Since non-climate scientist like me are so dumb, I think using 1.5C, even if it is not going to be achievable, to reiterate the point we have to stop emissions ASAP or else these once-in-500-years droughts and floods will only keep happening and keep getting worse.
Setting a hard limit (true or not) may have hurt more than helped. It introduces the “well, we’re not there yet so have some time to act”. When the news starts using 2.0 as a new limit, everyone will sigh in relief because we have more time to continue. Except we never did have that time.
Since non-climate scientist like me are so dumb, I think using 1.5C, even if it is not going to be achievable, to reiterate the point we have to stop emissions ASAP or else these once-in-500-years droughts and floods will only keep happening and keep getting worse.
Setting a hard limit (true or not) may have hurt more than helped. It introduces the “well, we’re not there yet so have some time to act”. When the news starts using 2.0 as a new limit, everyone will sigh in relief because we have more time to continue. Except we never did have that time.
That makes sense. That’s why we have to keep it at 1.5C even if it’s foregone, and 2.0C is very close to foregone if not already.
3.1 degrees if we don’t act.