Overheating the Pale Blue Dot: how much climate change can we take?

Richard Betts turns the telescope around to focus on our world, the Pale Blue Dot itself, and our impact on it. As our greenhouse gas emissions warm the planet, the colours within the pale blue herald change. White is shrinking, as ice and snow melt. Blue is bulging, as sea levels rise. Green is growing, as ecosystems shift. What does the future hold? How fast will the ice disappear, whose homelands will flood, and how many will have to cope with unbearable heat? When and where will crop yields go into decline? How much is now inevitable, and what can still be avoided? Richard explains how scientists attack these critical questions, and what we know already about our changing climate – and how much we still have to learn

Speaker: Richard Betts

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