'No return' as global warming set to hit 1.5 Celsius
Scientists are predicting that global warming will break the crucial 1.5 degree Celcius threshold for the first time in the next four years. United Nations experts said in Geneva on Wednesday that it's likely the target will be passed between now and 2027. That will mean average global temperatures will be 1.5 degrees hotter than the second half of the 19th century, when carbon emissions from industrialisation started to increase. The Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Petteri Taalas said temperatures will not return to previous levels in the foreseeable future. "There's no return back to the good old days because we already have such a high concentration of carbon dioxide and also of course increased methane concentration in the atmosphere," he said. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, at 1.5 degrees of warming about 14 percent of Earth’s population will be exposed to severe heatwaves at least once every five years, while at 2 degrees warming that number jumps to 37 percent. But in many regions, warming has already surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and extreme heatwaves have become widespread. Temperatures in India hit 51 degrees Celcius last year causing deaths by heat stroke. Satyendra Prasad, Fiji's former ambassador to the UN, expressed shock and alarm at the latest WMO predictions. "In the Pacific islands 1.5 [degrees] we say is existential because even at temperatures below 1.5 we face catastrophic choices," Presad said.