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…
