstream news all the time. Turns out 1.0 C was always the real limit…
Ok, so our species is doomed, but can we just take the time to appreciate that for an insignificant amount of time during existence of the human race, some people got very, very rich? Doesnt that make this all worthwhile?
At least we got billionaires out of it, phew
Literally, this is a good point that I haven’t thought of.
Notice the increase since 2015, which is when the 1.5C target was introduced.
At best, the target was completely ignored by the people who are both causing the most damage, as well as have the easiest means to mitigate it. At worst (and most cynical) , these unenforced “targets” are just a means of creating new billionaires. Our regulatory agencies and governments have been captured by special interests, and it should be clear to everyone that asking nicely is not working.
We are about to drive this car off the cliff, and billionaires are pressing down harder on the gas. At some point, we are going to have to explain to our children why we doomed them by failing to break out the guillotines.
We are idiots.
If only someone had warned us
