Every degree, Celsius or Fahrenheit, matters - Albuquerque Journal
Every degree, Celsius or Fahrenheit, matters - Albuquerque Journal
Last month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Synthesis Report, the closing chapter of the sixth assessment cycle, and two things are clear:
1) we are not doing enough to limit global temperature rise and avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, and
2) the urgency of action is muted for many Americans, because IPCC scientists continue to report data using Celsius exclusively.
It’s no secret Americans are responsible for a significant share of global climate pollution, and we need to be more engaged in solutions to limit temperature rise. It’s also no secret most Americans are unfamiliar with Celsius and don’t know how to convert it to Fahrenheit. Why then does climate research and reporting rely almost exclusively on Celsius to describe the magnitude of the problem we face? U.S. readers would find it strange to see local distances reported in kilometers instead of miles or stories about the U.S. economy reported in euros instead of dollars. The use of Celsius in reporting about climate creates a barrier to engaging Americans in needed solutions.
With climate change, every fraction of every degree matters. The call to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius was not effectively heeded at the COP27 meetings in Egypt and we are now headed toward a 2.8 degrees Celsius rise in global temperature. But what do those numbers represent? Most Americans don’t do the math, so let’s make it simple: the former is equivalent to your child running a temperature of 101 F and the latter a fever of 104 F. With the former, you might simply put your child to bed and hope for the best. With the latter, you’d be seeking medicine. That’s the emergency we face with a planet on track for a 2.8 degree C (5 degree F) rise in temperature. It’s time to take our medicine.
As governor of New Mexico, I was proud to lead the fight for some of the most comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction regulations in the United States, and as Department of Energy Secretary under President Clinton I built a strong portfolio of renewable energy projects that is paying dividends in clean energy innovations today. But it wasn’t enough. Even the significant commitment made by the Biden administration in the Inflation Reduction Act is not enough. Partly because many Americans still do not understand the existential threat we all face, we have not built a national consensus on the need to act more dramatically. Americans can and must play a larger role in demanding climate action, and that should start with making climate research more understandable to more Americans.
It will take an extraordinary global effort to avoid devastating climate impacts such as massive crop failures, drought and heat waves so severe as to make much of the planet uninhabitable. To spur Americans into more concerted action, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and climate journalists should include Fahrenheit in all public information and reporting on climate change meant for American audiences. It is past time for a change.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.