On December 12, Damon Matthews, professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment in Concordia’s Faculty of Arts and Science, will be joined by author, musician and entrepreneur David Usher to address how much time is left before global warming starts to become really dangerous.
The two are co-creators of the Climate Clock project, a real-time measurement of how long we have until the average global temperature surpasses 1.5 °C above pre-industrial averages, the lower limit of the temperature target established by the Paris Agreement.
“Our goal in developing the Climate Clock was to create something visual and intuitive that would introduce time — a quantity that we all understand — into the climate conversation,” says Matthews, who is also Concordia Research Chair in Climate Science and Sustainability.
“By showing the time remaining until we reach the 1.5°C mark, we feel that the clock is able to communicate the urgency of action in a way that people understand and can relate to.”
The clock is updated once a year, often around the anniversary of the signing of the agreement. This will be the fifth update since the project launched in 2015.
Amélie Daoust-Boisvert, assistant professor in the Department of Journalism, will host this edition, which features Amy Luers, executive director of Future Earth, as one of its panelists.