- The Paris Climate Accords in 2015 set an ambitious (and necessary) goal of keeping global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temps. But a study says we might’ve blown past that threshold several years ago.
- Scientists at the University Western Australia Oceans Institute studied long-lived Caribbean sclerosponges and created an ocean temperature timeline dating back to the 1700s.
- While the study claims that we surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius in 2020, other scientists question if data from just one part of the world is enough to capture the immense thermal complexity of our oceans.
(it’s real, let’s move on), it’s impossible to have missed the near-ubiquitous call to action to “keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.” Over the past few years, the somewhat bureaucratic phrase has become a rallying cry for the climate conscious.
, and describes a sort of climate threshold—if we pass a long-term average increase in temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius, and hold at those levels for several years, we’re going to do some serious damage to ourselves and our environment.
” because they grow so slowly. Like, a-fraction-of-a-millimeter-a-year slow. This essentially allows them to lock away climate data in their limestone skeletons, not entirely unlike tree rings or ice cores.
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. “Basically, time’s running out.”
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, that means we’ve been above 1.5 degrees of change for at least a year. That doesn’t jump the long-term average over the 1.5-line, but it’s certainly a sign we’re getting close fast.
need to curtail emissions immediately—after all, the sea sponges are telling us so.
The 2023 Popular Mechanics Automotive Excellence Awards: EVs
