When Will We Know If We’ve Crossed 1.5°C?

You may have seen Amy’s piece in Scientific American a few weeks ago on why we should hold on to the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial temperatures. 

One question that didn’t make it into the piece but has come up for us a lot in conversation: how will we actually know when we’ve crossed that threshold? Or have we crossed it already?

The answer is surprisingly complicated—click below to listen to Amy’s breakdown of how this limit is actually defined. If you’d really like to dive into the weeds, we recommend this piece in Carbon Brief.

And if you read Amy’s Scientific American piece, let us know your thoughts! You can comment below or send us a message at connect@thresholdpodcast.org.