Climate researchers warn that global warming of more than three degrees Celsius would have catastrophic consequences: In the worst case, humanity could even die out. But how helpful are such pessimistic scenarios?
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Benjamin von Brackel
It sounds like dark science fiction: humanity will not manage to keep global warming below three degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Two billion people live in extremely hot, practically uninhabitable parts of the world with an annual average temperature of more than 29 degrees Celsius, which has so far only been found in the Sahara or the Arabian Gulf States. People are starving, millions are migrating to the rich north, countries are waging wars over disagreements about dwindling climate budgets, climate impacts or geoengineering experiments. Social systems collapse, mass extinction sets in.