1. So, a few more facts about our fast-warming planet’s fastest warming places. washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/…
2. Our analysis of multiple temperature data sets found roughly one-tenth of the globe has already crossed the critical threshold of 2 degrees Celsius (within the last 5 years). That's an enormous area, more than five times the size of the United States. washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/…
3. It also found – and this is highly germane to current climate policy discussions – that about 20 percent of the globe is already above 1.5 degrees C of warming. Much of that is land areas -- places where people live.
4. As for individual countries – Switzerland says very bluntly that it is at 2C. meteoswiss.admin.ch/home/climate/c…
5. Kazakhstan’s latest submission to the UNFCCC contains figures that allow one to calculate the same result. unfccc.int/sites/default/…
6. Austria’s submission says that the Austrian alps are at 2C. This matches our maps which frequently show very strong warming in the middle of Europe, including the alpine region. unfccc.int/sites/default/…
7. A recent study undertaken by Canada found that the entire country is at 1.7C just since 1948, but its vast northern zones are far warmer than that, at 2.3C.
nrcan.gc.ca/maps-tools-and…
nrcan.gc.ca/maps-tools-and…
8. And these are just a few examples of many. The globe is certainly not at 2C of warming, but many people are living with it already.
9. And given that land is warming faster than ocean, we should expect most places where people live to cross 2C before the entire planet itself does.
10. The upshot – and the point of this whole series – is that climate change is not in the future. Severe impacts have already happened. You don’t need models to project what will happen – you need field scientists, and reporters, to go out and see it. /end
