Climate Clock is alarming: Earth is entering the road of no return at full speed

In New York’s iconic Union Square, this 62-metre-long giant clock is about to pass an alarming milestone. Dubbed the Climate Clock, it shows how much time Earth has left to stop climate change from getting exponentially worse.

As anyone who has experienced the weather lately knows, the situation is pretty bad. According to preliminary data, Earth had its hottest week on record at the beginning of the month, and heatwaves continue to break local records in the Northern Hemisphere. And this is just one indication that climate change is leading to dangerous new extremes.

The Climate Clock is drawing to a close

The Earth today is about 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than before the Industrial Revolution, thanks to carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. This amount of warming can cause more intense and extreme weather events, forest fires, storms, etc. what causes climate catastrophes. That’s why world leaders have agreed, as part of the landmark Paris agreement, to prevent the planet from warming much more than it already is.

The Climate Clock shows how quickly the planet is approaching 1.5 degrees of global warming, given current emissions trends. As of now, the countdown on the clock has dropped below 6 years. In other words, if humans continue to pump roughly the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere for the next five years, we will no longer be able to limit climate change to just 1.5 degrees of warming.

“The best day to act was yesterday”

“The best day to take action was yesterday,” said Becca Richie, global community manager for the Climate Clock organisation. It is possible to implement the solutions we need within this time frame and to stay below 1.5 degrees.”

The watch essentially started out as a form of artistic activism. It was supposed to be a symbol like the Doomsday Clock and serve as a “metaphor for how close humanity is to self-destruction.” The Climate Clock in Union Square was originally only meant to be on display during New York Climate Week in 2020, but has since become permanent.

The Climate Clock reflects data from the Mercator Global Commons and Climate Change Research Institute (MCC) in Berlin. It does not count down to the exact date when global average temperatures may rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius. Instead, he estimates how long it takes before humans produce enough carbon dioxide pollution to trigger at least 1.5 degrees of warming.