Time and again it has been stressed by the world leaders that global warming needs to be reduced to avoid the Earth's temperature rising by 2°C. The temperature needs to be limited to 1.5 degrees celsius. The 2015 Paris Agreement has committed the countries to limit the average temperature of the planet.
Scientists have been informing again and again to all the countries of the world that they need to control their CO2 emissions by 2030 from the 2010 levels and reach the net-zero level so as to prevent the global temperatures to surge by 2 degrees celsius. It is an ambitious task that the scientists, financiers and activists of the world have been discussing and debating in COP26.
What has happened: The Current State
The global temperatures have already risen by almost 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels. Every four decades were hotter than the previous decades since 1850.
The climate scientist at the Climate Service Center Daniela Jacob said, "We never had such global warming is only a few decades. Half a degree means much more extreme weather, and it can be more often, more intense, or extended in duration."
It is at this very temperature the global floods, torrential rains and extreme monsoon has hot the world. Many wildfires, massive glacier melting has been experienced by the world due to this rise in temperature. China, Indonesia, Australia, Greenland were all sufferers of this penalty. As Rachel Warren from the University of East Anglia said, "Climate change is already affecting every inhabited region across the globe."
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What would happen if the Global Temperatures increase to 1.5°C and 2°C?
More warming to 1.5°C and beyond will worsen such impacts. Let us know below what would happen if the temperatures rise beyond 1.5 degrees celsius here.
The heatwaves would become more frequent and severe.
An extreme heating event that happened once per decade with no human influence what-so-ever would take place 4.1 times a decade and would happen 5.6 times at 2 degrees celsius. This has been informed by the U.N. climate science panel, IPCC. In case the temperatures increase by 4 degrees celsius the event would occur 9.4 times per decade.
The warmer atmosphere would hold more moisture which is how the global rainfall and storm rate would also see a rise.
Coral Reefs and Ice, Sea at 1.5 and 2 degrees celsius:
As per climate scientist Michael Mann at Pennsylvania State University," At 1.5°C, there’s a good chance we can prevent most of Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheet from collapsing."
At 1.5 degrees still, the sea levels would rise a few feet and the coastlines would be eroded.
While at 2-degree Celsius, these countries could not be saved. The sea levels would rise upto 10 metres or 30 feet says, Mann. He was however uncertain that how soon this could happen.
Warming of 1.5 degrees would destroy 70% of coral reefs but at 2 degrees 99% could be drowned. All the fish and the ocean habitat would be destroyed beyond this temperature.
Food, Forests and Disease at 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees:
Warming would also increase the chances of degradation of food. The Climate Scientist Simon Lewis from University College London said, "If you have crop failures in a couple of the breadbaskets of the world at the same time, then you could see extreme food price spikes and hunger and famine across wide swathes of the world."
The warming of 2 degrees would see a rise in insects and loss of animal habitats. The mosquitoes that carry malaria would also see a tenfold rise in many parts of the world. There would also be a risk to wildlife and forest wildfire.
Droughts, reduced rainfall, and continued destruction of the Amazon through deforestation, for example, could see the rainforest system collapse, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere rather than storing it.
Beyond 2 degrees the human civilization would not be possible.
Till now, the climate pledges that countries have submitted to the United Nations' registry of pledges put the world on track for 2.7°C of warming. In case the pledges of COP26 could be implemented the temperatures would be limited to 1.8 degrees celsius.
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