The magic 1.5: What's behind climate talks' key elusive goal (only 9.22 years left)

AP via MSN ^ | 11/07/21 | Seth Borenstein

[Libloather]

Glasgow, Scotland (AP) - One phrase, really just a number, dominates climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland: The magic and elusive 1.5.

That stands for the international goal of trying to limit future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. It’s a somewhat confusing number in some ways that wasn’t a major part of negotiations just seven years ago and was a political suggestion that later proved to be incredibly important scientifically.

Stopping warming at 1.5 or so can avoid or at least lessen some of the most catastrophic future climate change harms and for some people is a life-or-death matter, scientists have found in many reports.

The 1.5 figure now it is the “overarching objective” of the Glasgow climate talks, called COP26, conference President Alok Sharma said on the first day of the conference. Then on Saturday he said the conference, which takes a break on Sunday, was still trying “to keep 1.5 alive.”

For protesters and activists, the phrase is “1.5 to stay alive.”

And 1.5 is closer than it sounds. That’s because it may sound like another 1.5 degrees from now but because it is since pre-industrial times, it’s actually only 0.4 degrees (0.7 degrees Fahrenheit) from now. The world has warmed 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

**SNIP**

“It’s physically possible (to limit warming to 1.5 degrees), but I think it is close to politically impossible in the real world barring miracles,” Columbia University climate scientist Adam Sobel said. “Of course we should not give up advocating for it.”

[Libloather]

But in a way both the “1.5 and 2 degree C thresholds are somewhat arbitrary,” Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson said in an email. “Every tenth of a degree matters!”

$cience.

[marktwain]

Complete nonsense.

We are on the edge of global cooling, because of the solar effects.

It is possible the increase in CO2 has been helping to stave off the cooling, to our benefit.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Of course the actual MEASURED warming is and will be far less than their “projections”, so ten years from now, having collapsed Western Civilization, they’ll be able to say “SEE, it worked!”

[exnavy]

When i graduated high school in 1973 all the talk was about the coming ice age caused by mankind....

[dkGba]

I just can’t believe the idiots that still go on an on about climate change when there are IMMEDIATE threats to our life and livelihoods such as war, nuclear weapons, biological weapons, deadly criminals with no consequences for crime, threats of vaccine vs work/food, etc etc. Can’t believe all ‘virtuous’ climate change followers who can’t see it is a MADE UP AGENDA WITH MORE NEFARIOUS PURPOSE!!! Same idiots that buy whole Covid agenda. I can’t believe how easy it is to brain wash nearly an entire populus!!