Guest Blog: World + 3 Degrees' 2050x story
The project
Imagining how the world will work plus three degrees sometimes feels like world-building for an apocalypse novel.
Three degrees might not sound like much, but on a local and global scale the changes will be era-defining. With that kind of increase, average sea levels could rise three feet by 2100 according to the IPCC. This would mean the displacement of 750 million people and iconic cities either submerged or with a landscape defined by flood defences.
There is (understandably) an enormous amount of focus on preventing climate change and therefore preventing this future from occurring. Yet even if we limit emissions successfully, the IPCC believes that we will still hit 1.5C. 1.5 still means displacement and poverty for millions. In other words, some amount of climate disruption is now inevitable, so merely aiming to prevent climate change is no longer enough.
World + 3 focuses on climate adaptation. We aim to encourage the engineers, scientists and thinkers of the future to focus on ways to mitigate the predicted damage. We reached out to students across the UK to ask how life will change, and what technologies exist or are being worked towards which will feature in this new life.
The result was a kind of hybrid academic journal and student zine. We required strict referencing but also easily accessible language. We tried not to make it boring and we added explanations for tricky concepts. We also interviewed experts in the field. The final result is available for free online at https://issuu.com/worldplus3/docs/worldplus3.
Our motto was that if we as undergraduate and postgraduate students could see the need for focus on and funding for these areas, then those in positions of power could also be made to see it.
Working with 2050 Climate Group
Once the final product was made we realised we had no way to get it out to the people who needed to see it, and an incredible opportunity was coming up. Though we had accepted submissions from across the UK, Thomas Wallace (chief science editor) and I were both based in Glasgow and preparations for the COP26 were underway. World leaders would be coming to our city!
The 2050x Fund allowed us to print what we called ‘digital access cards’ - essential leaflets with a QR code that took smartphones to the smartphone-friendly version of the text. I wrote a new preface to the text, titling it ‘Welcome to Glasgow’ and addressing it directly to those gathering in the city for the COP. We placed these at various key locations throughout the COP and handed them out at events.
2050 Climate Group also allowed us to print a limited number of physical copies so that contributors and editors could have two each. Since each member of the team had done all this work with no expectation of reward or seeing it in physical print, they were all really thankful and excited by the news.
We were also able to display a couple of physical copies at the COP26 Youth Hub for people to read between workshops.
All in all the project took around two years to complete but the result is something we are really proud of, and we will always be grateful for 2050 Climate Group for supporting us.