From David Flint, London, UK
We all know the aim to “pursue efforts” to keep global warming to 1.5°C is a lost cause. Your article asks whether the new target should be 1.7°C, 2°C or even stay at 1.5°C, but with a new meaning. None is the right target. It should be 1°C(26 July, p 8).
To set a higher target is to accept that the current state of the world’s climate and the changes now baked in are tolerable. They aren’t. A 1°C target, however, would restore a lot of the damage already done and make extreme weather less likely.
That should be our long-term target. But we also need to limit the temperature rise as we exceed 1.5°C and fall back to 1°C. That limit, surely less than 2°C, needs to be set to minimise the risk of passing a tipping point, and we must be willing to use extraordinary methods, such as geoengineering, to keep below it.
