A global temperature review of 2024 confirms the trend that has been so concerning to climatologists. The last 10 years have been the warmest on record, and 2024 has been the warmest yet. The European Copernicus calculation measured 2024 as 1.6°C above the pre-industrial temperature, with most days being above the 1.5°C aspirational target set by the Paris Agreement (COP21) in 2015. Other organizations measured a slightly different temperature for 2024: NASA at 1.47°C, NOAA at 1.46°C, and Berkley Earth at 1.62°C. The differences are technical but the trend is the same. Global temperatures are rising in concert with our greenhouse gas emissions.
Continue reading The Quadra Project: Uninhabitable – Part 1Tag Archives: 3.0°C
Global Average Temperatures Of Select Nations: A Report Card
While the world has already reached the threshold of a 1.5°C increase in global temperatures, many scientists believe it is still possible to get back on track. According to the 2023 UN Emissions Gap Report, this would require a 42% cut in our emissions. It would take a 28% reduction to keep emissions below 2.0°C by the end of this century. A tool on the Berkeley Earth website shows each nation’s emissions in 2022, their current trajectory by 2100 and where it could be if all net zero pledges are met.
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BC’s Productivity Emergency vs Rising GHG Emissions
With the rise of global temperatures already at 1.4°C, we are currently on track to reach 2.8°C by the end of this century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims, “every additional 0.1°C of global warming causes clearly discernible increases in the intensity and frequency of temperature and precipitation extremes, as well as agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions.”
Denise Mullen, from the Business Council of BC, recently informed the SRD’s Natural Resources Committee that the province faces a more urgent problem. British Columbia is in the midst of a productivity emergency.
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Our Fair Share: Climate Crisis Workshop on Cortes Island
“A ccording to NASA, if we look back 800,000 years, we can see that carbon dioxide concentration fluctuated between roughly 180 and 280 parts per million and just in the geological blink of an eye, we have sent that parts per million up to just about 400. So we’re getting very close to a doubling of CO2 relative to where it has been for a long time.”
That quote was Max Thaysen, from the Climate Action Network, explaining one of the slides (top of page) shown at ‘Our Fair Share,’ an interactive online climate solutions workshop held in Mansons Hall on Thursday, October 3, 2024.
The event was hosted by the Climate Action Committee.
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The Quadra Project: Protecting Old Forests
At least 1,000 people, representing more than 220 diverse organizations and First Nations from British Columbia, attended the United for Old Growth March & Rally in Victoria on February 25. They marched from City Hall to the BC Legislature, demanding the implementation of the Old Growth Strategic Review, a comprehensive 2020 study that recommended the immediate protection of the remnant old growth forests in the province. Not one of its 14 recommendations has yet been implemented.
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