3 Degrees Celsius Global Warming Would Devastate Planet

There is a real possibility The planet will warm up by an average of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) this century – and that will be disastrous.

In a warming world, scientists agree, deadly heat waves, massive wildfires, and damaging downpours will be more frequent and more severe than they are today. The oceans will become warmer and more acidic, causing fish declines and possibly the end of coral reefs. In fact, a quarter or more of Earth’s species could become extinct in such conditions or are headed for it. Our coastlines will be reshaped, as a result of sea level rise, century after century, drowning places like Charleston, South Carolina’s Market Street, downtown Providence, Rhode Island, and the Space Center in Houston.

All this, as climate scientist Daniel Swain from the University of California, Los Angeles, will be bad: “Terrible for humans. Bad for the ecosystem. Bad for the stability of the Earth system that we humans depend on everything.

Experts cannot say exactly what this future will look like because it depends on what humans do to mitigate the worsening climate crisis, especially in the coming decades. But for world leaders gathered this weekend in Glasgow for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), this future may be inevitable if they do not agree on more aggressive and immediate measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions.