There Is No Safe Global Warming

Safety is something we all crave. It’s human nature. 

Considering two degrees Celsius a safe
 level of global warming is a delusion.

And so perhaps it’s not surprising that we’ve spent the past decade or so outlining what a “safe” level of global warming is. Language reflecting the conception of “safe” global heating abounds in scientific literature, climate negotiations, and the press. The Paris Agreement enshrined the idea that 2 degrees Celsius as pretty safe. Advocacy from small island nations and others has made a compelling case that 1.5 degrees Celsius would be safer still, allowing, at least, for their continued existence. 

At various times, each of these levels of heating have been called a “guardrail,” “defence line,” and “buffer zone.” On one side, dangerous climate change. On the other, something we can figure out and adapt to if we play our cards right.

Recently, the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold appears to have won out as our best bet for safety. And over the next decade, the world will decide its fate of whether it can limit heating to within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial temperatures. But we don’t have to wait to find out if that level of heating is safe because the answer is right in front of us. Spoiler: It’s not.

Read the Gizmodo story by Brian Kahn - “There Is No Safe Global Warming.”