Americans have a Celsius problem
We need clear information to grasp, act on threat of warming planet
Without “rapid, deep and immediate” action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, we cannot stave off the worst impacts of climate change, and the world will warm by 5.8 degrees Fahrenheit this century. That’s the stark warning from the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Unfortunately for Americans, the report, like all IPCC reports, understates the problem by using the Celsius equivalent – 3.2 degrees – and journalists often follow suit in their coverage, creating confusion and downplaying the urgency for action. Despite dire scenarios and the urgency of capping emissions and cutting them in half by 2030, the IPCC and the media are not doing their part to make climate change as understandable as possible to engage more Americans in needed solutions.
IPCC reports and headline after headline say we must keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius but do not include the Fahrenhiet equivalent — 2.7 degrees — even though it’s clear most Americans are unfamiliar with Celsius or do not understand how to convert to Fahrenheit. According to a national public opinion survey, less than one-third of voters, 31%, correctly pick the equivalent degrees in Fahrenheit for a 2-degree Celsius increase in average global temperature.
If economists and journalists reported on the U.S. economy in yen or euros we’d be confused and right to demand a change. With climate change, every fraction of a degree matters, and a shift in IPCC communications and research to include Fahrenheit can be magnified if climate journalists follow suit, clarifying the data for Americans. That’s critical, because it is impossible to deny the United States’ outsized contribution to global fossil fuel use and resulting greenhouse gas emissions at the heart of the climate crisis.
Imagine your child with a temperature of 104 degrees. That’s the emergency we face with a planet on track for a 5-degree Fahrenheit rise in temperature this century. We are already experiencing the effects of extreme heat waves, drought, wildfire and sea-level rise. It will take an extraordinary global effort to avoid increasingly devastating impacts, like massive crop failures, the collapse of polar ice sheets, the loss of countless plant and animal species and habitable land for millions of people. Our failure to reduce emissions and limit warming will alter life for all of us and exacerbate inequality.
The good news is the national survey also indicates more than two-thirds of voters, 68%, say climate change is happening, while only 25% say, “Climate change isn’t really happening, or if it is it is part of a natural cycle, not man-made.”
An overwhelming majority of American voters, 85%, want media and news outlets to use either Fahrenheit only or both Celsius and Fahrenheit when reporting on global temperature and climate change. And this is a rare issue that crosses the political divide. Fully 82% of Biden supporters and 88% of Trump supporters agree media should be using Fahrenheit when reporting.
The IPCC is clear that to stave off the worst impacts we must limit warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. That requires an engaged public demanding action, supporting policies and investment needed to scale up renewable energy production, change land use and transportation and improve efficiency in our economy.