2 Degrees Will Change the World
This story originally appeared in the Huffington Post and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
World leaders are meeting in Paris this month in what amounts to a last-ditch effort to avert the worst ravages of climate change. Climatologists now say that the best case scenario—assuming immediate and dramatic emissions curbs—is that planetary surface temperatures will increase by at least 2 degrees Celsius in the coming decades.
This may sound like a small uptick, but the implications are profound. Rising temperatures will destroy plant and animal habitats, and reduce yields of important food crops. More people will be exposed to the ravages of flooding and drought.