> It can no longer be denied: Climate change is progressing unabated and accelerating. In 2023 and 2024, global average temperatures were 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time. It is even possible that the 1.5-degree limit for global warming agreed upon in Paris may already have been permanently exceeded.

The value they are talking about is the political definition, and not the scientific definition. The political definition requires a +1.5℃ increase to be unbroken across a number of years - 20 years, as set by the IPCC - before it is “accepted”.

Not the first year in which warming never again drops beneath +1.5℃, but 20 unbroken years of said minimum.

Many scientists consider +1.5℃ to have been reliably and consistently breached at some point in the very early 2010s.

And by that same metric we might have already blown past +2℃, which may have happened by 2023.

The reason why this is so alarming is because +4℃ is the point at which megafauna - all animals over 45kg, like humans - can no longer survive on this planet. They go extinct.

There are adults alive today which will see this come to pass.

So it may just be too little, too late, with our species' extinction on the table (never mind all the 1000s of species we've already wiped out).

Don't get me wrong: every little bit helps (especially now), and sooner = better. So please keep deploying solutions, and stop contributing to the problem!

But I can't say I'm optimistic. Public at large does not understand how quickly the state of a system can change once underlying factors cross critical thresholds.

Perhaps replace burning the coal with renewables/nuclear. And simultaneously keep methane leaks as low as humanly possible given how toxic methane is to our protective atmosphere.

Instead, what you actually see happening is environmental groups actively working to _shut down_ nuclear reactors before alternate power sources are ready and available, like in Germany and New York. This of course then results in higher prices, brown outs, and burning more coal and natural gas until more alternate power sources can be built to meet demand, also making the pollution issue much worse in the short term. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

“Global Warming at 3 °C by 2050? What's Behind the New German Climate Warning” (worldcrunch.com)

I was just recalling 1.5 being a “everything is fucked” Paris agreement number

Then it was “some people will survive” 2.5

It’s like 100% of climate scientists were ignored by industry and society