When we look at the state of our current climate crisis, we might ask ourselves, how did we get here? Why does it seem like we are watching all of these global catastrophes but instead of putting on the brakes, we are running straight into more? What’s all this talk about keeping the amount of global warming down under 1.5 degrees from here on out? We’ve already increased the earth's temperature with our industrialism and agricultural practices. What’s the big deal about these seemingly tiny temperature changes?
Most of us are somewhat familiar with the concept of air pollution contributing to general atmospheric pollution which creates what we’ve labeled the greenhouse effect. This means that when heat builds up in the atmosphere, it isn’t able to disperse but is trapped near enough to the earth’s surface to raise the overall temperature.
WARNING: MATH INCOMING! The temperature of the earth has risen about .14 degree Fahrenheit per decade since about 1880 but in the last 40 years, that amount per decade has more than doubled. You might think, well, what’s a few degrees? A little under 2 degrees Fahrenheit doesn’t seem like such a big deal. However, let’s consider for a second what kind of energy expenditure we are really talking about. For scale, let's think about your heating bill. If it's cold outside and you have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home, all one level, 1500sq ft, in say, Tennessee, let’s estimate that your heating bill is $100/month (67,500 BTUs). Raising the temperature of your home (all other factors staying the same) two degrees will increase your bill a little bit but not a crazy amount for that space. Perhaps, 5% or 6% more money and the associated heat expenditure to raise the temperature in the whole house 2 degrees higher is minimal. Now your bill is $106. This isn’t really about the money but it may help illustrate the real point which is that in this space you are pumping in more heat to raise the temperature of the whole space.
Now, you got a new job and bought a new house that has 5 bedrooms, 6 baths and is about 6,000 sq. ft. Now, it takes about $400 per month to heat your house. To raise the temp two degrees now, it would take $24 per month and the amount of heat needed to raise that temperature and fill that space is 4x as high. Now…imagine that you upgraded again but now your house is the size of a football field (57,600 sq. ft.). Now it costs $3,840/month to heat the house and $230.4 to increase the heat by 2 degrees. You add a second story, and a third. In fact, you add stories to this house until you reach space. Roughly 27,500 stories to be exact. $105,600,000 is what it costs to heat your new house (ignoring the reality of environmental facts like it getting colder as you go up, etc.) for one month. A two degree increase will now cost $6,336,000. What if your house covered the entire earth which, fyi, would take more than 100 billion football fields? This is an imperfect analogy as there are a million little factors that impact actual atmospheric conditions and the energy required to raise earth temp 2 degrees. However, you can see how if we were talking about an atmosphere-sized house, the cost to heat it ($1.056e+19) and the cost to raise the temp two degrees($6.336e+17) would be…astronomical. More significant than the cost itself is the amount of heat it would be paying for. Roughly that equal to 125,340,652 atomic bombs.
Now, consider this. Not only have we already trapped the necessary amount of extra heat in our atmosphere to increase the earth's temp 2 degrees but we are well on our way to doing it again in half the time. The livability of earth depends on our specific temperature among other things. If it raises again in this way, it’s estimated that roughly 20% of our wildlife and plant life will lose at least half of their habitat. Half! How many of those animals will die off because their survival is balanced on a tightrope already due to other factors? How many animals in the food chain depend on the ones that won’t survive?? Suddenly, 2 percent is a much, much bigger issue. Next time we will talk more about what is driving that temperature up and what we can do to actually impact the speed of that increase!
6 Pressing Questions About Beef and Climate Change, Answered | World Resources Institute
Climate Change: Global Temperature | NOAA Climate.gov.
Effects | Facts – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.
Our planet is warming. Here's what's at stake if we don't act now. | Stories | WWF