Warning: this post may have a negative affect on people who experience Climate Anxiety
As part of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the world made a commitment to stopping the rate at which the world was warming at 1.5C by the end of the Century.
...Which was always going to be a big ask, because, sadly: people.
People and capitalism and governments and big oil and all of that.
This week, then, scientists from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO,) warned that the world is 'more than likely' to see a year which is more than 1.5C hotter than average within the next 5 years.
Yep. Within the next five years.
Bad news on the climate front is sadly nothing new.
But it's still important to point it out because, as I've said about a million times: CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL AND IT IS HERE.
And it is subject to all sorts of feedback loops which we need to hold back and mitigate for as long as possible.
So, is 1.5 still alive?
Strangely: yes.
Because of the way that the numbers work (although lord knows I'm not an expert in that,) there is a difference between exceeding 1.5C in a single year and exceeding 1.5C long-term.
Basically: a single year where it is 1.5C hotter than it should be does not take us over the Paris target - it needs to be a constant change for it to do that.
Still, it's not good.
It is beyond not good.
But there's still some hope. Small though it may be.
We need to do everything - absolutely everything - to slow down global warming and climate change.
And while each and every one of us doing our bit is vitally important - there are over 7 billion people on earth, if we all did our best, it would help - individual action is never going to be enough on its own.
We need the systems, the governments, the corporations, to get on board.
Do what you can, when you can, and keep up the pressure on the people with power.
And hopefully, the future won't be as bad as it could be. (Positivity, right? 😅)
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Kinda skimmed this post because I do have a bit of climate anxiety (I blame my elementary school showing us doomsday movies... idk why). But whatever this post may say, I will just say that I hope politicians are moving climate activism in the right direction!
ReplyDeleteThat's OK Em - and you pretty much summed up the TL;DR! Lol
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