• Traegs@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m glad you’re optimistic but warming has a roughly 40 year delayed effect and we’re already seeing changes. Even if by some magic we halted all emissions, and I mean ALL, we’d still be warming into the 2060s.

    The only way to make the 1.5c target would be a massive investment in carbon capture and huge reduction in carbon emissions.

    I just don’t see it happening. I don’t see the world even trying until it’s too late.

    Some of this delayed effect has been debated, but we ought to consider the cascading effects as well.

    • Ben Matthews
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      1 year ago

      It’s true that there is huge inertia (transfer of heat and carbon from surface to deep ocean, and melting ice), also ‘cascading events’, but after decades of research these are mostly baked into the model projections. Below 1.5C seems very hard now, but well below 2C is certainly doable. What’s not so baked in, is society inertia - ‘not even trying until …’, that we have to change.