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What happens when the world misses its climate change goal?

What happens when the world misses its climate change goal?

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In the early ’90s, climate scientists and politicians all agreed on a goal that would make it easier to focus the fight against climate change: 2 degrees Celsius — the maximum temperature increase that they said we should allow the earth to experience, lest we begin to encounter potentially dangerous and dramatic changes. Countries around the globe rallied around it as a target, but as Vox reports, the choice of 2 degrees was somewhat arbitrary, and it's looking increasingly less likely that the world will be able to easily avoid bringing the global average temperature even higher. Head over to Vox for a deep dive on what it could mean if the temperature raises even higher and why raising the figure — arbitrary or not — may be one of the worst things we can do for preventing climate change.