Why does just 1.5C° of heating make such a significant difference on Earth’s climate and environment?
In: 2
Well, when you’re talking about a very large object like a planetary surface, even a small rise in temperature corresponds to a *lot* of extra heat.
Just to give one example of how “quantity has a quality all its own”: thermal expansion of the oceans. Warm water takes up slightly more space than cool water. We don’t usually think about that because it’s only a slight difference: if you take 1 gallon of 20°C water and heat it up to 21.5°C, the result is about 1.0003 gallons. The extra 0.0003 gallons corresponds to an extra quarter-teaspoon or so; barely noticeable. But if you take 100 *quintillion* gallons of 20°C water (e.g., the Atlantic Ocean) and heat it up to 21.5°C, the result is about 100.03 quintillion gallons. The extra 30 quadrillion gallons, which do have to *go somewhere*, correspond to maybe ten extra Lake Superiors; *very* noticeable.
And that’s just one example. There are dozens of different effects that warming produces. The effects are mostly pretty tiny on a planetary scale, but that doesn’t stop them from potentially being very big on a human scale.
Latest Answers