This episode started with a pretty straight forward question. If we do go past 1.5°C, which, if we are really honest with ourselves, now looks increasingly likely, and we somehow manage to bring temperatures back down again later, what actually happens to the ocean? Does it start going back to how it was before?
It’s not the news you were hoping for, if you’re a fan of all things ocean. Cooling the planet would obviously still be an incredibly good thing, of course, and every tiny fraction of a degree we avoid truly does matter. It’s just that the ocean doesn’t respond in the way we would hope it might. Sea level can keep rising, reefs can be badly damaged along the way, and ocean conditions can keep changing long after global temperatures have started falling back down.
That’s what I’ve been coming to terms with this week, after reading through a new UN report.
I think we’ve sometimes talked about 1.5°C as like it’s a big old on/off switch. Stay below it and we’re okay, go above it and we’re buggered.
The reality is much messier than that, and that’s what this episode gets into.
I record Voice for the Blue because ocean stories deserve to be heard. I write Ocean Rising so those stories reach you each week. This is only possible thanks to a wonderfully supportive group of paying subscribers. If you find value here, please do consider joining them.
I will be back in your ears soon.
- Luke
