The Hill
7-2-2021
Erica Dodds and Marcius Extavour
Governments are adopting aggressive greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals. But they won’t be enough by themselves to keep global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius and stave off the worst effects of climate change.
The problem is rapidly getting worse. New data show climate change accelerated over the last year notwithstanding the pandemic, with atmospheric greenhouse gases now at 419 parts per million of CO2 equivalent and counting. The latest Arctic research finds sea ice, considered one of the tipping points for irreversible climate change, retreating faster than ever before. A new UN report says there’s a 40 percent likelihood we could reach 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years.