Lesson Fourteen: Global Temperature
How the planet is getting quite toasty
Quick question to start things off:
We are living in the toastiest decade.
You’ll often hear global temp in climate talks because it’s one of the clearest signals for increased greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
When greenhouse gases (GHGs) are emitted, they act as a blanket, trapping in long-wave infrared energy coming off the earth. The more greenhouse gases we pump into the atmosphere, less and less can escape - effectively raising our earth’s temperature.
The IPCC estimates that earth will continue to increase in temp between 1.4 - 5.8 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. Though six degrees doesn’t sound like a lot, it’s enough to alter the world as we know (it in the worst possible ways).
Here’s a few examples of what 1.5 - 2 degrees Celsius looks like:
💧 ice sheets will begin their collapse
💧 400 million more people will suffer from water scarcity
💧 ocean oxygen levels will decrease causing more “dead zones”
☀️ major cities in the equatorial band of the planet will become unliveable
☀️ in the northern latitudes, heat waves will kill thousands each summer
🌲 there will be a massive reduction of rainforests
Here’s a few examples of what 3 degrees Celsius looks like:
💧 oceans would be an average of 3 feet higher by the year 2100 (byeee Florida 👋)
☀️ southern Europe would be in permanent drought, and the average drought in Central America would last 19 months longer
☀️ there would be 32x as many extreme heat waves in India, and each would last 5x as long, exposing 93x more people
🔥 the areas burned each year by wildfires would double in the mediterranean and sextuple, or more, in Canada/the US
Here’s a few examples of what 4 degrees Celsius looks like:
🍽️ there would be close to annual global food crises
☀️ it is estimated there will be 9% more heat-related deaths
💧 damages from river flooding would grow 30x in Bangladesh, 20x in India, and as much as 60x in the United Kingdom
💥 in certain places, 6 climate- driven natural disasters could strike simultaneously
💰 globally, damages could pass $600 trillion—more than twice the wealth as exists in the world today
5 degrees Celsius and 6 degrees Celsius is too grim to share but in a nutshell, experts expect mass extinctions, global climate wars, billions of climate refugees, countries of uninhabitable land… you get the picture.
It’s a lot to digest and this is not easy information to sit with.
We’re up against a lot of things happening very quickly. It’s important to talk about the discomfort, not shy away from it which is why next week’s lesson will focus on climate anxiety.
If there is anything you want to share about the lesson today or if you have any thoughts, send them my way. Always here to chat. 👍
