Three degrees

I went to an environmental conference yesterday and heard a lot of really interesting information - some of it inspiring (the ingenuity, innovation and creativity some people bring to addressing the challenges we face) and some of it frightening (the state we're in already - we just can't see how bad it is yet).

The thing that hit me was the issue of 3 degrees. That's the anticipated rise in the average global temperature. (Scientists had thought it would be 2 degrees, but that seems a bit optimistic now, things are getting worse faster than anticipated. It could be as much as 4 degrees). Now 3 degrees doesn't sound like a lot. But the average global temperature is 15 degrees centigrade, so an increase of 3 degrees is a 20% rise. Another way to compare this rise in temperature is the fact that the current average temperature is only 5 degrees higher than during the last ice age. So if a 5 degree increase in the average global temperature is enough to take us from ice age in the northern hemisphere to the climate we have today, what will another 3 degrees do?

I don't know the answer to that, I'm not a scientist, but I'm fairly sure that when I look out of my window in 30 or 40 years time, I won't be looking at the same green, lush landscape I can see now.

To learn a bit more from people who do know what they're talking about take a look at Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth or the BBC.