Hoping for a 'new normal' climate is pointless. We must learn to adapt
It’s increasingly common to hear climate-fuelled disasters described as the ‘new normal’. But our desire for normality and predictability is wishful thinking.
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Climate change is worsening. There’s now no chance of holding temperature rise to 1.5°C. The future will bring worsening floods, glacial melt, megafires and lethal heat.
But can we call this the “new normal”? The phrase has become common in discussions about the upheavals and damage stemming from human-caused climate change.
It’s human nature to want the future to be predictable: We are creatures of routine. If Earth’s climate really were going to settle into a “new normal” at 1.5°C of warming, we would find the idea comforting.
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