We’ve long been warned that planet Earth’s carbon emissions budget is almost up, and now we’ve been handed a harsh deadline.
At the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, the chance to limit global warming to the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5 degrees will expire in just seven years.
On Australian soil, we are already there, with land temperatures now an average of 1.51 degrees warmer than when records began in 1910.
Within 15 years, an even more dire deadline looms: the chance to limit warming to 1.7 degrees
yesterday ‘s report has laid out exactly how the Earth’s altering climate is already affecting Australia’s weather patterns – from rainfall shifts to extreme heatwaves and bushfires – and what it is likely to mean for our future and our children’s.