2 Degrees

If you’ve been paying attention to the conversations surrounding the issue of global warming, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that as a planet, we need to make a heroic effort to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees for human life as we currently know it to continue. This might not seem like a very significant change but the amount of energy we are discussing is equal to that of roughly 125 million atomic bombs. Even so, what does a rise of 1.5 degrees look like?

Best case scenario, the governments of the world are able to come together and enact laws a regulations that drastically reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we are releasing into the atmosphere. We are able to incorporate an unlimited number of innovations that allow up to cut waste in general by half and half again. Due to this effort, we are able to cut the source of many of our environmental issues off and begin to heal. Most importantly, we keep global warming under 1.5 degrees. What does that mean for our world? What many people many not realize is that the amount of time greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere is measure in decades and centuries. Even if we stop emissions now, we will still have to deal with the consequences of our current situation.

Scientist seem to agree that we are already seeing some of the consequences of global warming and it will only get worse. Storms, drought, severe weather and the destruction of coastal cities are just the beginning. If you’ve ever thought, “Man, it really seems like the storms just keep coming, one right after the other,” you aren’t wrong. Even at 1.5 degrees, much of our world’s global reefs won’t survive. Even now we are seeing a drastic decline. We are steadily losing our fresh water reserves as the polar ice caps break up and melt at an alarming rate. This melt not only robs us of the stored water that fills our lakes rivers and streams during the summer months but it means that our oceans will rise, threatening both coastal ecosystems and cities. It also means a heavier dependence on rain water and with the increasing frequency of drought, this isn’t a comforting though. Crop failure, species extinction, and general destruction will be and already are the consequences of global warming. We have a small window in which to really push for change. Scientists are saying that the impossibility of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees is fast becoming a reality. We have very little time to make the necessary changes for even the best case, still rocky, scenario. Let’s support global change while we can!