Our Planet has been hotter before, why care now?

Earth actually has a natural climate cycle, there are periods where it gets cooler (glacial) and periods where it then gets warmer (interglacial). But if climate change is an inherent part of Earth’s life cycle, why are we so worried? 

Time Frame

Though there are natural cycles, we are currently changing the climate at an accelerated rate, which does not fit into any expected trends. Global temperature would naturally fluctuate over thousands of years as a consequence of Earth’s changing orbit around the sun, called the Milankovitch cycles.

Between our last ice age, to our current interglacial period, our planet has warmed by around 4-5°C across a 7,000 year period; that is a 0.01°C increase per century. However, since the 1970s we have made this rise to 1.5°C per century (1). 

A Few Degrees Make A Big Difference 

Just a couple of degrees of cooling could mean an Ice Age. So whilst headlines discussing 1 degree heating might not sound like a pressing concern, it has the possibility to reshape many people's lives. We would see more extreme weather, animals going extinct, sea level rising and much, much more. 

Different requirements 

There are now over 8 billion people on earth, all who require consistent access to a multitude of resources. That is a lot more people who need food stability, medications and safe housing. We have higher demands from the planet now and much more to lose. 

Human Impact

The biggest driver of today’s unprecedented climate change is high levels of CO2 in our atmosphere; owed to fossil fuel burning and other human based activities. We have raised CO2 levels by 50% since the 18th century (2).

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