A few degrees is a disaster

They say average temperatures shouldn’t rise more than 2 degrees Centigrade (4 degrees F); it would be disastrous. You have to take their word that the change would be bad, because frankly, it doesn’t sound that bad. A summer high of 85 degrees F would become 89 degrees F, a winter low of 10 degrees F would become 14 degrees F, and so forth. Quite survivable.

How would it be disastrous?

Well, it all depends on the word “average.” That word conceals a lot.

Because along with 4 degrees higher, the swings from high to low would be much wider. A week in April right now might go from 38 degrees (night) to 54 degrees (day) and back down again – averaging 46 degrees. After climate change, a week might go from 29 degrees to 71 degrees and back again, averaging 50 degrees. Only four degrees warmer on average, but a swing of 26 degrees instead of 16.

You might wonder how “global warming” can include cold spells (people pretend to think that’s unbelievable) but it does. Warm air gets pushed higher into the arctic zone, where it mixes with very cold air and comes down again as a cold snap. Not too hard to understand after all.

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 5:40 PM with the headline "A few degrees is a disaster."