Scientists have said that we can cool the planet back down. Now they’re not so sure. | It might be possible to “overshoot” and then return to our climate targets. But some changes will be irreversible.

8 comments

1. Not only are you not in Kansas anymore, but you’re not ever going back either.

2. Can’t remember which scientist said it, but they used an analogy of a glass of water in the center of a table. Lift one side of the table and the glass slides toward the edge a bit. Lift it more, it slides a little more. As long as the glass of water remains on the table, there’s a chance of returning it to its original position. But once the angle of the table is too great, the glass of water slides off the table and shatters on the floor, with no hope of returning to its original state (at least in anything resembling human timescales).

   That’s why those boundaries we’re not supposed to cross are called “tipping points.”

   The thing about 1.5C? No one actually knows that it’s a “safe” target, so the tipping points could have already been crossed.

   *There is nothing magical about the 1.5 number, other than that is an agreed aspirational target. The science does not tell us that if, for example, the temperature increase is 1.51 degrees Celsius, then it would definitely be the end of the world. Similarly, if the temperature would stay at 1.49 degrees increase, it does not mean that we will eliminate all impacts of climate change. What is known: The lower the target for an increase in temperature, the lower the risks of climate impacts.*

   [https://news.mit.edu/2023/explained-climate-benchmark-rising-temperatures-0827](https://news.mit.edu/2023/explained-climate-benchmark-rising-temperatures-0827)

3. Some things aren’t coming back, but there is so much left that can be saved.

   The worst is not even close to here yet. We still have a relatively frozen Arctic sea ice layer.

   The Amazon hasn’t fully burned. 

   The ocean can be cooled.

   But only if we try.

   While we remain hiding from the consequences big our actions the destruction of our habits will continue.

4. The paper is [here](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08020-9)

5. thanks for the paywall, WaPo. Not like this is vital info for all of humanity or anything.

6. We’ve always known that many of the consequences would be permanent. Extinctions and ecosystem collapses to simpler, less productive versions are not reversible proceses. That’s not new.

7. A bunch of us were saying this a bunch of years ago.

8. There is hope, I refuse to believe the world is already f up