You have probably heard about the crucial 1.5 C climate goal. If you haven’t, then don’t even bother to understand it, because we are speeding by that one quickly. We are going to get a new goal and threshold soon. So, don’t worry! Unless, of course, you are bothered by facts and the consequences of missing that mark. 

How many times I’ve heard “we had hot summers before” and this has “nothing to do with climate change”. Yes, we had hot summers before, but did we ever have 50 degrees Celsius summers in Europe or did we ever have 38 degrees Celsius at the North Pole? Because this all happened in 2024 for the first time in history. According to EU’s climate change service, Copernicus, temperatures at the North Pole were 20 degrees Celsius above average this year in February. So when we talk about the 1.5, we are talking about the annual average global temperatures of the planet with both poles melting, while the middle is drying out, including all the extreme variables, like the 50 C in Sicily last year or the 38 C at the North Pole. The process of global warming is accelerating, the pace of rising sea levels is increasing because of the faster melting of icecaps and glaciers, and the major streams which control the planet’s weather system are slowing down. The USA gave up all climate change efforts and ambitions, while the UK just announced that the climate goals for 2030 and 2050 are now impossible to meet.

And if that doesn’t make you worry, I don’t know what will. Maybe the fact that every 1 degree Celsius increase in annual global temperature will cut off 12% of the global GDP. Or maybe the fact that if global temperature average rises above 2 degrees Celsius, parts of the world will be under water. Tens of millions of humans will have to be relocated or face the bitter end. Climate migration will trigger social instability and push already shaking economic systems over the edge.

And if that still doesn’t make you worried, then let me try to trigger your empathy and emotions. One of the most bittersweet stories I have read about climate change was a BBC report on Jacobabad, Pakistan. The hottest place on the planet with scorching heat up to 52.8 degrees Celsius (for now). What made the story bitter is pretty obvious. The sweet part was how locals are adapting to the unbearable conditions. The hope they have that life will prevail and we shall overcome. One actual character grabbed my attention the most: The Iceman of Jacobabad. He wakes up every day, takes the ice out from an old, rusty icemaker, puts it in an insulated container on a wheelbarrow and roams the hottest streets on Earth to bring relief from the heat. How long will he be able to do that, if the world turns its back on him?

For me The Iceman of Jacobabad is a symbol; the symbol of resilience, survival, the symbol of humanity. If we look the other way, he is left for dead. If we start to tinker with the global average temperature goals and increase them by who knows how much, because we failed to meet the original goal, we leave millions for dead or homeless. 

And one day, we’ll wake up and realize that we became the Iceman of Jacobabad.