Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Podcast

The World Will Miss 1.5C. What Comes Next?

Jesse and Rob talk overshoot with NASA’s Kate Marvel.

Drought.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Here’s the bad news: The world is almost certainly going to miss the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. The needed emissions cuts are too large and the direction of policy too slow to lead to any other outcome. In the next few decades, global warming will slip past the 1.5 degree mark — and temperatures will keep rising.

What does that mean? What comes next? And how should we feel about that? On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse chat with Kate Marvel, an associate research scientist at Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. We talk about why every 10th of a degree matters in the fight against climate change, the difference between tipping points and destabilizing feedback loops, and how to think about climate change in a disappointing time. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University.

Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also add the show’s RSS feed to your podcast app to follow us directly.

Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

Kate Marvel: I was grouchy about the UN 1.5 degree report because I thought it was fan fiction. I was like, “We’re not going to do this, so why are you bothering to write this report?” And I was totally wrong, because that report landed with the public in a way that I'd never seen before. It was really galvanizing. It really got attention. It really got people incredibly engaged in the solutions. And that’s not something that I could have ever predicted.

And so for me, that is the most important legacy of the 1.5 degree target.

Jesse Jenkins: I think our challenge now is to ensure that, as we see reporting about temperatures exceeding 1.5 this year or over the next 10 years, that those that are concerned about climate change don’t take away a sense of defeat or failure that we have now lost and it’s time to give up, but rather a heightened sense of urgency, right? If we are missing this target, then we need to work even harder to hold the line and avoid 1.6 or 1.7 or, you know, to bend the curve as rapidly as possible.

I think there has been a bit of confusion in the public discourse — the way in which the science is translated out to the community. And I see this in particular in a lot of the young people that I teach, that come into my classes at Princeton, or that I engage with on college campuses, who often come out of my class with a very different sense than when they started. That, oh, actually, we do have agency here. There is something we can do, and that we’re not doomed in some permanent sense.

There are permanent tragedies. There’s losses and things that will … We talked about the coral reefs that we may never get back. But you don’t stop, right? That’s not the end of the line.

This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by …

Watershed’s climate data engine helps companies measure and reduce their emissions, turning the data they already have into an audit-ready carbon footprint backed by the latest climate science. Get the sustainability data you need in weeks, not months. Learn more at watershed.com.

As a global leader in PV and ESS solutions, Sungrow invests heavily in research and development, constantly pushing the boundaries of solar and battery inverter technology. Discover why Sungrow is the essential component of the clean energy transition by visiting sungrowpower.com.

Intersolar & Energy Storage North America is the premier U.S.-based conference and trade show focused on solar, energy storage, and EV charging infrastructure. To learn more, visit intersolar.us.

Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.

Yellow

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Climate

AM Briefing: New Jersey’s Atomic Promise

On copper chaos, a solar surge, and transformer hopes

New Jersey Democrat for Governor Pledges to Go Nuclear
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Hurricane Erin is generating waves up to 6 feet high in North Carolina as the storm brings dangerous riptides up the East Coast • Heavy rainfall is causing deadly landslides and flooding in Senegal • Isesaki, northwest of Tokyo, is sweltering in temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit as a heat wave that already broke records this month persists.

THE TOP FIVE

1. New Jersey’s Democratic governor candidate stumps for new nuclear

Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor in New Jersey, pledged Wednesday to build a new nuclear plant near the Delaware border in Salem County. At a press conference, the sitting U.S. Representative vowed to “massively expand cheaper, cleaner power generation” and build “an energy arsenal in our state.” That could mean building one or more Westinghouse AP1000s, the gigawatt-sized old-fashioned reactor for which the local utility giant, PSEG, already has early site permits from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “I’m going to immediately develop a plan for a new nuclear power site in Salem County,” Sherrill said at a rain-soaked press conference in Kenilworth, a suburb on the north end of the state outside New York City. “It demands urgency.”

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Energy

How Electricity Got So Expensive

You’ve probably noticed — even Trump has noticed — but the reason why is as complicated as the grid itself.

How Electricity Got So Expensive
Juliet O'Connor

You’re not imagining things: Electricity prices are surging.

Electricity rates, which have increased steadily since the pandemic, are now on a serious upward tear. Over the past 12 months, power prices have increased more than twice as fast as inflation, according to recent government data. They will likely keep rising in years to come as new data centers and factories connect to the power grid.

Keep reading...Show less
Green
Electric Vehicles

‘Pain at the Plug’ Is Coming for Big EV Owners

Big electric vehicles need big batteries — and as electricity gets more expensive, charging them is getting pricier.

‘Pain at the Plug’ Is Coming for Big EV Owners
Juliet O'Connor

As the cost to charge the Rivian R1S ticked up over $50, then $60, I couldn’t help but recall those “Pain at the Pump” segments from the local news. Perhaps you’ve seen the familiar clips where reporters camp out at the local filling station to interview locals fed up with high gas prices. I watched the Rivian charger’s touchscreen as the cost to refuel my weekend test-driver ballooned and imagined the chemically dewrinkled TV anchors doing their first story on “Pain at the Plug.”

I should have been ready for this. Back in the 90s, I remember the shock of filling my parents’ gas-guzzling Ford Explorer, which cost two or three times as much as it took to fill my dinky Escort hatchback. The story isn’t the same in the age of electric vehicles, but it rhymes. It rarely costs more than $20 to top off the small battery in my Tesla Model 3, so my eyes popped a little at the price of refueling a massive EV.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow