Why does just 1.5C° of heating make such a significant difference on Earth’s climate and environment?
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It’s not really just the heating
Plants and animals can adapt to temperatures, and can move to the poles if they need cold.
The big problem is how fast is happening.
Animals and plants simply die to heat in a place without having the time to adapt or colonize a colder place.
Some will probably go extinct. And there’s no quick replacement.
Same for humans, if you live in a city that will lose its source of water (mountain-stored snow) that city is gonna die. For example, north Italy has never built water storage as the alps have plenty of rivers feeding the plains alla year long thanks to melting snow. This year the lack of snow on mountains has caused massive loss of crops, and scarcity of drinkable water. Other places are subject to sea rise that will soon cover part of maritime cities.
Another problem is that higher average temperatures, even 0.5 degrees, will massively boost the force of storms, hail, hurricanes and tornadoes. If you live in an area built for a quiet weather, your buildings will have no built in defense for hail, hurricanes or tornadoes. Rivers will lack proper flood barriers for prolonged heavy rain.
Most of the above problems would not be a big challenge if the change would take a century to happen. But 10 years… that’s no time to adapt.
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