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Why protesters should be wary of '12 years to climate breakdown' rhetoric
20 April 2019
Myles Allen is concerned by us of the line“the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have 12 years” before climate breakdown. Do slogan writers mean climate chaos will happen after 12 years, or that we have 12 years to stop it.
Writing in The Conversation, Allen states we should stop saying something globally bad is going to happen in 2030 - bad stuff is already happening and every half a degree of warming matters. But even if we don't manage to halve emissions by 2030, he points out that the IPCC is clear that, even reducing emissions as fast as possible, we can barely keep temperatures below 1.5°C.
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