We only have 12 years before temperatures will rise to an unlivable temperature.

Question

Urgent changes needed to cut risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty, says IPCC.

Answer 1

Although climate change is happening, and temperatures are rising, the outside temperature will not be "unlivable" in 12 years. There will be adverse affects, and issues caused by such temperatures, but it's not like you'd just instantly die because it's so hot. According to an article by PBS, publish in 2022, they say the next 18 years will see negative human health and hunger effects, and that some parts will be uninhabitable, but it doesn't say the temperatures will just kill us all.

https://whyy.org/articles/un-ipcc-climate-change-report-uninhabitable-planet-code-red/

Furthermore, using a 6-year-old article and not adjusting the time in the claim is misleading and makes the claim flat-out incorrect.

Comments

Hey! This is a great fact check. Noting how the age of the article makes it less relevant is super important and shows that you looked in depth with your research. I also liked how you brought in a secondary, more reliable source that gave specifics to what we will see in the future, but didn't support the false claim. You did a good job explaining how unrealistic the claim is that we would all die of the heat instantly, but I would add onto your explanation how different parts of the earth are impacted differently, so some people in more affected areas will likely die from heat exhaustion.

Answer 2

This claim is misleading, but built upon true and confirmed data. I researched this claim and went to The Guardian article where it originated to find more about the severity and truthfulness of this claim, as well as a Washington Post article to back up my research. In The Guardian Post I found extensive amounts of evidence arguing that we need to stop our temperature from exceeding 2c. This argument was led by scientist discs and listed numerous direct consequences if we cannot control our production, including “Extreme heat waves will be experienced by 14% of the world's population at least once every five years at 1.5C. But that figure rises to more than a third of the planet if temperatures rise to 2C.” While this is incredibly dangerous, it does not support the claim that the world will be an unlivable temperature. In the Washington Post article, I searched to see if they had any input on “unlivable temperatures” but only found “Risks of extreme heat and weather events just rise and rise as temperatures do, meaning these would be worse worldwide the more it warms.” From reading these articles it is clear how detrimental it would be if we exceed 2 degrees celsius, however they prove the claim to be misleading as neither of these trusted sources state the world would rise to unlivable standards. While the consequences could be an eventual unlivable world, this claim is false for its exaggeration. This is harmful because misinformation about climate change damages the repudiation and worth of real scientist’s important insight on this issues that is already someone disregarded. Furthermore, it's unnecessary as the truth of climate change is already so scary on it's own and shouldn't need to be misleading to get people's attention.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/08/world-has-only-years-get-climate-change-under-control-un-scientists-say/