2 is a Frightening Number

(Before It's News)

Numbers are misleading. They are not misleading in the same way that statistics can be misleading by giving a wrong impression about the way they analyse information; no, numbers are misleading in themselves.

Take number “2” for example. It is a low number and two of anything gives an impression of not very many; even two elephants are not a lot of elephants, and two mice are hardly an infestation. Two degrees sounds hardly worth the bother; if the climate is for the next generation of folk who will have to live in it, a mere two degrees warmer than our present climate it hardly seems worth the fuss. The next generation can cope by taking off their pullovers.

But in climate terms two degrees Celsius makes quite a massive difference. It changes air and sea oscillations which bring different weather at different times, it melts more ice at the poles, which also changes sea currents which circulate heat around the world, it probably (I must be cautious) increases the length and intensity of hurricanes and typhoons, it may well bring the monsoon to parts that never experienced monsoons and make other parts experience a drier monsoon than usual, and it may well allow plants and animals to spread into places where they are not native. Some of these may be beneficial – it is good to grow grapes and olives in places where they never grew, but others, like the mosquito and similar pests, may well cause unforeseen problems.

Two degrees is what most nations and international organisations hope to hold climate change for the next generation. “2” is likely to be a quite a frightening and life changing number in terms of climate change; just think how frightening and life changing numbers 3, 4 and 5 will be.

Filed under: climate change, global warming Tagged: air oscillations, climate, environment, nature, numbers, science, sea oscillations

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