does half a degree of warming really matter the global average temperature has risen by 1 degrees celsius since pre-industrial times and some places such as the arctic have warmed three times faster that may not sound a lot but this rate of warming dramatically increases the chances of extreme weather our emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise and we must eliminate them to stop future warming if we do nothing we may warm the earth more than four degrees above pre-industrial levels by the year 2100 which would have catastrophic consequences thankfully the world is at last starting to respond to this threat in 2015 a landmark agreement was made the paris agreement almost every country pledged to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees and preferably below 1.5 degrees in glasgow in 2021 further pledges were agreed to keep this target in reach there is no safe level of warming but if these promises are kept scientists predict we may keep warming to around two degrees the difference in warming of 1.5 or 2 degrees will affect billions of people according to the ipcc a group of scientists whose findings are endorsed by the world's governments the extra half a degree of warming would significantly expand the range of disease-carrying mosquitoes cause sea levels to rise an extra 10 centimeters flooding low-lying areas reduce food supplies potentially causing famines and creating tens of millions of climate refugees and double the number of people exposed to extreme life-threatening heat waves more than a third of the world's population is expected to be exposed to extreme heat waves at least once every five years it won't be easy it will require fundamentally changing the way we generate energy but we have to do all we can to reduce global warming and curb the catastrophic consequences of climate change