Scientists predict an increase in the average temperature of the planet’s surface of 1.4°C and 5.8°C by the close of this century.*

  • +1°C warmer: deterioration of mountain glaciers and coral reefs, rain
    forests, ice sheets in Greenland, US midwest arable farmland; 10%
    productivity loss in Bangladeshi farming – a loss of 4m tonnes ($2.5bn)
    of food grain, or 2% of GDP.
  • +2°C warmer: forests destroyed by insects normally dead in winter;
    polar bears endangered; some Pacific islands completely submerged.
  • +3°C warmer: the tipping point, according to scientists; extinction
    of thousands of species; Category-6 hurricanes now the regular norm,
    not the exception.
  • +4°C warmer: population migration as refugees escape famine and
    draught-stricken regions; general sea levels rise by up to 48 inches,
    destroying coastal cities.
  • +5°C warmer: vast regions are now uninhabitable, with many millions on
    the move.
  • +6°C warmer: a return to how the Earth looked 65 million years ago
    during the dinosaur-inhabited Cretaceous period; most of the planet
    is now desert.

*Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)