What does hitting 1.5 degrees really mean?
A major study carried out in 2021 for the World Metereological Organisation (WMO) concludes that we are now 40% likely to hit the Paris Agreement’s cap of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2025 Climate: World at risk of hitting temperature limit soon – BBC News
The world is heating up faster than was predicted a few short years ago. At the moment, projections suggest that even with recent pledges to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, the world is on course to heat up by up to 3C.
To put this into perspective, let’s examine what will this mean to us living in Lancaster and the surrounding areas.
An article in the Daily Express in Feb 2020 Sea level rises MAP: Exact locations in the UK that will be wiped out by rising sea levels | UK | News | Express.co.uk reveals that it is not just Asian cities such as Osaka, in Japan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, in China that will see their coastlines change at 3 degrees C increase, with millions losing their homes and way of life. Miami, in Florida, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, The Hague in the Netherlands and Alexandria in Egypt will also see millions fleeing from the flood waters, never to return. But so too, will those in Overton and the low lying land between Morecambe and Lancaster. We may not be looking at millions losing their homes but for the thousands of families currently residing in residential caravan parks, farms and houses that date back hundreds of years, climate change will become a life-changing problem within the next generation, even if we succeed in becoming net zero by 2050.
We shouldn’t be complacent and think that climate change is rather nice, giving us mediterranean summers and milder winters. It just doesn’t work like that. Even for those families who still end up with having a house to live in, the massive changes around the world to agricultural systems that are already at breaking point and for the millions of refugees fleeing the huge coastal cities moving to wherever they can to earn a living, life is going to become one helluva lot harder than it is right now!
One thing is for certain, our local communities are going to have to work together to help us all adapt to the changes that will inevitably come. Our children and grand-children will need to be extremely flexible in how they will earn a living and in finding accommodation that serves their needs for an uncertain future. We cannot rely on historical and conventional wisdom to guide us in a changing world that we will need to adapt to in continual efforts to become environmentally sustainable. We need to learn a wide number of skills and become able to work with others to get the most out of the whole community.
We need to practice, now, with as many different means as we can find to be community minded and learn how to support each other. Not wait for government to do everything for us but find new ways of acting locally in ways that are of benefit to each other. Helping others as well as ourselves survive and flourish. This is a huge task and we need to begin it now. This is the primary aim of Transition City Lancaster. Why not join us for our “What can WE do?” event for The Great Big Green Week at The Gregson Hall starting at 14:30 on Saturday 18th September? Please book with info@transitioncitylancaster.org to reserve your seat.
