She gives a quick lesson in the basic physics and chemistry of greenhouse gas emissions, “simple enough that when Svante Arrhenius made a few back-of-the-envelope calculations in 1896, he predicted that if smokestacks continued to belch CO2, the planet would eventually warm by three to six degrees centigrade. This remains exactly in line with what the most sophisticated computer models still say today. “What most scientists have been wrong about,” Morris continues, “is how quickly our planet’s systems could unravel given this additional heat. The chaos we’re seeing is from just a 1.2-degree
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