We need to work together
We need to collaborate. one degree Celsius increase in global temperature
Many of us have grown up with the knowledge that the threat of climate change is looming, but it’s not some far-off danger anymore. Climate change has already shown up at our doors, busted into our living rooms, and is now on our couch eating our mac and cheese. It’s happening, it’s been happening, and it will keep happening no matter how many polite hints we drop. Even if we throw everything we’ve got at decarbonizing our lifestyles, this unwanted guest isn’t going to see itself out right away. It takes time for our changes to kick in, and real talk, we can’t fully undo the damage that has already been done. But it’s not time to hand over the keys and surrender. There are ways to slow and solve this before it reaches a number of worst case scenarios, but we will have to deal with the current effects of climate change along the way.
So far, average global temperatures have already risen a full degree Celsius since before the Industrial Revolution, about 260 years ago. One degree. Dramatic pause. All right, I get it. That might sound a bit melodramatic. All that lead up for just one degree? Well, one degree outside doesn’t change whether you’re wearing sweatpants or shorts to go jogging. But when the entire planet warms by one degree on average, that’s a lot of energy added to the system, a lot of change.
Also, this is an average global temperature, which means some places have warmed less than one degree, while others have warmed more. For example, the average temperature in the Pacific Northwest of the United States has risen about 0.7 degrees Celsius, meanwhile in the Arctic the average temperature has gone up by about three degrees. Depending on where you live, you might have already noticed some changes—the weird warm days in winter or the heat waves that won’t quit in the summer.
But local warming can have effects way beyond you wearing shorts on your ski trip to Alberta. For example, in Spring 2022, India and Pakistan experienced a record-breaking heat wave with temperatures in India consistently three to eight degrees Celsius above average. Add in a lack of rainfall and this led to failed crops and at least 90 fatalities. Scientists believe an event like this was 30 times more likely as a result of climate change.
Similarly, the 2021 Dixie Fire in California was among the largest and most destructive in the state’s history. It swept through more than 3,800 square kilometers of land and damaged or destroyed more than 1,400 buildings. The fire itself was started by a power line which isn’t climate change’s fault, but before that came two years of below average rainfall and drought, which were exacerbated by climate change.
Meanwhile, places that aren’t being baked are being flooded as glaciers and ice sheets melt. The average global sea level is already risen by around 20 centimeters in the last 150 years. 20 centimeters doesn’t sound super dangerous on its own—kiddie pools are deeper than that—but this has already been enough to drown a number of low line in Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, and in the U.S. high tide flooding is happening up to 11 times more often around the Gulf Coast than it was in 2000. The United Nations Refugee agency estimates that on average more than 20 million people are displaced every year by sudden extreme weather events like flooding, fire, and storms.
Now, when extreme storms happen, it’s hard to point a finger and say that single weather event was for sure caused by climate change. Instead, what we can say is, hey, that storm, the one we all just hit under our desks, from that storm was accelerated, made worse by climate change. What’s happening is this: all that extra heat that’s become trapped in the atmosphere has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Basically, climate change has taken your local weather and fueled it up, making whatever weather you’re experiencing bigger—bigger droughts, bigger rain events, bigger cold snaps, bigger everything. All this from the average one degree Celsius increase in global temperature. Even if we don’t make it all the way, we can still keep working to limit how much the temperature rises. Every half a degree matters, and every little bit we can do will improve things for future generations and for all of us here now.
Special thanks to Michael Wong who restocked our mac and cheese after this episode’s intro - without you, we’d have been too hangry to make it to the end. Also, thanks for supporting us on Patreon.
Crash Course Climate and Energy is produced by Complexly with support provided by Breakthrough Energy and Gates Ventures. This episode was filmed at Castlegarity Studio and was made with the help of all of these nice people.
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