Originally published by: The Guardian
The Earth is changing faster than at any point in human memory as a result of human-caused global heating.
Since the mid-1800s, when we began burning fossil fuels at an industrial scale, we have been modifying our atmosphere and causing the globe to heat up. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, which causes hotter temperatures, rises in sea level, disruption to ecosystems and more extreme weather.
Scientists have forecast that if the world passes 2C of heating above pre-industrial levels, the consequences will be catastrophic for billions of people around the world. Governments signed the Paris agreement in 2015 in which they agreed to limit warming to 2C with an ambition to keep it below 1.5C.