Is 2 Degrees the Right Limit for Global Warming? Some Scientists Say No
We've come to think of it as the threshold of catastrophic climate change—but it’s the wrong limit to set, two researchers argue.
For more than a decade international climate-policy discussions have revolved around a seemingly simple goal: Limit the rise in average global surface temperature to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). But a new paper argues that the two-degree target is not only increasingly unrealistic but also misleading.
"More and more, it's a combination of fantasy and irrelevance," says David Victor, a professor of international relations at the University of California, San Diego, and the co-author of a critique of the target published in today's issue of Nature. "Maintaining it forces us to continue to pretend that it's feasible—and focuses people's attention on a number that isn't very well connected to the damage humans are doing to the climate."
The two-degree
