Have We Made ANY Progress on Climate Change? Here's The Data, You Decide

RCP 8.5 has often been referred to as “business as usual.” It describes a world without action on climate policy and continued fossil fuel use expanding unchecked, leading to a truly apocalyptic future for our climate and everything living on our planet – including us.

For this episode we wanted to see where we are in terms of “business as usual,” and if we are still headed towards an apocalypse of sorts… or if, perhaps, all of the technological innovations in renewables and EVs along with new climate policy such as the Paris Agreement might have bent down the curve on global warming. So tune into this episode of Weathered to see where we’ve been in our race against the clock, where we’re going, and how the RCP scenarios can help us understand this story as well as our future on this planet.

Weathered is a show hosted by weather expert Maiya May and produced by Balance Media that helps explain the most common natural disasters, what causes them, how they’re changing, and what we can do to prepare.

And keep up with Weathered and PBS Terra on:

[beast_boy]

We are so anthropocentric that we fail to realize even a 2ºC increase would be apocalyptic for so many other species and ecosystems on this planet. For many species it is already too late, but we could save so many more.

[DirtFlyer]

The problem is the tipping points. We don't know when or by what degree tipping points will affect climate change. We could see vast quantities of methane released from melting arctic tundra starting in a couple years, or maybe in a few decades. And those tipping points may slightly increase warming, or it may cause enormous acceleration in climate change. It's not included in the modeling, and it's like tinkering with a globe-sized bomb by not making radical changes to reduce emissions immediately.

[c.rutherford]

For some reason carbon pollution is a political issue you can choose whether or not to "believe" in, whereas all other kinds of pollution are just pollution. I never quite understood how oil companies pulled that off. It was genius from their own marketing standpoint, although incredibly stupid given the long term results.

[erinrising]

in regards to being too alarmist, I say hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. It's far better to be an alarmist and over-react than a denialist and so nothing

[lornzs]

One of the ways to address climate change that i havent seen many people talking about in north america is public transportation. The amount of infrastructure that cars take up is far more carbon intensive than public transportation.

[kelly-bo-belly]

I will not celebrate the absolute absence of effort from the world leaders and politicians.

[swardinc]

i love how people no longer seem to celebrate meeting small goals and are only focused on the end goal, the fact that we dropped 2 degrees off the chart is very amazing considering how many people are involved. Now lets work on the next two

[kaijukid]

I don't get how people are saying the lesson of this video is "Everything will be ok. " They're clearly not saying that. What they're saying is that while we still have a TON of work to do, lots of progress has still been made and that we need to keep fighting for it.

[joey]

The problem with this video is that it is trying to solve the problem and save the world with the same level of thinking that created the problems in the first place. If we only look at “emissions, ” we completely overlook, say, the loss of forest ecosystems which actually sequester and reduce atmospheric carbon. And forests are cleared in the name of the same “development” that makes countries apparently rich. Also, agriculture is among the largest, of not the largest, contributor to global warming, and it’s not mentioned once; and it’s a problem not because of tailpipe exhausts, but the loss of forests as they become tilled soil, and soil as it becomes inorganic dirt, the collapsing of insect life as it it killed to grow crops, and water as it it polluted to fertilize lifeless dust. Yet, regenerative agriculture, plus other ecologically-inspired ideas, have the potential to reverse climate change. The query goes so much deeper than new technology wrapped in delusions of old thinking.

[mgmcd]

Fool around and find out. Thank big oil for muddying the waters on this issue, by their own admission. And big coal for muddying the waters on renewable electric sources, including nuclear. Well, they got their money. I guess that’s all that matters.

[mikebolin]

We cannot afford to stop pushing at all. Thank you Maiya for all you do as well. 😊

[bobbiejwilbur]

We are not doing enough! We need to change our mindsets in order to make change happen.

[davemac]

... love the episode... at the same time, way way way, too early to start patting ourselves on the back

[kimwelch]

I have noticed that all the videos of this type always end on a positive note. The pattern seems to be: "We are all in deadly danger--but it'll be okay". While I am still optimistic that a marginal percentage of the global human population will likely squeak through this Fermi great filter, the optimism indicative of the upbeat video endings are unwarranted. There is no evidence that any of the countries will keep their promises and good evidence that many will not. Worse, this is a global issue so it does no good for only one or two to reduce their emissions while the rest of the globe goes on an industrialization spree.

[sidneyboo]

We need to live a simpler life so others may simply live.

[gig]

We have already missed the chance to prevent climate change, now is the time to reduce the damage.

[blarrrging]

I’m most worried that the thought process can now be seen as “WE’RE not screwed” and put on the back burner for another 20 years, hoping the problem will work itself out.

[preciousmousse]

We need more documentaries like this that make us think practically and creatively about the problem. Consumers need to know what the consequences of paying for one product over another are and we need to know which small changes matter most.

[tuktukindia]

A large section of climate specialists do not even bring up the topic of "consumption" and "patterns of usage". Even this article hasn't mentioned anything about lifestyle in North America. If we opt to live in smaller homes, accept vertically built homes, and allow stores and cafés to coexist in multi use buildings, we will naturally drive down the emissions related to transport and grid. We absolutely need to decarbonize but it is also important we reduce our land foot print. We should help people transition from small towns/suburbs and integrate them in dense urban centers which are walkable, bike-able and are in proximity of public transit.

[toniatchison]

The biggest problem I have with some of our 'climate policies ' is that we keep putting price tags on it. The second biggest problem is that none of us plain old average citizens think we can't do anything about rising temperatures, when in fact, everything has an effect. Good or bad.