Impact Trust • Working glossary
Three-degree world
Planning for 3 degrees C warmer than pre-industrial times, recognising that we have blasted through 1.5 and area alreaday pretty close to 2.
Details
Our Take
Brutally concrete; cuts through aspirational climate language. Meaning 5 degrees C on land, 8 degrees C in summer urban environments. Temperature is 'just a proxy for the energetics of the world' -- which determines storm intensity, ice melt speed, and drought severity. If you plan for 1.5 and get 3, your plans are not slightly wrong -- they are fundamentally inadequate.
Examples of Use
Climate science
Synonyms/Variants
Realistic climate scenario; Worst-plausible warming; High-end warming pathway
Typical everyday wording
Planning for how hot it is actually getting, not how hot we hoped
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