Global Temperatures Could Break 1.5 Degrees Celsius Climate Threshold by 2027
Think it’s hot now? It’s only going to get worse.
According to the World Meteorological Organization’s latest update, global temperatures will surge to record highs in the next five years. Hear that, climate deniers? The world is on fire.
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For all our memes on the Philippines’ heat, our experiences are proof that climate change is affecting our daily lives. And El Niño hasn’t even started yet. In the Philippines, we’re expected to feel the effects of El Niño from June of this year to the first quarter of 2024. As unbearable as the heat has become, WMO warns that El Niño will only get worse in the coming years.
According to WMO, there is a 66 percent chance that the annual average global temperature will exceed 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years.
In layman’s terms, that means we’re screwed (and we’re not even kidding). The WMO measures global warming against global temperatures before human industries actively impacted the climate. The planet, despite its size, is a fragile thing. Temperature deviations could change ecosystems and affect nations. How far we deviate from the pre-industrial annual average global temperature determines just how bad global warming will be.
To curb climate change, the 195 countries and territories that signed the 2016 Paris Agreement concurred that the world could not warm beyond 2 °C and that efforts must be made to limit even further to 1.5 °C. While WMO’s five-year predictions are still far from the 2 °C hard limit, “we are getting closer.”
According to the WMO, the 1.5 °C warming will cause climate impacts to become increasingly severe. In the coming years, the Earth can expect more extreme weather, sea level rise, melting ice and glaciers, and ocean heating and acidification.
And on top of all that, there is a 98 percent chance that at least one year between 2023 and 2027 will be the warmest year in recorded human history. It might be time to invest in a heavy-duty aircon because it looks like hell is moving to Earth.
Human activity has made global warming inevitable. Organizations like WMO recognize that we can’t stop it, but we can slow it down. For now. The WMO report is a warning, but how well governments and industries will respond to it… well, who the hell knows?
Capitalism has always trumped the greater good, anyway.
