Antinuclear

While most people accept the reality of human-caused global warming, we tend not to view it as an urgent issue or high priority.

That lack of immediate concern may in part stem from a lack of understanding that today’s pollution will heat the planet for centuries to come.

So far humans have caused about 1°C warming of global surface temperatures, but if we were to freeze the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide at today’s levels, the planet would continue warming. Over the coming decades, we’d see about another 0.5°C warming, largely due to what’s called the “thermal inertia” of the oceans (think of the long amount of time it takes to boil a kettle of water).

The Earth’s surface would keep warming about another 1.5°C over the ensuing centuries as ice continued to melt, decreasing the planet’s reflectivity.
To put this in context, the international community agreed in last year’s…