An analysis published earlier this month in the journal Science deepened the gloom around whether global efforts are sufficient to cap warming fast enough. But it also elicited a more provocative complaint: that scientists, activists, policymakers and the public have become too fixated on the numbers attached to the climate crisis, for no tangible benefit.
That is the view of Bob Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey and co-director of the Climate Impact Lab. “I worry about [tipping points] feeding this idea that there is this threshold, and below it we’re OK, above it we’re not,” Kopp told the journal, adding that a wrong-headed belief in “magic numbers” could instil a feeling of hopelessness as humanity tiptoes closer to the cut-offs. Kopp’s critique shows that climate messaging needs a fundamental reset to make it more accurate and relevant to our lives.