The climate change catastrophe that is coming

Jonathan Watts, writing on the Guardian about the UN warning to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C (instead of between 1.5 and 2°C): where “half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.”

The vocabulary associated with climate change has seriously changed recently. I think it is for the better. Instead of saying “glaciers are melting” or “average global temperatures went up for the Xth year in a row”, we are now talking about the actual consequences of such changes, and not just mere observations, unremarkable to most readers.

The half-degree difference could also prevent corals from being completely eradicated and ease pressure on the Arctic, according to the 1.5C study, which was launched after approval at a final plenary of all 195 countries in Incheon in South Korea that saw delegates hugging one another, with some in tears.

Not a good sign.