Experts Say Greta Thunberg is Raising Awareness of Climate Science

The impassioned speech made by the 16-year-old environmental activist at the United Nations earlier this week has earned praise from many climate experts. Many of them are saying that Thunberg has found a way to raise awareness of climate change while reaching and rallying people together in ways that have been difficult to do for decades.

Saleemul Huq, who is the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in London, says, “she is getting people to listen, which we have failed to do.”

Co-director of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University, Sally Benson, says that Thunberg “has been a catalytic leader.” She says, “We’re seeing more grassroots action, and she’s creating a movement where young people are… saying ‘we’re not going to wait.’”

In her speech, Thunberg cited data from a seminal report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was published in October of last year. Using information from this report, Thunberg emphasized how urgent the global situation is. She addressed the fact that even if we manage to cut carbon emissions in half in the next ten years, we still face a 50% chance of going above the allotted 1.5 degrees that represent the point of no return.

And climate experts aren’t even sure that’s plausible. According to Simon Donner, who is a climatologist at the University of British Columbia, the idea of us cutting out global emissions in half is becoming less and less likely.

“Mathematically and technically, it is possible, but it’s not realistic,” Donner says, adding that to do so, “would take enormous changes in countries around the world.”

Recent data shows that within the last few years we have been on an upward trend in our carbon emissions, resulting in a record high in 2018. Our current CO2 budget, which has been calculated with the 1.5-degree Celsius limit in mind, will be used up in eight years. And that’s if we keep at the projected rate. This is one fact that Thunberg touched on in her speech.

But Donner says that even though the tasks that lay ahead of us might be difficult, it’s important not to feel discouraged because every little thing helps. The important thing is that every action counts.

“The world is not going to end in 2030, even if we fail to avoid 1.5 degrees of warming,” he says. “But we should still do the best we can, because the more we reduce emissions, the less the planet will warm and the less people will suffer.”