Our planet is the warmest it’s been in 800,000 years* with record levels of greenhouse gases, rising sea levels and droughts that are more frequent, severe and widespread. We have to cut our carbon.
Human influence is the current dominant factor in global warming (95% certainty IPCC 2022). And there just isn't a safe temperature rise. Every degree of warming will bring more extreme weather and higher sea level rises.
Levels of planet-warming greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide have rocketed in the past 100 years and if we don’t stop them rising, the planet will continue to heat up. This is because these gases trap the Sun’s heat by forming a blanket around the Earth – like the glass of a greenhouse. The gases stay in our atmosphere for years and as they build, the world gets hotter.
A warmer world brings a more extreme climate – with droughts, floods and storms the new normal. And as the temperatures rise further, feedback-loops accelerate the warming. For example, melting polar ice caps reflect less of the sun’s heat back into space… so encouraging more warmth… and more of the polar ice caps to melt…
Climate change impacts are happening now and are increasing in severity and likelihood – from floods in Asia and Europe to droughts and hurricanes in the USA. It’s already displacing millions of the world's poorest people. And it's affecting people here in the UK too – as flooding worsens in winter months, while more prolonged heatwaves and droughts occur throughout summer.
“If we want to stop the brutal future we have set in motion we must decrease global carbon emissions by 50 percent per decade beginning now.”
Chip Fletcher, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaiʻi 2019
The household cleaning industry has polluted the planet for decades with production methods that put profits over people and a refusal to invest in innovation that could improve their carbon footprint.
*friends of the earth 2022
